Smart Links and ad conversions

A paid ad can send people to a smart link. If the person has no app, they install it first and only then do something worth reporting, such as a first order. By then the ad click is long gone from the phone. A smart link keeps the ad click id, so TrueEngage can connect the install, and the later conversion, back to the ad.

This page explains what is kept and when. Connecting Google Ads, Meta and GA4 is covered in Ad platforms.

What you need

• A smart link as the destination of the ad, so the ad platform adds its click id to the address.
• A deep link domain, template and app setup that already work. See Deep links and deferred deep links.
• An ad platform connection and conversion mapping, if you want conversions sent back. See Ad platforms.

Which parameters are kept

When the address of a clicked smart link carries these, TrueEngage stores them with the click:

Source	Parameters
Google	gclid, gbraid, wbraid, gad_source, gad_campaignid
Meta	fbclid, fbp
UTM	utm_medium, utm_term, utm_content, plus the link's media source (as utm_source) and campaign (as utm_campaign)

Rules for what is kept:

• Click ids are also passed on in the deep link value, so your app can still read them.
• Each value is capped at 2,048 characters.
• UTM values you type into the link in the builder stay with the link and appear in its payload. Only UTM values that are in the clicked address are used as ad tracking data. Put them in your ad URL.
• If the address has none of these, nothing extra is stored.

Meta's fbc is not on the address. TrueEngage builds it from fbclid and the time of the click, in Meta's format.

What happens after the install

1. The person taps the ad, which opens the smart link. The click is recorded with the click ids.
2. The person installs the app from the store and opens it.
3. The SDK asks TrueEngage which click this install came from. When TrueEngage finds the click, the install is credited to the link, as described in Link analytics.
4. At that moment TrueEngage records an acquisition touch on the person's profile, with the channel smart link. The touch holds the click ids and UTM values. Its time is the time of the click, not the time of the install.
5. The profile's first-touch and last-touch tracking attributes are updated. The first touch keeps the earliest click. The last touch keeps the latest.
6. When the person later does a mapped conversion event, the ad platform connection sends it with the stored click ids, subject to consent.

Because the touch carries the click's time, the order of events does not matter: a late arriving touch cannot overwrite a newer one.

How long a click id can be used

Ad platforms accept click ids only for a limited time. TrueEngage sends them within these windows:

Id	Window
gclid, gbraid, wbraid	90 days from the click
fbc	7 days from the click

After that the conversion is still counted in TrueEngage, but the ad platform cannot match it to the click.

Consent and Test

• Sending to an ad platform follows the consent mode you set in the ad platform settings. Conversions for people who have not consented are not sent.
• The smart link, the matching and the stored touch work the same in Test and Live, and never mix.
• If the person opted out of tracking in the SDK, the app makes no link calls, so nothing is matched and no touch is recorded.

Check that it works

1. Open a smart link on a test phone with ?gclid=test123 added, then install a test build and open it.
2. Open the person's profile. Under tracking, the first-touch click id should be test123 and the channel should be smart link.
3. Open Smart Links > Settings > Match rate to see whether installs are being matched. A low rate means click ids rarely reach a profile. See Troubleshooting and limits.

Related pages

• Ad platforms
• Link analytics
• Create your first link