LinkCleanhttps://example.com/sale?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=12345678&gclid=Cj0KCQ&utm_campaign=spring
After LinkCleanhttps://example.com/sale
gad_campaignid
Ad-click identifiers · Google Ads · introduced ~2023 · Updated 2026-08-14
What is gad_campaignid?
What the number actually is
gad_campaignid carries a plain numeric campaign identifier — usually 9 to 11 digits, e.g. gad_campaignid=12345678901. It is generated by Google Ads, not by the marketer, and it is appended automatically by auto-tagging rather than typed into a tracking template. The same campaign produces the same value on every click, which is exactly what makes it useful for attribution and useless as a personal identifier: it says which campaign you arrived from, never who you are.
It is a *first-party* tag in the sense Google means it — added to the destination URL itself rather than read out of a third-party cookie — so it survives the browser privacy controls that broke the older cookie-and-referrer attribution path.
Google publishes no specification for these parameters. There is no help-centre page or API reference defining gad_campaignid's format or guaranteeing its stability, so treat everything above as observed behaviour rather than a documented contract. The Google ad-click parameters overview covers the same ground for the whole gclid / gbraid / gad_* set.
Why a campaign ID needed to live in the URL
Universal Analytics depended on the GA cookie and on referrer headers to attribute campaigns. Both have become unreliable under modern browser-privacy regimes (Safari Intelligent Tracking Prevention, Firefox Total Cookie Protection, Chrome Privacy Sandbox). GA4's design moved more of the attribution signal into first-party URL tags — the gad_* family is part of that shift.
gad_campaignid sits alongside the human-readable utm_campaign and the legacy gclid, giving Google Ads three different ways to bind a click to a campaign: utm_campaign for the GA dashboard, gad_campaignid for first-party numeric attribution, gclid for the Ads-side conversion record.
How LinkClean removes it
Default-on. Same default-on treatment as gclid, gad_source, gbraid, wbraid.
Frequently asked
Does gad_campaignid duplicate utm_campaign?
Almost — but utm_campaign is the human-readable string the marketer typed, gad_campaignid is the numeric identifier Google generates. Two views of the same campaign, both meant for different downstream tools.
Why three campaign identifiers on one URL?
Different audiences read different tags. utm_campaign for the publisher's GA4 dashboard, gad_campaignid for Google Ads' first-party attribution, gclid for the Ads conversion record.
Is there official Google documentation for gad_campaignid?
No. Google shipped the gad_* parameters in 2023 without a reference page, and there is still no help-centre entry or API definition for gad_campaignid's format or meaning. Descriptions of it — including this one — are observed behaviour, not a documented specification.
Does gad_campaignid identify me?
No. It identifies the ad campaign, not the person who clicked. Every visitor arriving from the same campaign carries the same value. The per-click identifier in a Google Ads URL is gclid — that is the one that ties a specific click to a specific conversion record.
What is the difference between gad_campaignid and gad_source?
gad_campaignid is *which campaign*; gad_source is *which Google surface* — a one-digit code where 1 is Search Ads, 2 Display, 3 YouTube, 5 Shopping. Auto-tagging normally adds both to the same URL.
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