Setup guide and technical reference

Everything you need to connect Google Ads to ClickVerdict, and the exact rules our redirect follows.

Set up in Google Ads

1. Create a free account. Your dashboard shows your tracking template with your account key already filled in.
2. In Google Ads, open Admin › Account settings › Tracking (or the same section in a campaign or ad group to limit tracking to it).
3. Paste your template into Tracking template.
4. Click Test. Google should report that the landing page loads.
5. Save. New clicks appear in your dashboard within a few seconds.

Tracking template

https://trk.clickverdict.click/c/YOUR_KEY?campaignid={campaignid}&adgroupid={adgroupid}&keyword={keyword}&matchtype={matchtype}&device={device}&network={network}&gclid={gclid}&url={lpurl}

YOUR_KEY is your account key, shown in your dashboard. It tells us which account to file the click under, and nothing else: it never changes where the visitor goes.

Google replaces each {...} ValueTrack placeholder at click time. {lpurl} becomes your final URL, already URL-encoded. You can remove any parameter you do not need, except url={lpurl}.

Transparency

The redirect follows the Google Ads Guidelines for third-party click tracking services:

• Transparency parameter: url. The tracker always redirects to its value. There is no secondary parameter and no destination stored server-side.
• All paths: any path on trk.clickverdict.click with a url parameter redirects to that value. We document /c/YOUR_KEY, but /, /c, a key that does not exist, or any other path behaves identically. A click without a valid key is still redirected; it is just not shown in any account.
• No intermediate hops: one 302 Found straight to the destination. HTTPS only.
• Nested trackers: if the destination is another tracker, we redirect to it unchanged. That tracker must be certified on its own.
• Validation: destinations that are not absolute http/https URLs, or longer than 4,096 characters, get 400 and no redirect.

Example:

GET https://trk.clickverdict.click/c/k7Qm2xYp9aBc?keyword=shoes&gclid=EAIaIQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fshop.example%2Fsale%3Fcolor%3Dred

HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Location: https://shop.example/sale?color=red&tclid=q3Vt9xK2bW1sLm0p

Parameters added to the destination

This is the only parameter we add. Parameters already in your final URL, such as UTM tags, are kept exactly as they are. Parameters on the tracking URL itself, such as keyword or gclid, are recorded and never copied to the destination.

Data we record per click

Timestamp, IP address, user agent, accept-language header, referrer, the tracking URL parameters (ValueTrack values), and the destination URL. Retention: 90 days. Details in our privacy policy.

IP exclusions

An IP is flagged when it reaches your repeat-click rule within the last 30 days (default: 3 clicks within 10 minutes; change it in your dashboard). Download the flagged list from your dashboard and paste it into Campaign settings › IP exclusions. The file is plain text with one IP per line. Google Ads accepts up to 500 IP addresses per campaign; the file holds at most 500, most active first.