Question from user:
I’m trying to find a way to track the effectiveness of my marketing campaigns in Pipedrive.
We are looking for:
- Analyse how many leads ads generate within Pipedrive
- How many of these leads led to successful conversions
- Compare ad conversions on different channels (FB, Google, LinkedIn etc.) within Pipedrive
I’ve found a possible solution with Zapier where I can set a Zap where whenever there’s a new LinkedIn Form response, a lead is created in Pipedrive, then a measurement is created in Google Analytics. But I’m really struggling to connect Pipedrive and/or LinkedIn Ads with Google Analytics.
Is there a way to do this all within Pipedrive so that I can centralise all data? I probably have to integrate software outside of Pipedrive.
Any guidance would be much appreciated, thank you!
Answer from Nabil:
The short answer is:
Achieving the level of detailed, cross-channel conversion tracking you want within Pipedrive alone isn’t practical or entirely possible, as Pipedrive is a CRM, not an ad platform or a dedicated analytics tool.
You’ll need an external system to centralize and process the data, with a server-side solution providing the best accuracy.
Your suggested Zapier approach is a good start, but a more robust architecture involving APIs and a dashboard tool will give you the complete, accurate, and consolidated reporting you’re looking for.
The long answer is:
Your goal is to tie revenue events from Pipedrive back to the initial ad click on Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn, and then visualize this in a unified way.
The struggle you’re having connecting Pipedrive and ad platforms to Google Analytics is common, because direct integrations for this specific closed-loop reporting are often limited, especially four years ago when you posted this.
The best approach involves a modern, powerful setup that uses server-side tracking to bypass common tracking limitations like ad blockers and browser privacy restrictions, followed by a dedicated reporting layer.
The core problem is attribution – knowing which ad impression led to the lead, which then became a successful deal in Pipedrive.
To achieve this, you need a system that captures a unique ID when the user clicks the ad, passes that ID to Pipedrive when the lead is created, and then uses that same ID to tell the ad platforms and Google Analytics when the lead converts into a “successful conversion” or “deal won.”
Here is how a comprehensive system would look using the components you mentioned:
First, when a user clicks an ad, a unique tracking ID needs to be captured and stored.
You could use a Google Tag Manager (GTM) container deployed on your website for initial data capture.
For greater reliability, you would use a tool like Stape (a server-side GTM hosting solution) or your own Google Cloud Platform (GCP) instance to set up a server-side tracking environment.
This environment ensures your tracking tags, including your Google Analytics and conversion tags, fire reliably from a server, not the user’s browser.
This is critical for reliable data.
Second, when a lead is created – either through your website form or a platform like LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms – this unique tracking ID must be sent to Pipedrive.
This is where your Zapier idea comes into play, but for a more custom, real-time, and scalable solution, you would use the Pipedrive API.
When a new lead is created in Pipedrive, you use the Pipedrive API to ensure that key source information (UTM parameters, GCLID for Google Ads, click ID for Facebook and LinkedIn) is stored in a custom field on the Person or Deal object.
Third, once a lead in Pipedrive becomes a successful conversion (i.e., the Deal status changes to “Won”), an action must be triggered to send this conversion event back to the original advertising platforms.
This is where the powerful Conversions APIs come in: the Facebook Conversions API, Google Ads API (specifically for Enhanced Conversions or Offline Conversion Imports), and LinkedIn Conversions API.
Using these APIs, you send a Lead or Purchase or Deal Won event, along with the captured tracking ID, directly from your server or data processing tool (e.g., your Zapier replacement/custom script) to the ad platform.
This allows the ad platform to see the revenue event and optimize its campaigns based on true, downstream value, which is far superior to relying on simple, front-end pixel tracking.
You’d also use the Google Analytics Data API (for GA4) to report the “Deal Won” event as a back-end conversion, again, providing a reliable count of how many conversions were truly successful deals.
The conversion_value would be the deal value in Pipedrive, allowing you to compare true ROI.
This method allows you to track key Standard Events like Lead or Purchase accurately.
Fourth, to answer your need to centralize all data and compare ad conversions on different channels, you need a reporting layer.
Since the data is now spread across Pipedrive (deal status, value), the ad platforms (cost, impressions, clicks), and Google Analytics (website behavior), a business intelligence tool like Looker Studio is essential.
You would use the Looker Studio API (or built-in connectors) to pull the cost data from the ad platforms, the conversion events from Google Analytics, and the deal/revenue data from Pipedrive.
This allows you to build a comprehensive dashboard that shows cost, leads generated, successful conversions (deals won), and ROI by channel in one place, completing your closed-loop attribution reporting.
While Pipedrive Insights can show some deal flow, it can’t natively combine cost data from external ad accounts in this manner, confirming that external tools are necessary for your ultimate goal.
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