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u/False_Ad4246 – GFN breaking attribution isn’t a bug you can fully fix — it’s by design. a call placed straight from the ad (call extension), the caller never touches your site, so there’s no gclid to pass and GHL has nothing to tie it to “paid search.” so stop trying to get GHL’s attribution label right — you don’t actually need it.
the thing most people miss: google’s offline conversion import for “calls from ads” is keyed on caller phone number + call start time, not gclid. that’s exactly the data the google call report already gives you. so your verification path is:
1. lead gets qualified in GHL
2. grab that contact’s phone number
3. match it to the row in the google call report (number + timestamp)
4. upload the conversion to google keyed on caller number + call time
no gclid needed, no GHL attribution needed. run the match in a sheet or a zap — it’s reliable because number + minute window is basically unique.
longer-term: put CallRail or WhatConverts in front. dynamic number insertion captures the gclid on website calls (those attribute properly), and both have native GHL + google ads integrations.
ad-extension calls still won’t carry a gclid, so keep the phone-match for those — don’t try to make one method cover both.
what’s your split — mostly calls straight from the ad, or from the landing page? changes which fix matters more.
