Force UTM Parameters with Google Ads Auto-Tagging Enabled

When Google Ads auto-tagging is enabled, WhatConverts defaults to categorizing leads with a source of "google" and a medium of "cpc", even if you've manually defined different UTM values. This article explains why that happens and how to force WhatConverts to recognize your manual UTM parameters instead.

WhatConverts is ignoring manual UTM source and medium values

When auto-tagging is active, Google Ads appends a GCLID parameter to your URLs. WhatConverts detects this and applies standard Google Ads attribution values (source: "google", medium: "cpc"), overriding any UTM parameters you've set manually.

How to force WhatConverts to prioritize your UTM parameters

To troubleshoot this issue:

1. Open your Google Ads campaign and navigate to the ad's Final URL.
2. Append &force_utm=true to the end of the URL string.
   • Before: http://www.example.com/?gclid=123...&utm_source=charlotte&utm_medium=cpc
   • After: http://www.example.com/?gclid=123...&utm_source=charlotte&utm_medium=cpc&force_utm=true
3. Save the updated Final URL.
4. Verify that new leads in WhatConverts reflect the correct source and medium values from your manual UTM parameters.

Related Topics

• Set Up ValueTrack and Auto-Tagging for Google Ads
• Pass Keyword Data from Google Ads into WhatConverts
• Track Google Ads Keywords with a Dynamic Number Pool