# Ad-Platform Auto-Tagging

> An ad platform's own feature that automatically appends its click identifier — gclid for Google Ads, msclkid for Microsoft Ads — to your ad's destination URL, which AnyTrack reads as first-party data.

Ad-platform auto-tagging is an ad platform's own feature that automatically appends its click identifier to your ad's destination URL — `gclid` for Google Ads, `msclkid` for Microsoft Ads. It is owned and applied by the ad platform, not by AnyTrack, and it lets that platform attribute conversions to its own clicks. AnyTrack reads the resulting `gclid`/`msclkid` off the landing-page URL as first-party data.

## Ad-Platform Auto-Tagging vs AutoTag vs Tracking template

- [AutoTag](/glossary/autotag) — AnyTrack's feature that appends the **AnyTrack** [Click ID](/glossary/click-id) to **outbound** links and forms on your site. Ad-platform auto-tagging appends the **platform's** click ID to the **inbound** ad URL. Same idea, opposite owners and opposite ends of the journey — this is the pairing most often confused.
- [Tracking template](/glossary/tracking-template) — adds the UTM parameters you define; auto-tagging adds the platform's `gclid` automatically. Both run on the same click.

## How AnyTrack works with ad-platform auto-tagging

Leave auto-tagging enabled on your ad accounts: AnyTrack collects the `gclid`/`msclkid` and stores it on the session as first-party data, then sends it back to the platform with the conversion (for example, Google Ads offline conversion import) for accurate optimization. Auto-tagging only covers a platform's own clicks, so AnyTrack still relies on [UTM parameters](/glossary/utm-parameter) for cross-channel [attribution](/glossary/attribution). Never duplicate `gclid` as a manual UTM — it conflicts with the platform's auto-tagged value.