How to Preserve Ad Click IDs with Server-side Tagging (and UTM parameters)

With iOS 26 releasing soon, Apple is expanding its link tracking protection, which may remove various tracking parameters from the page URL. The full impact is still uncertain, but you can prepare now.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to preserve ad click parameters in your setup using server-side tagging and keep your tracking accurate.

While the main focus is on Google ads click parameters (e.g., gclid), at the end of the video I also show how to preserve UTM parameters with server-side Google Tag Manager (in case this is needed in the future).

👉👉 IMPORTANT UPDATE: in the Query Replacer variable, enable the “Skip existing query parameters” checkbox. This is very important for proper tracking. You can read more here: https://www.analyticsmania.com/post/preserve-ad-click-ids-with-google-tag-manager/?utm_medium=video&utm_source=youtube.com&utm_campaign=am+yt+-+preserve+ad+click+ids+and+utm+parameters+with+server-side+tagging+2025
=== TIMESTAMPS ===
00:00 - Intro
00:43 - Ad click parameters
03:09 - Google Ads (custom parameters)
09:07 - SGTM (apply transformation)
13:58 - UTM Parameters
18:05 - Final Words
=== LINKS ===

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⭐⭐ Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics 4 courses ⭐⭐
https://www.analyticsmania.com/courses/?utm_medium=video&utm_source=youtube.com&utm_campaign=am+yt+-+preserve+ad+click+ids+and+utm+parameters+with+server-side+tagging+2025

📕 Free e-books about Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager
https://www.analyticsmania.com/google-tag-manager-e-books-and-guides/?utm_medium=video&utm_source=youtube.com&utm_campaign=am+yt+-+preserve+ad+click+ids+and+utm+parameters+with+server-side+tagging+2025
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Видео How to Preserve Ad Click IDs with Server-side Tagging (and UTM parameters) канала Analytics Mania - Google Analytics & Tag Manager