UTM ID Without Platform Click IDs: Why Cost Data Import Fails

Melissa Turner spent $127,000 on Google Ads and Facebook Ads last quarter. She meticulously added utm_id to track campaign performance.

When she opened GA4's cost reporting, everything showed $0 spend. Sessions were tracked. Conversions were recorded. But zero cost data.

Three months of campaign cost data—completely missing from GA4.

The problem? She used utm_id without the required platform click IDs (gclid, fbclid). GA4 couldn't import cost data without them.

What Is utm_id and Why Does It Need Click IDs?

utm_id = Campaign identifier for importing cost and performance data from ad platforms into GA4.

How Cost Data Import Works

The flow:

1. Ad platform (Google Ads, Facebook) → Tracks campaign costs, impressions, clicks
2. GA4 → Tracks sessions, conversions, revenue from those campaigns
3. Cost data import → Merges ad platform data with GA4 data for ROI reporting

Requirements for cost import:

The pattern: utm_id alone doesn't work. You MUST have both utm_id AND the platform click ID.

What Happens Without Click IDs

Scenario: utm_id but no gclid

Landing URL:
https://site.com?utm_id=google_search_brand&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc

Missing: gclid parameter

Result in GA4:

• ✅ Session tracked
• ✅ utm_id recorded
• ❌ Cost data import fails
• ❌ CPC, spend, impressions all show $0

GA4 can't match the session to Google Ads cost data without gclid.

Why This Breaks Cost Reporting

Example: $240K Google Ads with No Cost Data

Campaign setup:

Google Ads Final URL:
https://site.com?utm_id=search_brand_q4&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=brand

Auto-tagging: DISABLED
Result: No gclid parameter

Quarterly spend:

What you CAN'T calculate without cost data:

1. CPC (Cost Per Click) - Shows $0.00
2. ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) - Can't calculate revenue/spend
3. CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) - Can't calculate spend/conversions
4. Impression share - No impression data
5. CTR (Click-Through Rate) - No click/impression data
6. Campaign profitability - No spend baseline

Business impact:

• Can't identify profitable vs losing campaigns
• Can't optimize budget allocation
• Can't justify ad spend to executives
• Can't make data-driven decisions

Example: Facebook Ads Without fbclid

Campaign setup:

Facebook Ad destination URL:
https://site.com?utm_id=fb_prospecting_q4&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc

Facebook tracking: Manual UTMs only (no fbclid)

Result:

• GA4 tracks sessions from Facebook
• GA4 records utm_id
• Cost data import fails (no fbclid to match)
• All Facebook spend shows as $0 in GA4

How Platform Click IDs Work

Google Ads: gclid

What is gclid?

• Unique identifier for each Google Ads click
• Auto-appended when auto-tagging is enabled
• Looks like: ?gclid=CjwKCAiA...

How to enable:

1. Google Ads → Settings → Account settings
2. Turn on Auto-tagging
3. Google automatically adds gclid to all destination URLs

Example URL with gclid:

https://site.com?gclid=CjwKCAiA8YyuBhBSEiwA5R3-E7vQ...&utm_id=brand_search

Cost import flow:

1. User clicks Google Ad → Lands on site with gclid
2. GA4 records gclid + utm_id
3. GA4 requests cost data from Google Ads API
4. Google Ads matches gclid to campaign
5. GA4 imports cost, impressions, clicks for that campaign

Facebook Ads: fbclid

What is fbclid?

• Unique identifier for Facebook/Instagram ad clicks
• Auto-appended by Facebook
• Looks like: ?fbclid=IwAR2x...

How to enable:

• Automatically enabled on Facebook Ads
• No action required (Facebook adds it by default)

Example URL with fbclid:

https://site.com?fbclid=IwAR2xK9...&utm_id=fb_cold_traffic

Cost import flow:

1. User clicks Facebook Ad → Lands with fbclid
2. GA4 records fbclid + utm_id
3. GA4 matches fbclid to Meta Ads campaign
4. Cost data imported for attribution

Microsoft Ads: msclkid

What is msclkid?

• Microsoft/Bing Ads click identifier
• Auto-appended when UET auto-tagging enabled
• Looks like: ?msclkid=abc123...

How to enable:

1. Microsoft Ads → Campaigns → Settings
2. Enable Auto-tagging with UET

Example:

https://site.com?msclkid=abc123def456&utm_id=bing_search_brand

Other Platforms

How to Fix utm_id Without Click IDs

Step 1: Identify Campaigns Missing Click IDs

Check GA4 for utm_id without click IDs:

1. GA4 → Reports → Acquisition → Traffic Acquisition
2. Add filter: Campaign ID is set (utm_id exists)
3. Add secondary dimension: Google Ads Click ID (gclid)
4. Look for rows where Campaign ID exists but Click ID is empty

Export sessions with utm_id but no click ID:

Campaign ID (utm_id) | Source | Click ID | Sessions | Problem
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
search_brand_q4      | google | (not set)| 12,445   | ❌ No gclid
fb_prospecting       | facebook | (not set)| 8,332  | ❌ No fbclid
bing_brand          | bing   | (not set)| 3,221   | ❌ No msclkid

Step 2: Enable Auto-Tagging Per Platform

Google Ads:

1. Google Ads → Settings → Account settings
2. Auto-tagging: Turn ON
3. ✅ "Tag the URL that people click through from my ad"
4. Save

Verify:

• Click a test ad
• Check URL includes ?gclid=...

Facebook Ads:

• Already auto-enabled (Facebook adds fbclid by default)
• No action needed
• Verify by clicking test ad → URL should include ?fbclid=...

Microsoft Ads:

1. Microsoft Ads → Campaigns
2. Settings → Tracking template
3. Enable Auto-tagging with UET tag
4. Save

TikTok Ads:

• Auto-enabled (ttclid added automatically)
• Verify in campaign tracking settings

LinkedIn Ads:

• Auto-enabled (li_fat_id added automatically)
• May require LinkedIn Insight Tag installation

Step 3: Combine Auto-Tagging with utm_id

The correct setup:

Google Ads:

Auto-tagging: ON (adds gclid automatically)
+
Final URL suffix: utm_id=`{"{"}{"{"}campaignid{"}"}{"}"}}`&utm_campaign=`{"{"}{"{"}campaign{"}"}{"}"}}`

Result:
https://site.com?gclid=CjwKCAiA...&utm_id=12345678&utm_campaign=brand_search

Facebook Ads:

Facebook auto-adds fbclid
+
URL parameters: utm_id={"{"}{"{"}campaign.id{"}"}{"}"}}&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc

Result:
https://site.com?fbclid=IwAR2x...&utm_id=23456789&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc

Step 4: Verify Click ID and utm_id Together

Test each platform:

1. Click test ad
2. Check landing URL includes BOTH:
   • Platform click ID (gclid, fbclid, etc.)
   • utm_id parameter

Example check:

✅ Good URL:
https://site.com?gclid=CjwKCAiA...&utm_id=brand_search&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc

❌ Bad URL (missing gclid):
https://site.com?utm_id=brand_search&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc

❌ Bad URL (missing utm_id):
https://site.com?gclid=CjwKCAiA...&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc

Step 5: Set Up GA4 Cost Data Import

After enabling click IDs:

Google Ads:

1. GA4 → Admin → Data Import → Google Ads links
2. Link Google Ads account
3. Enable cost data import
4. GA4 automatically imports spend, clicks, impressions

Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram):

1. GA4 → Admin → Data Import → Meta Ads links
2. Link Meta Business account
3. Enable cost data import

Other platforms:

• Use GA4 Data Import for custom cost upload
• Match on utm_id or campaign ID
• Upload CSV with cost, impressions, clicks

Step 6: Validate Cost Data Appears

Check GA4 cost reporting:

1. GA4 → Reports → Acquisition → Traffic Acquisition
2. Add metrics:
   • Advertiser ad cost
   • Advertiser ad clicks
   • Advertiser ad impressions
3. Filter by source/medium

Verify cost data imports:

Source  | Medium | Sessions | Cost    | Status
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
google  | cpc    | 12,445   | $8,234  | ✅ Working
facebook| cpc    | 8,332    | $5,678  | ✅ Working
bing    | cpc    | 3,221    | $2,100  | ✅ Working

If cost shows $0:

• Click IDs not being captured
• Data import not configured
• Link between GA4 and ad platform broken

Prevention: Always Use Click IDs with utm_id

1. Platform Auto-Tagging Checklist

Before launching ANY paid campaign:

• Google Ads auto-tagging enabled
• Facebook auto-adds fbclid (default)
• Microsoft Ads UET auto-tagging enabled
• TikTok auto-tagging verified
• LinkedIn Insight Tag installed (for li_fat_id)

2. utm_id Template with Click IDs

Google Ads Final URL suffix:

utm_id=`{"{"}{"{"}campaignid{"}"}{"}"}}`&utm_campaign=`{"{"}{"{"}campaign{"}"}{"}"}}`&utm_content=`{"{"}{"{"}adgroupid{"}"}{"}"}}`

Note: gclid added automatically via auto-tagging

Facebook URL parameters:

utm_id={"{"}{"{"}campaign.id{"}"}{"}"}}&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign={"{"}{"{"}campaign.name{"}"}{"}"}}

Note: fbclid added automatically

3. Validation Before Launch

Test checklist:

Platform: Google Ads
Campaign: Brand Search
 
Pre-launch test:
- [ ] Clicked test ad
- [ ] URL contains gclid parameter
- [ ] URL contains utm_id parameter
- [ ] Both captured in GA4 Realtime
- [ ] Cost data import configured in GA4
- [ ] Test data appears in cost reports

4. Monthly Cost Data Audit

Check these monthly:

1. Cost data completeness - All campaigns showing cost?
2. Click ID capture rate - Are click IDs being captured?
3. utm_id consistency - All campaigns using utm_id?
4. Import errors - Any GA4 import warnings?

FAQ

Do I need utm_id if I have gclid?

For basic tracking: No. gclid alone works for Google Ads attribution.

For advanced use cases: Yes.

• Campaign-level cost reporting
• Cross-platform campaign tracking
• Custom data import
• Consistent campaign naming

Can I use utm_id without auto-tagging?

No, not for cost data import. You need both:

• Platform click ID (gclid, fbclid, etc.)
• utm_id

Without click IDs, GA4 can't match sessions to ad platform cost data.

What if auto-tagging adds gclid but breaks my landing page?

Solutions:

1. Fix your site to handle gclid parameter (recommended)
2. Use server-side redirects to preserve gclid
3. Don't remove gclid - it's essential for attribution

Never disable auto-tagging just to "clean" URLs. You'll break cost reporting.

Does utm_id replace utm_campaign?

No. They serve different purposes:

• utm_campaign - Human-readable campaign name for reports
• utm_id - System ID for cost data import

Best practice: Use both

utm_id=`{"{"}{"{"}campaignid{"}"}{"}"}}`&utm_campaign=brand_search

What about platforms that don't support click IDs?

For platforms without click IDs:

1. Use manual cost data import via GA4 Data Import
2. Match on utm_campaign or utm_id
3. Upload CSV monthly with cost, clicks, impressions

Platforms requiring manual import:

• Most affiliate networks
• Smaller ad platforms
• Native ad networks (some)

How long does cost data take to appear in GA4?

Typical delay:

• Google Ads: 24-48 hours
• Meta Ads: 24-48 hours
• Other platforms: Up to 72 hours

If longer than 72 hours: Check data import configuration and click ID capture.

Related: UTM ID Without Platform Rule