How to Instantly Populate Zoho CRM Fields with Google Ads GCLID Data

Using Google gclid ad data with Zoho CRM – How to populate the fields on each click?

We are having great difficulty trying to populate the standard fields in zoho crm when google ads app is activated. We can extract the gclid, but unable to populate the campaign, keyword data (etc.) into Zoho crm. The leads are captured on the site and we are currently using the email parser function (which may be the issue), so we have tried some other script to assist but doesn’t seem to fix the issue.

The goal is for the form on the site to capture the google ad data and insert into zoho crm with the lead info, for this then to work with the google ads integration to provide analysis on the lead’s google data.

I don’t think we are alone trying to achieve this with the vast amount of Zoho and google users – so I hope somebody in this community can help as we are at a loss!!!

The short answer is:

The long answer is:

It is frustrating to get the gclid but not the campaign and keyword data, and your analysis that the email parser is likely the issue is spot-on, as it prevents the clean data passage required for real-time attribution.

The standard Zoho CRM Google Ads integration is clunky because it does not directly populate the campaign and keyword fields when the lead is created; it relies on the gclid being captured and then a delayed, daily or multi-day sync with the Google Ads API to fill in the rest of the click details.

Your goal of instant, clean data insertion requires a server-side solution that bypasses the limitations of the client-side Zoho Web-to-Lead script and the email parser function.

The solution you should implement is a combination of Google Tag Manager, your own server-side environment, and the Zoho CRM V8 APIs.

First, on your website, you must stop using the email parser and either switch to a standard form submission that posts to a Zoho Web-to-Lead form (though this is less flexible) or, ideally, post the form data to your own secure endpoint.

Second, you use GTM to cleanly capture all the relevant Google Ads information like the gclid, UTM parameters, and even your own custom data.

This is done by storing the URL parameters in the user’s browser, for example in a cookie or browser storage, and then retrieving them when the form is submitted.

Now for the excellent and cost-effective server-side part: The GTM Server Container, hosted cheaply on a service like Stape or Google Cloud Platform, provides the necessary intermediary layer.

Instead of the form submitting directly to Zoho, you submit it to your GTM Server Container’s endpoint.

You configure the GTM Server Container to take the form data along with the gclid and other attribution data.

From there, you use a custom Server-side Tag to make a direct, secure, and authenticated call to a Zoho CRM V8 API endpoint (or a Zoho Webhook/Function) to create the lead.

This is an excellent solution because the Zoho CRM V8 APIs are modern, robust, and allow you to insert data directly into any field, including custom ones you create for Campaign Name, Ad Group, and Keyword.

This server-side method is secure and fast, ensuring you populate the fields with the attribution data at the precise moment the lead is created, which is critical for real-time analysis.

Furthermore, using the Google Ads API in conjunction with your own data allows you to perform Offline Conversions, which is the ultimate goal.

Once a lead becomes a closed-won opportunity in Zoho, you can send that conversion and its value directly back to Google Ads via the API, completing the loop and improving the quality of your bid optimization.

This entire setup is significantly more reliable and compliant than any purely client-side script or parser method.

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