Google matches fewer offline conversions when there is no GCLID: what are GBRAID and WBRAID, and should you capture them?

Capture the GCLID first, and capture GBRAID and WBRAID too, because Google uses them in cases where a GCLID is not available. Then treat the hashed email and phone as a fallback, not the main route. Accounts that rely on hashed details alone have reported weaker matching, and the cleanest explanation is that a click ID is a direct link to the ad click while a hashed email is a guess at who it was.

Here is the difference. A GCLID is the click identifier Google adds to the landing page URL when auto-tagging is on. Uploading a conversion with the GCLID tells Google exactly which click it came from. A hashed email or phone lets Google look for a signed-in user who interacted with your ads, which only works when that person can be found and the interaction was recent enough.

GBRAID and WBRAID are the other identifiers Google may add in some cases, notably where privacy limits on iOS prevent a standard GCLID. Check Google's current documentation for exactly when each appears and how to upload it, because the rules have changed over time. The practical point is the same: if you store only the GCLID, you lose the leads that arrived with one of the others.

One detail people hit with lead forms: practitioners report that the BRAID parameters do not behave like a GCLID for conversions set to count one per click. If your conversion is set to count once, test what the upload accepts, and read the error messages Google returns, which can be obscure.

So what should you do? On every landing, capture all three parameters if present, store them on the server and with the lead, and put them in the record that your sales team works from. Do not rely on one cookie in the browser, because script-set cookies are limited in some browsers.

When you upload, send whichever identifier you have, plus the hashed email and phone where the platform accepts them together. Several practitioners recommend sending both in one row so a missing GCLID does not lose the lead. If you see errors for rows with no GCLID, check how your upload template maps empty values, and test with a small file.

Also ask whether your match rate fell because the leads changed. If more of your submissions are junk, with throwaway emails and invented numbers, there is nothing for Google to match, and the drop is a lead quality problem, not a Google change. Read a sample of unmatched leads before you blame the platform.

DataCops captures the GCLID and the other click IDs on your own domain at the first request, keeps them on the server for up to 90 days, and sends each CRM stage back with the click ID or the hashed email and phone, counted once. Its delivery log shows each send as sent, held, skipped or failed with the reason.

What share of your leads carry a click ID today?