# Google's ad-click URL parameters, explained (gclid, gad_source, gbraid…)

- Canonical: https://linkclean.app/learn/google-ad-click-parameters/
- Updated: 2026-07-20
- Author: Ken Tominaga (https://ken0nek.com)
- Get the app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/linkclean/id6758604043

> Click a Google ad and Google's **auto-tagging** appends one or more parameters to the destination URL — **`gclid`** (the original click ID), **`gbraid`/`wbraid`** (the iOS-privacy-era click IDs), **`dclid`** (display), and since 2023 **`gad_source`** and **`gad_campaignid`**. None are read by the page you land on; they're attribution signals for Google Ads and GA4. All are safe to remove, and LinkClean strips the whole family by default. The one people ask about most — `gad_source` — is a numeric code for the ad surface (`=1` Search, `=2` Display, `=3` YouTube, `=5` Shopping), but Google publishes no official mapping, so higher values like `=7` aren't reliably documented.

## The family at a glance

A single Google ad click can land you on a URL with three or four of these stacked together — `?gclid=…&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=…`. Each is added automatically by Google Ads' auto-tagging; you don't have to be the advertiser for them to appear. Here's the whole family:

*Google Ads auto-tagged URL parameters*

| Parameter | What it is | Added since | Read by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| gclid | Google Click Identifier — the original; binds a click to its ad and conversion | ~2010s | Google Ads + GA4 |
| gbraid | Click ID for app→web journeys on iOS (the App Tracking Transparency era) | 2021 | Google Ads (aggregated) |
| wbraid | Click ID for web→web on iOS Safari (the Intelligent Tracking Prevention era) | 2021 | Google Ads (aggregated) |
| dclid | Display click ID — Display & Video 360 / Campaign Manager | display stack | Google's display tools |
| gad_source | Numeric code for which ad surface produced the click | 2023 | Google Ads + GA4 |
| gad_campaignid | Numeric identifier for the campaign that drove the click | 2023 | Google Ads + GA4 |
| srsltid | Shopping / Merchant Center product-listing token | Shopping | Merchant Center + GA4 |


## gclid — the click ID everything else orbits

`gclid` (Google Click Identifier) is the oldest and most important member of the family. With auto-tagging on (the default for almost every Google Ads account), every paid click gets a unique `gclid` appended to the landing-page URL. Google Ads and GA4 read it back to credit the conversion: this exact click, from this ad, in this campaign, led to this purchase.

Because it's per-click and unique, `gclid` is the most identifying parameter in the set — it ties your visit to a specific ad impression Google served you. It's also the hardest term to rank for and the one people most want gone. Full detail on its own page: [What is gclid?](https://linkclean.app/trackers/gclid/).

## gbraid and wbraid — the privacy-era twins

When Apple's App Tracking Transparency (iOS 14.5, 2021) and Safari's Intelligent Tracking Prevention made the cookie-and-`gclid` plumbing unreliable on iPhones, Google introduced two replacements designed to measure conversions in aggregate rather than per person:

- **`gbraid`** rides **app→web** journeys — you tap an ad inside an iOS app and land on a website.
- **`wbraid`** rides **web→web** journeys on iOS Safari — you click an ad on one page and land on another.

## Why gbraid and wbraid are different from gclid

Both are engineered to be more privacy-preserving than `gclid` — they're meant to be joined in aggregate, not used to single you out — but they're still attribution tokens the destination page never reads, so LinkClean strips them too. Their own pages: [gbraid](https://linkclean.app/trackers/gbraid/) · [wbraid](https://linkclean.app/trackers/wbraid/).

## gad_source — the source code Google won't explain

`gad_source` is the parameter people search for most in this family, because it shows up as a bare number — `gad_source=1`, `gad_source=2`, `gad_source=7` — with no obvious meaning. Google's own help page is blunt: the parameter "is used to identify the source of ads URLs" and "isn't customizable," but Google **does not publish what the individual numbers mean**.

Analysts have reverse-engineered the common values by correlating them with campaign types. The mapping below is community-observed and stable over time, but it is **not official** — treat it as a strong hint, not a guarantee:

*Community-observed gad_source values — reverse-engineered, not officially documented by Google*

| Value | Observed source |
| --- | --- |
| gad_source=1 | Google Search ads |
| gad_source=2 | Display Network |
| gad_source=3 | YouTube |
| gad_source=5 | Shopping |
| gad_source=4, 6, 7, … | Not reliably documented — no public consensus |


## So what does gad_source=7 mean?

If you landed here searching exactly that: the honest answer is that no one outside Google has confirmed it. The low values (1, 2, 3, 5) line up with Search, Display, YouTube and Shopping; everything above that is guesswork. Either way, the number is metadata for Google's analytics — the page you're visiting doesn't read it, and removing it changes nothing about what loads. Its own page: [What is gad_source?](https://linkclean.app/trackers/gad-source/).

## gad_campaignid — the numeric campaign tag

`gad_campaignid` arrived in 2023 alongside `gad_source`. It's the numeric ID of the Google Ads campaign that produced the click — a machine-readable companion to the human-readable `utm_campaign` a marketer types. A single ad URL often carries all three campaign signals at once: `utm_campaign` for the GA4 dashboard, `gad_campaignid` for Google's first-party attribution, and `gclid` for the Ads conversion record. [What is gad_campaignid?](https://linkclean.app/trackers/gad-campaignid/)

## Why Google needs so many

It looks redundant — why four or five tags for one click? The answer is the privacy transition. Universal Analytics leaned on third-party cookies and referrer headers to attribute traffic. Safari's ITP, Firefox's Total Cookie Protection and Chrome's Privacy Sandbox have eroded both. GA4's design moved the attribution signal **into the URL itself** as durable first-party tags — which is exactly why the `gad_*` family appeared in 2023 and why `gbraid`/`wbraid` appeared in 2021. They're the cookie's replacement, stapled to the link.

For the difference between these click IDs and the `utm_*` tags marketers add by hand, see [Click IDs vs UTM tags](https://linkclean.app/learn/click-ids-vs-utm-tags/).

## Are any of them safe to keep?

Functionally, none of them matter to you. Every parameter in this family is read by Google's ad and analytics systems, never by the destination server — strip them and the page loads byte-for-byte the same. (The general principle: [Do cleaned links still work?](https://linkclean.app/learn/do-cleaned-links-still-work/))

The only party with a reason to keep them is the advertiser measuring their own campaign. If that's you, paste the link into LinkClean rather than cleaning blind — you'll see the original and cleaned versions side by side and can keep whichever you intend to share.

## How LinkClean removes the whole family

All seven parameters ship in LinkClean's catalog as default-on, host-independent rules — there's no legitimate non-tracking use of `gclid`, `gad_source` and the rest, so they're stripped wherever they appear, on every surface (Share Sheet, widget, Shortcuts, the app, QR). A messy Google-ad URL like `https://shop.example.com/p?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=12345678&gclid=Cj0KCQ&utm_campaign=spring` comes out as `https://shop.example.com/p`.

Because these rules aren't host-scoped (unlike X's `t=`/`s=`, which only apply on `x.com`), you don't have to think about it — the family is gone the moment you clean.

## Frequently asked

**What does gad_source=7 mean?**

Google doesn't say. Its help documentation confirms gad_source identifies the ad source but never publishes the value mapping. Community observation has pinned the low values — 1 = Search, 2 = Display, 3 = YouTube, 5 = Shopping — but 7 (and 4, 6) have no public consensus. It's an internal source code either way; removing it changes nothing about the page.

**Is gad_source the same as gclid?**

No. gclid is a unique per-click token that identifies your specific click; gad_source is a small shared code for the type of ad surface (Search, Display, …). Many clicks share the same gad_source; every click has its own gclid. They travel together but do different jobs.

**Will removing these break the Google ad's destination?**

No. They're attribution metadata for Google Ads and GA4, not routing information. The destination URL works identically without them — the advertiser just loses the granular attribution for that one visit.

**I'm an advertiser — will cleaning my own links hurt my reporting?**

Only for links you clean and then share; your ads keep auto-tagging normally. If you specifically want to preserve a tagged link, paste it into LinkClean and copy the original side — cleaning is opt-in per link, never forced.

**Why did gbraid and wbraid suddenly appear on my iPhone?**

They're Google's answer to iOS privacy. After App Tracking Transparency (2021), Google could no longer rely on cookies and gclid to measure iPhone conversions, so it added gbraid (app→web) and wbraid (web→web) as aggregated, privacy-era click IDs. They only show up on iOS journeys.

## Related

- [What is gad_source?](https://linkclean.app/trackers/gad-source/)
- [What is gclid?](https://linkclean.app/trackers/gclid/)
- [Click IDs vs UTM tags — what's the difference?](https://linkclean.app/learn/click-ids-vs-utm-tags/)
- [Do cleaned links still work?](https://linkclean.app/learn/do-cleaned-links-still-work/)
- [What is gad_campaignid?](https://linkclean.app/trackers/gad-campaignid/)


---

LinkClean removes tracking parameters from links on-device — free to clean, one-time Pro. https://linkclean.app/ · Cite freely with attribution.