<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-type" CONTENT="text/html;
charset=UTF-8">
.
.
.
<form action="https://www.salesforce.com/servlet/servlet.WebToLead?
encoding=UTF-8" method="POST">

<input type=hidden name="oid" value="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx">

<input type=hidden name="retURL"
value="http://www.mysite.com/thankyou.html">

<label for="first_name">First Name</label><input id="first_name"
maxlength="40" name="first_name" size="20" type="text" /><br>

<label for="last_name">Last Name</label><input id="last_name"
maxlength="80" name="last_name" size="20" type="text" /><br>

<label for="email">Email</label><input id="email" maxlength="80"
name="email" size="20" type="text" /><br>

<input type="submit" name="submit">
</form>

<!-- Begin Salesforce Tracking Code -->
<SCRIPT type="text/javascript" src="https://lct.salesforce.com/sfga.js">
</SCRIPT>
<SCRIPT type="text/javascript">__sfga();</SCRIPT>
<!-- End Salesforce Tracking Code -->

22 Responses to “Avoid Data Dispersion with Salesforce and Google Adwords Integration”

1. John says:

   March 13, 2009 at 6:02 AM

   Thanks for the tip on removing the URL params.

   I’ve just recently integrated google AdWords to salesforce.com and I’m experiencing some issues with regard to lead sources. We have workflows set up in SFDC based upon lead source. We have a Web RFQ lead source when someone requests a quote from our website. It seems as though when someone arrives from google the lead source is being created as Web Direct, for example. If they subsequently submit the Web RFQ form, the lead source seems to remain Web Direct and the workflow never gets triggered… that’s my guess, although I have not confirmed. Anyone else having the same issue?
2. Rehan Asif says:

   March 16, 2009 at 11:03 AM

   Hi John,

   Let me ask someone who deals with the Salesforce leads to see if they get this problem.
3. Feras Alhlou says:

   March 16, 2009 at 2:04 PM

   Hi John,

   We have noticed that it takes few minutes and some times longer to get the lead source field updated in SF. But if everything is set up properly, the lead source field should be updated with and attribute the lead to its source.

   What you also might be experiencing is to do with the attribution model. Say I come to the site today after a click on the site from an organic listing, then the lead source will be google/organic. If tomorrow I come to the site again, by clicking on a Google Ad, the first visit attribution will persist, i.e. the lead will still show as google/organic (not google/adwords).

   If you are testing from the same computers/browser, you’ll definitely run into this issue and you might end up pulling your hair that I did. You can clear your cache every time you are re-testing, or test from different computers/browsers.

   Thanks,
   Feras
4. Tango says:

   April 30, 2009 at 3:57 PM

   “Upon linking your account, Salesforce will update your existing advertisements with special tracking codes. Updating your ads will eliminate all statistics that these ads have accrued. This will not impact any statistics for Keywords, Ad Groups, or Campaigns.”.

   So what exactly will be lost?

   Salesforce’s email specifically states our ads will be updated so all of our statistics will be eliminated.

   We cannot lose any data on our Google Adwords campaigns during this transition.

   I am looking for detailed information about what will change on our ads so that we can assure our tracking metrics account for the change during the rollout.

   For example, if the tracking URLs are changed, we need to know the updated information so that our conversion tracking and ROI analytics reflect the correct information.

   What statistics does Adwords provide in their Dashboard that will be reset by the updates so we know how to account/plan for those changes in our metrics as well.

   Please provide as much detail as possible about how salesforce’s side of the integration and how it effects Adwords.
5. Feras Alhlou says:

   May 4, 2009 at 11:32 AM

   Within Adwords when you make any update to your ad (ad text, display url, destination url), the statistics for these (within Adwords) will be reset, which is the correct behavior since you now have a new ad (you made a change) and the stats that belonged the previous ad should not and do not apply to the new ad.

   So here is an example:

   

   I went in there and updated the ad. I just changed the display URL to http://www.e-nor.com and then the statistics were all reset.

   

   So the same thing happens when you create an ad in an account that is integrated with SalesForce. SalesForce makes updates to the destination url by adding the some parameters. The ad is effectively changed and the statistics are reset.

   This shouldn’t impact any ROI/conversion tracking.
   Hope this helps.
6. Julie says:

   May 4, 2009 at 6:49 PM

   Does SF reset the statistics only once (upon setup), or are the statistics reset regularly?
7. Rehan Asif says:

   May 5, 2009 at 12:05 PM

   Hi Julie,

   I’ll double check and let you know if I’m wrong, but I am very sure that SalesForce integration will only reset the statistics once.
8. Dan PPCPROZ says:

   May 21, 2009 at 2:06 AM

   I am finding that salesforce will regularly delete existing ads, refomat the dest url, creating new ads, losing history.

   This is driving me nuts.

   How are we supposed to optimize ads, based on history, if it is always stripped away?!
9. Feras Alhlou says:

   May 29, 2009 at 11:50 AM

   I don’t think that Salesforce would delete ads randomly or on its own. I suggest you check your configuration and see if account updates you are doing might be causing the ad updates.

   There is also a link for more details on the subject:
   http://blogs.salesforce.com/adwords/conversion_tracking/

   You might want to contact SF tech support as well and let us know if you find anything interesting.
10. RobBothan says:

    June 3, 2009 at 11:02 AM

    Hi,
    Very glad to have found this post! I see your using DNN and Salesforce + Adwords, i’m really having issues integrating the three – the web2lead took a while to fix, but now i cant get the adwords tracking working – do you have any tips?
    Did you use any custom/generic modules to do the form/script placement?

    email me or write back here please!
    Regards
    Rob
11. Rehan Asif says:

    June 3, 2009 at 2:00 PM

    Hi Rob,

    We don’t use any special modules to place the Adwords conversion script.
    Usually it is as simple as placing the conversion script on the conversion page.

    I would start by bugging both Adwords and Salesforce support groups.
    Also, was Adwords conversion tracking working before Salesforce integration?
12. RobBothan says:

    June 4, 2009 at 6:55 AM

    Does adwords conversion tracking need to be turned on?
    I wasnt aware of that – thought all you needed was a web2lead form + the salesforce javascript element on every page + the url string added to your adwords add by salesforce…
    am i correct?
13. RobBothan says:

    June 4, 2009 at 6:59 AM

    Ahh… do you use this?
    http://www.dnncreative.com/Tutorials/DNNTutorialsforThirdPartyModules/DataSpringsDynamicFormsQuickStartGuide/tabid/467/Default.aspx
    The dynamic forms module to post the forms to salesforce?
    Not the web2lead generator within salesforce?
14. Rehan Asif says:

    June 8, 2009 at 10:16 AM

    I don’t think that the Salesforce integration with Adwords needs the Adwords conversion tracking turned on to register leads on the Salesforce side.
    As far as the DNN forms and web2lead form question, we would need to examine how these forms are being used.

    Give us a call when you have time; we’d be glad to discuss how we can help you test out the web2lead form and resolve your salesforce tracking issues.
15. RobBothan says:

    June 25, 2009 at 1:45 AM

    We’ll its all working now – 2 lessons learnt – Salesforce + DNN arent compatible when using , you have to use java script to post the form. Also and more importantly – you cant test the adwords plugin whilst in Salesforce sandbox! It HAS to be done on your live production environment! Which they dont mention in many places…
16. Rehan Asif says:

    July 1, 2009 at 3:21 PM

    Thanks for the detailed comments, Rob.

    Compatibility and testing issues are something we run into all the time and your experiences will help us and others do it right the first time.
17. Karl Baker says:

    July 27, 2009 at 4:14 PM

    Read your article with interest, particularly point 3 “Exclude SalesForce Parameters from Google Analytics”. I am having huge problems with my Adwords campaigns continually having their destination URL’s changed by exactly the type of appended text string you mention here. Sometimes this happens within hours of me resetting the URL’s back to the correct landing pages. All occurances of our Adwords destibation URLs are associated with the email address ‘adwords.mcc@kieden.com’; Kieden is the company that Google acquired for the technology for SF/Adwords integration. have raised this with Google Adwords tech support (“nothing wrong our end”) and SalesForce Tech support (they think our Adwords account has been hacked). Has anyone else seen this issue? Any remedies? I will have to terminat our Adwords campaigns soon if I can’t stop the destination URL’s being changed.
18. Feras Alhlou says:

    July 28, 2009 at 10:38 AM

    When AdWords and SalesForce accounts are integrated, the Adwords destination URLs will have “_kk” parameters automatically appended. But these _kk parameters should not affect the destination URL; you are still sending people to the same landing page and the only change is a parameter is added to the URL.

    We have seen incidents where sites don’t recognized the ?_kk as a parameter, and you might then need to tweak the destination URL. You can use our Contact form to send us a sample destination URL and will be happy to take a quick look.
19. Abhishek says:

    September 25, 2009 at 2:15 PM

    If I want make a call to https://www.salesforce.com/servlet/servlet.WebToLead?encoding=UTF-8&00N00000005gCis=&_kk={some value}&sfga=00D00000000hdGK&oid=00D00000000hdGK&_kt={some value}

    What I mean is can I make a call to the url and pass the parameters through a code.
20. Rehan Asif says:

    September 28, 2009 at 10:34 AM

    Hello Abhishek,

    That is a good idea.
    Google Adwords has a similar way of making a conversion call to a tracking gif with all the parameters in the URL instead of running javascript.

    I don’t know if Salesforce has similar functionality.
    A quick search didn’t reveal anything useful so your best bet would be to contact Salesforce support or use their forums to see if this can be done.
21. John says:

    February 15, 2010 at 5:05 AM

    Having an issue where we are only seeing one of our campaigns being brought into salesforce GA. We’ve had this running for about a year and only one of our campaigns registers in GA’s states within salesforce. I tested last week:

    1.) Clicked on one of our Ads for a specific campaign
    2.) Landed on our site > browsed to our lead form and submitted.
    3.) Lead came in as “Quote Request” – a few minutes later GA changed the lead source to “Web Referral”.

    Why doesn’t the campaign register?
22. Feras Alhlou says:

    February 15, 2010 at 10:34 AM

    Hi John,

    Since the “lead source” field is changing from “Quote Request” to “Web Referral”, it’s an indicator that the analytics code is actually working, but the issue appears to be in attributing the correct source i.e. in the test you ran, the lead source should have changed to “Google AdWords” (not “Web Referral”. We have seen cases where the site has page redirects or issues with the URL parameters, so AdWords visits appear as direct or referral. Please take a look and let us know what you find and if you have any other questions or comments.

    Thanks,
    Feras