RE: post to uploadclickconversions yields the field cannot be set., at conversions[0].gclid

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

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

Upon checking your Google Ads account (703-236-2250), I could see that the given conversion action ‘Sign-up Web 7115722522’ status is showing as 'Inactive'. I would recommend you to kindly refer to this help center article "Conversion Tracking: Troubleshooting conversion tracking status" to troubleshoot your conversions based on your conversion action ID status. 

Could you kindly confirm if you followed the setup prerequisites for working with an offline conversion setup? If not, I would request you to follow the prerequisites before uploading offline click conversions. Also, I would suggest you refer to this "Debug common errors" documentation for more information. I would suggest you refer to the Monitor offline data diagnostics documentation as it helps to find the overall health of the conversion upload processes.

From the provided logs, I could see that you have encountered the VALUE_MUST_BE_UNSET error while uploading the click conversions through the Google Ads API.This error occurs for any of the following possible reasons:

● 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.

And also I could see that the "Tag is not firing on your website form" warning in the Enhanced conversions diagnostic tab for the conversion action. As the issue is with the tag not firing on your website forms, I would recommend you to reach out to the Tag Manager support team for further assistance as they are better equipped to address your concerns. 

Additionally, I would suggest you refer to the UploadClickConversionsRequest documentation for more information regarding the uploading of click conversions through the Google Ads API.

I hope this helps! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

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[2025-05-12 11:08:29Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!500Ht01qWc6r:ref" (ADR-00305116)

[Jon Watte]

Thanks for the answer.

> ● 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.

This is not mentioned on any of the API documentation pages. I assume the gclid is the better option to choose when it's availble, then.

> Tag is not firing on your website form

My message is mysteriously deleted (it did not include any PII that I can see, though, as I redacted the identifiers?)

Anyway, in my message, I mentioned that I cannot change the web application to install google tags, or google tag manager, and thus, I have to do all the work using back-end requests.

Our ads use a final URL that hits a back-end endpoint that records the necessary parameters, and redirects to an appropriate location in our webapp.

Once the user converts, we upload the appropriate conversion action.

Is there something I need to do in this click-landing redirecting web service to notify Google about the click landing, in lieu of the tag/tag manager that I cannot use?

[Jon Watte]

Additional information:

- yes, I have gone through all offline conversion provisioning, because otherwise I wouldn't even get to this point of the API.

- yes, the action is Inactive, because Google is not accepting my conversions. That's essentially the point of this question.

- the troubleshooter asks me to install google tags / google tag manager, which I cannot do, and it doesn't tell me how to send the same signal in another way

On Monday, May 12, 2025 at 4:09:23 AM UTC-7 Google Ads API Forum Advisor wrote:

[Google Ads API and AdWords API Forum]

Hi,

The main reason for the VALUE_MUST_BE_UNSET is that your API request is not constructed properly as per the API documentation recommendation. In your API request , you are passing both the 'gclid' and 'gbraid' in a single request. Please note that you cannot upload all 3 (gclid, gbraid, and wbraid) parameters in a single request. Only either of them is possible to upload via the API. That means that exactly one of gclid, gbraid, and wbraid should be specified in the API request but not a combination of any of two or all 3 parameters. I would highly suggest you to please refer to the Upload Offline Conversion code snippet to know how to upload the offline conversion programmatically. So please be aware that exactly one of gclid, gbraid, and wbraid is specified, as required.

[Jon Watte]

>  your API request is not constructed properly as per the API documentation recommendation

Thanks for your answer!

The REST API documentation for uploadClickConversions does not document the limitation that gclid and gbraid are mutually exclusive:

https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/rest/reference/rest/v19/customers/uploadClickConversions

What documentation should I be using instead where limitations like these are written?

Sincerely

Jon Watte

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Please note that it is specified in this document that you need to set only one of the identifier out of gclid, gbraid, wbraid, which you captured at the time of the click for the conversion's click or impression. You can refer to this Legacy Offline Conversion Import Guide for more information. In addition to it, you can also refer to this code snippet according to which exactly one click Id must be associated with a conversion while uploading them out of gclid, gbraid, or wbraid. 

I hope this clarifies your concern. Feel free to reach out for any further assistance.

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

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[2025-05-19 12:22:03Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!500Ht01qWc6r:ref" (ADR-00305116)