How to add more ad accounts

A website can have more than one ad account, across Google Ads, Microsoft Ads and Meta Ads. You can connect more at any time.

Connect a new ad account

1. Click the + icon next to your website's name at the top left.
2. Select Connect new ad account.
3. Choose the ad platform and follow the instructions for it.

Each platform tracks ad clicks a little differently, so here's what ClickGuard sets up for each one.

Google Ads

1. Select the Google Ads account you want to protect, or the MCC (manager account) that has access to it.
2. If you selected an MCC, a list of the accounts under it appears. Select the account you want to protect.
3. Confirm the ad click tracking setup. ClickGuard shows exactly what it will set up on the account, explained below.

Ad click tracking

To track your ad clicks, ClickGuard uses two settings in your Google Ads account: the tracking template and the final URL suffix. They let ClickGuard trace which campaigns, ad groups, asset groups and keywords are driving bad traffic, so exclusions are made in the right place.

At least one of them is required, but using both guarantees maximum effectiveness.

The setup is automatic. Your account may or may not already have tracking settings in place. Either way, ClickGuard shows what it found and what it will do, so you can confirm it:

Tracking template

If your account's tracking template is empty, ClickGuard adds its own there.

If you already have one, from HubSpot for example, ClickGuard shows it and you can choose: keep it, or toggle on ClickGuard's template. ClickGuard's template gives you the most accurate click fraud detection, so we recommend it, especially if your existing template is a legacy one that's no longer in use.

If you switch to ClickGuard's template, turn off the automatic tracking setup in the tool that was using your old template. Otherwise it may overwrite ClickGuard's.

Final URL suffix

ClickGuard adds its tracking parameters to your account's final URL suffix automatically.

Campaigns with their own tracking parameters are updated automatically too. ClickGuard finds the campaigns that need its parameters and adds them to the end of what those campaigns already have, so there's nothing to remove. Click See all to see which campaigns will be updated.

Tracking settings on ad groups or ads

ClickGuard doesn't change tracking settings on ad groups or individual ads. It's not a common setup, but if you have a final URL suffix on an ad group or ad, copy the final URL suffix shown on this page and paste it at the end of the suffix on each of those ad groups or ads. Otherwise ClickGuard can't analyze their clicks.

Tracking code vs tracking template

When you set up your website, you most likely already installed ClickGuard's tracking code. To protect Google Ads and Microsoft Ads effectively, we also recommend using ClickGuard's tracking template. Tracking templates only exist in these two platforms, and the two pieces do different jobs:

You need both: the tracking template tells ClickGuard where a click came from, and the tracking code tells it what that visitor did next. See How to install ClickGuard's tracking code.

For more, see Google Ads clicks not showing in ClickGuard and Use a custom tracking template with ClickGuard.

Microsoft Ads

When you connect a Microsoft Ads account, keep Automatically configure click tracking selected. ClickGuard then places its tracking template in your account-level tracking template field. This is the recommended setup.

If you already use a tracking template, from HubSpot for example, you can track clicks with ClickGuard's URL suffix only, just like in Google Ads. See Microsoft Ads clicks not showing in ClickGuard.

Meta Ads

When you connect a Meta Ads account, after selecting the ad account, select the Meta pixel you use on that website from the dropdown on the same page.

Meta Ads doesn't use a tracking template. ClickGuard reads your Meta Ads clicks through the tracking code on your website, so make sure it's installed. Then make sure of two things in Meta Ads. You've probably set both up already:

1. Meta's Terms of Service for audiences are accepted. This isn't part of ClickGuard's setup; it's done in Meta Ads. ClickGuard blocks visitors in Meta Ads through audiences, so it needs them accepted. See How does ClickGuard block visitors in Meta Ads.
2. Your ad URLs include the campaign ID. ClickGuard needs each campaign's ID in the URL, in one of these parameters: cgcid, cid, campaign_id or utm_campaign. Most ads already have it; if yours don't, add one of these (you only need one):

cgcid={{campaign.id}}
cid={{campaign.id}}
campaign_id={{campaign.id}}
utm_campaign={{campaign.id}}