GBRAID & WBRAID Click Identifiers Conversion Posting

[Angelo]

Hi Google Support,

Our organisation is sending Conversion Events to Google Ads via API.

The Ad Links we get usually have GCLID, and we are able to submit leads just fine with it.

We're using Google Ads Click Conversion Upload via the Google Ads API's ConversionUploadService.

Google Ads API Used: v18
Client Library for Python: 25.1.0

But when our Ad Link uses GBRAID and WBRAID instead of GCLID, it starts to breakdown and we get this error:

The imported gclid could not be decoded. Make sure you use the correct gclid format.

Here is the sample request from our conversion posting:
REQUEST BODY : {'Email': '<REDACTED>', 'GCLID': 'CloKCQjwhO3DBhDaARJJAPBAqMkr8sEh4288Ywh9gyDZB0xJUrpX6PQXLLEQ-JO78EYYPhMkH7ak_JwODTx71PgTCYtgDAnq-U_c_ASeDxoKrZDg4LXfRhoC0ag', 'Phone': '<REDACTED>', 'Value': '1', 'Currency': 'AUD', 'Transaction ID': '<REDACTED>', 'User Data Consent': 'GRANTED', 'Conversion Action ID': '<REDACTED>', 'Conversion Timestamp': '2025-07-20 14:01:17.794138+00:00', 'Conversion Event Name': '<CustomEvent>'}

Here are some of the sample click IDs we have from GBRAID and WBRAID:

wbraid

• CloKCQjwhO3DBhDaARJJAPBAqMlaRpvgdISi3k4eyz5tiNqGx-gqt11WqEu6qirFKkJqa6sI98C1sUmOZk645pIXflOBMDsGewuCkqUyEAWH-rnvH6MrzRoCDMM
• ClgKCQjwhO3DBhDaARJHAPBAqMmEZWE7Gtf3zJEtBsgL1iUfOHH6Src4ULBZIqGkQzIwFDgYvcPddXpQtN3nu0g_a16VXGyrUwz_pxwQ0lF1s32sK68aAm3V

gbraid

• 0AAAAACZGY6vERiXMMTJYoB2VG86-qHLmR
• 0AAAAACW-6PqSTO6bY4THMtP02NJJs-7nq

How can we post conversions when it only has GBRAID/WBRAID?

Thank you!

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out to the Google Ads API support team.

The UNPARSEABLE_GCLID error means that the imported gclid could not be decoded. Make sure you have not modified the click IDs. The possible reason for this is that you are uploading GCLID that does not exist. Your GCLID shouldn’t be altered/modified when importing via Google Ads API.

Note that Enhanced Conversions for Leads can't be used with either WBRAID or GBRAID identifiers. If you do you will encounter the VALUE_MUST_BE_UNSET error. You can determine which of the following issues led to the error.

• The ClickConversion has a value set for gclid as well as at least one of gbraid or wbraid. Update the conversion to use only one click ID, and make sure you are not combining multiple clicks into the same conversion. Each click has only one click ID.

• The ClickConversion has a value set for either gbraid or wbraid and has a value for custom_variables. Google Ads does not support custom variables for a conversion with a gbraid or wbraid click ID. Unset the custom_variables field of the conversion.

From the provided API logs, it seems that you're currently using version v18 of the Google Ads API. Note that 'v18' was deprecated in June 2025, and will sunset by the end of August 2025. After this date, all v18 API requests will fail.

If you face any other issues while uploading the conversions, please share the latest complete API logs (request and response with request-id and request header) generated at your end.

If you are using a client library and haven't enabled the logging yet, I would request you to enable logging for the specific client library that you are using. You can refer to the guides Java, .Net, PHP, Python, Ruby or Perl to enable logging at your end. For REST interface requests, you can enable logging via the curl command by using the -i flag.

You can send the details via Reply privately to the author option, or direct private reply to this email.

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

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[2025-07-24 13:06:18Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!500Ht01swd17:ref" (ADR-00320034)

[Robert De Vivo]

im getting this same issue. my clickids are not being malformed or modifie,d they are the exact clickid sent to me from google when the click originated. it seems the wbraid gbraid ones do not get accepted as API/Offline conversions, why? What am I doing wrong here? 

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

As informed earlier, please note that Enhanced Conversions for Leads can't be used with either WBRAID or GBRAID identifiers. If you do you will get the VALUE_MUST_BE_UNSET error. Also, please note that click Ids are sent/ fired by the tag implemented for the conversion action. So, if you are uploading offline conversions using  enhanced conversions for leads and you are receiving WBRAID or GBRAID instead of GCLID, I would recommend you to verify your tag setup. You can reach out to the Tag Manager support team for assistance required to set up the tag correctly.

In order to assist you further, please provide your Google Ads customer Id, conversion action Id and the complete API logs (request and response with request-id and request header) generated at your end for the conversion uploads without redacting any information. If you are using a client library and haven't enabled the logging yet, I would request you to enable logging for the specific client library that you are using. You can refer to the guides Java, .Net, PHP, Python, Ruby or Perl to enable logging at your end. For REST interface requests, you can enable logging via the curl command by using the -i flag.  

You can send the details via Reply privately to the author option, or direct private reply to this email.

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

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[2025-09-18 23:20:10Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!500Ht01swd17:ref" (ADR-00320034)

[Robert De Vivo]

 I am not using enhanced conversions. I'm using OFFLINE CONVERSIONS via API ,  I'm using clickflare which is a tracking platform, It records gclid, gbraid and wbraid (whichever is present) as the unique ID for each click that comes in, when i get a lead clickflare knows which uniqueID (google clid id) it came from, it then posts it via API. All of my API calls show a 200 response, meaning no error at all

but whne i go into my googl account, only 6 leads came through. 19 failed (I have 25 total). the 19 that failed i try to put into a XLS file and upload manually, and I receive this error:
"The imported gclid could not be decoded. Make sure click IDs are correctly formatted."

what would cause this issue? I am sending in the gclid/wbraid/graid back to google so i'm not sure why this is happening?

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

I understand that the API is returning a 200 response, but the conversions are still failing in your Google Ads account, and you're seeing the "The imported gclid could not be decoded" error when you try to upload them manually.

Based on the information you provided in your initial query, we observed that you are using user identifiers like email. As per the API implementation documentation for enhanced conversions for leads, this is a key component. This is why we initially provided information regarding enhanced conversions.

To investigate your concern further, we'll need a few more details. As you've mentioned you are uploading conversions manually, could you please confirm if you are also experiencing this same issue when uploading conversions via the Google Ads API? If so, please provide the complete API logs (request and response logs with request-id and request header) generated at your end for the failed conversions. Without these logs, it's difficult for us to analyze the issue thoroughly and pinpoint the root cause. 

If you are using a client library and haven't enabled the logging yet, I would request you to enable logging for the specific client library that you are using. You can refer to the guides Java, .Net, PHP, Python, Ruby or Perl to enable logging at your end. For REST interface requests, you can enable logging via the curl command by using the -i flag. 

Additionally, please provide an uncropped screenshot of your Google Ads UI, highlighting the conversion action name/ID and with your Google Ads customer ID visible. This would be very helpful for our further investigation.

You can send the details via Reply privately to the author option, or direct private reply to this email.

 

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

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[2025-09-19 05:36:20Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!500Ht01swd17:ref" (ADR-00320034)