Google Shopping Free Listings vs Paid Listings in Google Analytics
I need confirmation in the following, been searching the web but couldn’t confirm it 100%:
If I create a UTM Rule to my Product Feed in Merchant Center where I add the same
utm_sourceandutm_mediumfor the listing’s link but still have auto-tagging in Google Ads active, and no manual override settings in Google Analytics I can achieve the following:
a) See the data for free listings in Google Analytics with the UTMs (maybe also add dynamic UTMs for the keywords);
and b) See the data for Google Shopping Ads, because thegclidwill be more important than UTMs and as suchs, data from ads will be reported accordingly.
I just need to make sure I can see both data separately. At them moment I have UTMs in Product Feed, and auto-tagging on, but also manual override set, and so I can’t see Google Ads Shopping Data inside Google Analytics.
The short answer is:
Your hypothesis is correct: if you ensure the manual override setting that gives priority to UTM values over gclid is disabled in your Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property settings, you will achieve the desired data separation.
For clicks on your Paid Google Shopping Ads, the active Google Ads auto-tagging will append the gclid (Google Click ID) to the URL.
The gclid is the preferred method for Google and will override any manual UTMs for attribution, correctly reporting the traffic as Source: google / Medium: cpc along with all granular Google Ads data.
For clicks on your Google Shopping Free Listings, which do not generate a gclid, GA4 will then process the UTM parameters you added to your Merchant Center Product Feed (e.g., utm_source=google_free and utm_medium=organic_shopping), allowing the traffic to be distinctly segmented as organic/free within your GA4 reports.
This is the most cost-effective and accurate way to view both data streams separately using native Google integrations.
The long answer is:
This situation hinges entirely on the attribution precedence logic within Google Analytics 4, particularly concerning the conflict between the Google Click ID (gclid) from auto-tagging and your custom UTM parameters.
Your past inability to see Google Ads Shopping Data inside Google Analytics was directly caused by the “Allow manual tagging (UTM values) to override auto-tagging (gclid values)” setting being active, which forced GA4 to use the less-detailed UTM data even for paid clicks, losing the rich data associated with the gclid.
When you disable that override setting, you restore the default and recommended behavior.
For the Paid Shopping Ads, when a user clicks, the gclid is dynamically appended to the landing page URL by the active Google Ads auto-tagging.
The gclid acts as a key that allows the Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts (which should be linked) to exchange data via their respective internal APIs, conceptually utilizing the Google Analytics Measurement Protocol for event data and the Google Ads API for cost and campaign metrics.
With the override disabled, the gclid takes precedence over any UTMs present in the URL, correctly attributing the session in GA4 to the advertising campaign (Source: google, Medium: cpc), and populating all the deep, granular dimensions like Ad Group, Keyword, and Ad ID, which UTMs cannot provide.
For the Google Shopping Free Listings, a click does not generate a gclid because it is not a paid ad.
In this absence of a gclid, Google Analytics processes the next available attribution information, which are the UTM parameters you have embedded in your Merchant Center Product Feed.
By using unique values like utm_source=google_free and utm_medium=organic_shopping, you ensure this traffic is clearly separated from your paid traffic in all GA4 reports, achieving your goal of seeing both data sets distinctly.
To manage the Product Feed at scale, the Merchant API is the ideal choice, allowing for programmatic updates of product data, including the insertion of dynamic tracking parameters into the product URLs, which drastically reduces manual error and administrative cost.
Furthermore, integrating GA4 with BigQuery API allows you to export all raw event data, including both gclid-attributed and UTM-attributed sessions, for highly customized and powerful analysis, which can then be visualized in a consolidated, cost-effective dashboard via the Looker Studio API.
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