Google Ads Telegram Tracking: Clicks to Joins and Deposits

Where Google's view ends

Google Ads sees the click and, with a tag on your site, what happens on your pages. When a visitor leaves for a Telegram channel, group or bot, the join, the conversation and the deposit that follows days later all happen where no Google tag can run. In Google Ads, a campaign that brings 50 depositors and one that brings none can look the same.

That matters most for Smart Bidding, which learns from the conversions it receives. If the only conversion Google records is a button tap, bidding finds more people who tap buttons. Closing the gap takes two things: a record of what each Google click turned into inside Telegram, and a way to return the deposits to Google Ads against the click that produced them.

Google traffic lands on your own page

For Meta and TikTok, an ad can point straight at a Tellmetric tracking link. For Google Ads, it should not. An ad whose final URL only redirects to Telegram risks disapproval for a destination mismatch, so Google traffic should land on a page on your own domain, with the Tellmetric snippet installed and the Telegram buttons pointing at your tracking links.

On page load the snippet reads the Google click id and the UTM parameters from the address, records the visit, and adds them to every tracking link on the page. When the visitor taps a Telegram button, the click is recorded with everything the ad passed along. Plain t.me links are counted as interest only, unless you set the snippet to route them through a tracking link.

What to capture on every click

Google adds one of three click identifiers to the landing page address. Tellmetric stores whichever one arrives, and it is the identifier that lets Google match a deposit to its click later:

gclid for most clicks
gbraid and wbraid for some clicks from iOS devices

To report below the level of the click id, the address also needs the campaign, ad group and ad. The Links page gives you a line for the Final URL suffix in your Google Ads campaign settings. Google replaces the curly parts with its own values on every click:

utm_source=google, so Google traffic is separated from other sources
The campaign, ad group and ad ids as g_campaign_id, g_adgroup_id and g_ad_id, filled from {campaignid}, {adgroupid} and {creative}
The network as the placement, from {network}

Every join, message and deposit inherits these values from its click.

From the click to the deposit

The tracking link opens your Telegram group, channel or bot, and your bot ties the person who joins or writes to the click. The deposit comes from wherever you take payments: a postback from your platform or tracker, a call to the event API from your backend, a hosted form, or a Telegram Stars payment in the bot. Each is recorded as an event with the original click's attribution, including the Google click id. How to track Telegram deposits covers the four options in detail.

Uploading deposits to Google Ads

On Pro and Agency, Tellmetric uploads deposits to Google Ads as offline conversions. The Free plan reports to Meta only. Uploads go through Google's Data Manager API, which needs no developer token on your side: you grant permission once when connecting, and Tellmetric keeps the saved sign-in encrypted.

In Google Ads, create a conversion action for imported conversions, for example one named Deposit, and copy its resource name. It looks like customers/1234567890/conversionActions/987654321.
In Tellmetric, open Ad accounts, then Google Ads, and click Connect Google Ads. Sign in with the Google account that can access the ad account and allow the requested permissions.
Enter the Google Ads account id, the manager account id if you reach the account through a manager (MCC) account, and the conversion action resource name.
Leave Test mode on for the first uploads, then turn it off.

Only deposits are uploaded. Events named Deposit, FTD and Purchase become Google conversions; joins, messages and leads stay in your Tellmetric reports and are not sent to Google. A background worker checks for new deposits every 30 seconds and sends them in batches. Each conversion carries:

The Google click id (gclid, gbraid or wbraid)
The time the deposit was recorded
The value and currency, when the deposit has a value; US dollars are assumed if no currency was sent
A transaction id: your order id when you send one, otherwise Tellmetric's own event id
The depositor's email and phone number, hashed, when the deposit carried them

The hashed email and phone are for enhanced conversions, which help Google match the conversion to a signed-in user. If the ad account has not accepted Google's customer data terms, Google refuses them; Tellmetric then uploads the same conversions without them and shows where to accept the terms (Goals, Conversions, Settings, Customer data).

Timing and which deposits qualify

Google rejects a conversion whose click is less than six hours old. Tellmetric holds such deposits back and uploads them on a later run, once six hours have passed since the click.

A deposit can only go to Google if its click carried a Google click id. Deposits from Meta, TikTok or other traffic, or from visitors who reached your page without a click id, are marked as skipped for Google with the reason, and they are not retried. They still appear in your reports, credited to their own source.

The worker looks back over deposits recorded in the last three days. Connect Google Ads before the traffic you want reported starts, since deposits older than that are not uploaded when you connect later.

Test mode

Test mode is on for a new connection. Every upload is sent as a validation request: Google checks the account, the conversion action and each conversion, and answers as it would for a real upload, but records nothing. The deposit's details show Google's answer, so you can confirm the ids and the payload before anything counts.

When you turn Test mode off, deposits from the last three days that were only validated are uploaded for real on the next run. If an upload fails, the error is shown on the Google Ads page, and failed deposits can be put back in the queue from there.

Spend and cost per deposit

The same connection is used to import Google Ads spend. Tellmetric reads daily cost per campaign and ad group, plus campaign-level cost that no ad group carries, such as Performance Max, so the rows add up to Google's campaign cost. The time of the last import, or its error, is shown under the Google Ads form.

Spend is joined to your results when you group the funnel table by Google campaign (id) or Google ad group (id), or by campaign name when your utm_campaign values match Google's campaign names. Rows then show spend, cost per join, cost per deposit and return on ad spend. Google spend has no country breakdown, and spend in different currencies is added as it is, so keep deposits and ad accounts in one currency.

Reading the results

Choose the period: 7, 14, 30 or 90 days.
Show the funnel table by Google campaign, ad group or ad id, or by traffic source to compare Google with other platforms.
Open any entry in the activity list to see the click it came from, the identifiers it carries and Google's answer to the upload.
Export the table as CSV for a client report or your own spreadsheet.

The Google Ads page under Ad accounts adds a campaigns table per Google campaign id, with spend, cost per join, cost per deposit and return on ad spend once spend has been imported.

Why the numbers differ from Google Ads

Tellmetric counts every deposit matched to a click, from any source. Google Ads counts the conversions it accepted, credits them under its own attribution settings, and reports them against the date of the click. Deposits without a Google click id never reach Google. Expect the totals to differ. Use Tellmetric to decide which campaigns produce revenue, and Google Ads to see what bidding is learning from.

Illustrative example

Illustrative figures. A search campaign and a Performance Max campaign each spend €800 on the same landing page and report a similar number of button taps. Search brings 30 deposits, Performance Max 18. On cost per deposit, search costs about €27 and Performance Max about €44. Once deposits are uploaded, each campaign's bidding works from the outcome you are paid for.

Getting the most from Smart Bidding

Make the uploaded action the goal. In Google Ads, set the conversion action that receives deposits as the goal the campaign bids towards, rather than a page view or a button tap.
Send values. Deposits with a value let value-based strategies tell a small deposit from a large one.
Keep the click id intact. Leave auto-tagging on, and make sure redirects and consent tools on the landing page do not strip gclid from the address before the snippet reads it.
Allow for the delay. Deposits reach Google at least six hours after the click, often days later, so judge bidding changes over more than a day.

Common mistakes

Pointing Google ads straight at a tracking link or a t.me address instead of a landing page with the snippet
Telegram buttons on the landing page that link to t.me directly, so the click never reaches a tracking link
Turning auto-tagging off, which leaves deposits without a Google click id
Pasting the conversion action's name instead of its resource name
Leaving Test mode on after the first checks, so nothing is recorded in Google Ads
Expecting joins or messages in Google Ads; only deposits are uploaded

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a Google Ads developer token?

No. Conversions go through the Data Manager API with the permission you grant when connecting, and spend is imported over the same connection.

Which plans include Google Ads?

Pro and Agency. The Free plan reports to Meta only.

Are joins sent to Google Ads?

No. Only deposits, recorded as Deposit, FTD or Purchase, are uploaded. Joins and messages are reported in Tellmetric by Google campaign, ad group and ad.

What happens to a deposit without a Google click id?

It is marked as skipped for Google with the reason and not retried. It still counts in your reports, under the source that brought it.

What if Google ends the connection?

If the saved sign-in expires or its access is removed, uploads stop, the Google Ads page shows a notice and offers Connect Google Ads again. Uploads resume after you reconnect.

Google Ads Telegram tracking, from click to deposit