# Wheelbase & Google Ads Integration
Many large-scale Wheelbase accounts are using Google Ads to drive traffic and increase sales, and tracking conversions is a large component of making sure those Ad Campaigns are successful. Plus, the more Wheelbase users with successful Ad Campaigns, the more revenue is earned for Wheelbase as the facilitating platform.

For these reasons, we feel that establishing a SOP for linking Wheelbase Checkout events to Google Ads should be a high-priority.

# The Issues

- The current guide to integrating Wheelbase + Segment + Adwords is outdated and incomplete.
- There is no reliable way to test an Adwords integration
- Perhaps a simple solution has been overlooked by everyone who has tried

# Google Universal Analytics & GA4
As far as I can tell from my intentional tests, checkout events such as **Order Completed** can be relayed to GA4. The process is pretty straightforward and highlights that payloads from checkout can be shared with Google platforms.

Although this opens up a variety of use cases, it's ultimately not helpful in Ad Campaigns as the **Order Completed** can't be linked to the Ad Campaign.

## The Setup Process
[Segment Documentation](https://segment.com/docs/connections/destinations/catalog/google-analytics/)


# Google Ads Conversions Destination
[Segment Documentation](https://segment.com/docs/connections/destinations/catalog/actions-google-enhanced-conversions/)

It's not clear to me that this option has any application to Wheelbase users.

# Google Ads (Classic) Destination
This is the option closest to the "[Adding Google Adwords tracking to your store](https://help.wheelbasepro.com/en/articles/1229637-adding-google-adwords-tracking-to-your-store)" guide written by Ryan Quinn.

The process is pretty much the same as far as I can tell, but there are three areas of concern with this destination:
### 1. There's no way to test that the integration is setup correctly.
- The sample event payload provided in the Event Tester comes with errors baked in. The error message leads to a document that is makes no reference to the source of the error.
- Any testing for this integration would require an actual checkout to take place on Wheelbase, as the exact trigger for this event is not known.
- Truly accurate testing would involve checking out with a pixel from an ad campaign, which isn't practical.
### 2. It's already considered a legacy method.
### 3. It's not clear what the trigger/source for the required tags should be
- Since tags are required for the setup of the integration, they should be included in the guide.
- Normally, **Order Completed** type tags would be triggered once a user lands on a URL containing X, but since the URL is on another domain... this isn't feasible.
- The "source" also doesn't make sense, as it's technically a web source but not on the Ad Account's domain.
- *Further clarification on Tag setup for less technically experiences users is suggested.*

## Setup Process
[Segment Documentation](https://segment.com/docs/connections/destinations/catalog/google-ads-classic/)


# Google Ads (Gtag) Destination

This is the option that I suspect will be applicable to the widest number of Wheelbase users. The only caveat is that their Google Ads account needs to be using Gtag already -- but I suspect most are.

Unfortunately, many of the issues that are present in the Classic Destination are also present in the Gtag Destination -- testing isn't practical and confirmation of a correct setup is difficult to obtain.

The event tester in Segment is also not available for this destination.

## Setup Process
[Segment Documentation](https://segment.com/docs/connections/destinations/catalog/google-ads-gtag/)


## Happy Renter Flowchart

graph LR
A{Frustrated Renters} --> C(Can Link Ads to Checkout Events?)
B(Can Reliably Test Integration?) -- Yes --> E{Super Happy Renters}
B -- No --> D{Happy Renters}
C -- Yes --> B
C -- No --> A