The Key to the Google Analytics + Salesforce Integration

If this integration is on your roadmap, there is one key step you need to do now or you will NOT have historical data on your customer journeys.

Customer journey analytics is heating up more than ever but requires seamless integration between your web analytics and CRM. With the Google + Salesforce partnership formed back in 2017, all Google Analytics 360 customers who are also on Salesforce qualify for this integration for free. All GA 360 customers should jump right on this.

Here's what you get out-of-the-box:

You can start to see the power this integration brings when you have Salesforce data inside of Google. Full view of the customer journey, more powerful audience creation and attribution have all become available with this integration.

The Key To The Integration

We'd like to let you in on a little tip ... more like an admonishment ... as in DO THIS NOW. If you ever plan on doing this integration you must set this up. If not you will be kicking yourself later!

The only way to connect both systems together is to have a common key that exists in both GA and Salesforce. Not some AI best-guess, but an actual key that let's you tie a visitor to a lead record in Salesforce. This key is the GA Client ID and is found in the _ga cookie.

Even if you don't plan on integrating until next quarter or next year, start passing this today into Salesforce with form submissions. Otherwise when you roll out the integration, you will have no historical data.

Two Methods

The rest of the article will outline two methods to pass the ID into Salesforce. One is the traditional method while the other is a more efficient method Stoke has developed.

Traditional Method. You will pass the ID in like any other form field that gets passed into Salesforce.

1. Hidden Input Field. Add a hidden input field to your form that will store the GA Client ID.
2. Javascript. Add javascript to your form that will populate the hidden form field with GA Client ID value from the _ga cookie. Here is a sample snippet.
3. Mapping. Make sure that the new hidden input field is mapped to the GACLIENTID custom field on the Salesforce Lead object. This custom field should be created on the Lead object as part of the Google Analytics + Salesforce integration.

CAUTION: Many lead submission processes route leads through one or more intermediary platforms (such as Marketo, Eloqua or an internal database) before the lead actually lands inside of Salesforce. You will need to make sure you create custom fields and mappings at each step along the way to the final destination of Salesforce.

Last thing, you may have several form technologies across your web page. You will have to make sure you adjust all of them so that you are capturing all leads.

Stoke Method. Stoke has gone through the pain of the traditional method over and over again - it's tedious to implement. That's why we've developed our proprietary id pass-through service that we are currently offering for free.

Simply reach out to Stoke and they will get you a single tag within minutes that handles everything. No need to worry about hidden form fields, custom javascript or mappings. Just place this tag site-wide and you are done!

Conclusion

For Google Analytics users, customer journey analytics is well within your grasp with the Google + Salesforce Integration. This integration does not work without the GA Client ID pass-through into Salesforce nor will you have any historical data until you set this up. DO IT NOW: either on your own or reach out to Stoke to use our free service. Power up!

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Sam Fonoimoana is the Founder of Stoke, a Marketing Analytics Firm specialized in true integration of Sales and Marketing data. Stoke is Adobe's partner to integrate Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics into Adobe Analytics.