How to Send Offline Conversions to Google Ads from Forms Filled Out in RD Station Marketing

If you run Google Ads campaigns and collect leads through RD Station Marketing forms, tracking which ad actually drove a conversion can be difficult. By the time a lead fills out a form, the connection between that click and the resulting sale often gets lost.

Albato handles this for you. The moment a new form conversion is recorded in RD Station Marketing, the offline conversion data is sent to Google Ads — including the click identifier that ties the event back to the original ad.

Before setting up the automation, there are a few configuration steps required in Google Ads and RD Station Marketing.

What Is the Click ID (GCLID)

The GCLID (Google Click Identifier) is a unique value that Google Ads generates each time someone clicks on an ad. It allows Google Ads to link conversions on your site or app back to the specific click that originated them.

When someone clicks an ad, Google Ads appends the

gclid

parameter to the destination URL — provided the Auto-tagging option is enabled.

For example:

https://www.albato.com?utm_campaign=x-dg-search-generic&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=Cj0KCQjww4TGBhCKARIsAFLXndR3PsQ5nxp1eAhhIznIbukccebRVN_7MNLcF5dmp-mR6xvryu7UsP0aAps0EALw_wcB

The click identifier is the value that appears immediately after

gclid=

In this example, it would be:

Cj0KCQjww4TGBhCKARIsAFLXndR3PsQ5nxp1eAhhIznIbukccebRVN_7MNLcF5dmp-mR6xvryu7UsP0aAps0EALw_wcB

When you add the Google Ads Send offline conversions action in your Albato automation, this value will be requested:

How to Enable Auto-Tagging in Google Ads

If Auto-tagging is disabled or you are not sure whether you have configured it, follow these steps.

Log into your Google Ads account, go to the Admin menu, and click Account Settings.

Find the Auto-tagging option and check the box to enable it.

If the checkbox is already selected, your account is already generating GCLIDs for active ads.

Click Save before continuing.

How to Configure RD Station Marketing to Collect the GCLID

For offline conversions to send correctly, your RD Station Marketing form must collect the GCLID value. This value is not available in RD Station by default, so the following configuration is required.

Go to the Convert option in the main RD Station menu and open the Custom Fields area.

Click Create Custom Field.

Create a new Open Text field and name it GCLID.

Now go to your form to add this new field. After selecting the form, click Edit form, then Edit fields.

Search for

GCLID

Then, check the box to add it to the form, and make it mandatory.

How to Configure the Conversion Page

On the page where the form is embedded, add the following CSS to hide the GCLID field from visitors. If this step is difficult, consult a developer.

css input[name="gclid"] { display: none !important; }

Then add the following script to the page header. How to do this varies depending on where the page was built — the support team of the platform used can also help.

**html

**

This script reads the GCLID from the page URL and saves it into the hidden RD Station field when the form is submitted.

Before configuring the automation in Albato, run a quick test. Open your form page and add a test GCLID to the URL:

/?gclid=TEST123

For example: https://albato.com/form/?gclid=TEST123

Fill out the form and check in RD Station whether the lead was created with GCLID = TEST123.

If it worked, the GCLID value will appear in the lead's profile in RD Station.

Creating Your Automation in Albato

Go to the Automations tab and click to add a new automation.

Click the first step and select the RD Station Marketing trigger New conversion event.

In the second step, select the Google Ads action Send offline conversions.

In the Google Click ID field, add the GCLID field created in RD Station.

Fill in the required fields: set Conversion Name from the available list.

Set the Date and Time field using the Event Time parameter.

The remaining fields are optional and can be filled in according to how you plan to use the automation.

Now you can send offline conversions to Google Ads from every RD Station Marketing form submission. If you have any questions, contact our support via chat.