ClickTrail – UTM, Click ID & Ad Tracking (with Consent)

Campaign context observed on arrival is often missing when a form or order is created later. ClickTrail carries that context from the visit to configured WordPress conversion boundaries.

A visitor can arrive with UTMs or ad click IDs, then submit a form or place an order several pages later. ClickTrail captures observed first-touch and last-touch context in first-party storage and makes it available to configured WordPress form and WooCommerce paths, including client-side paths for cached and dynamic pages.

ClickTrail helps answer “what campaign context reached this conversion record?” It does not prove which click caused a sale, resolve a person’s identity across devices, or decide which channel deserves revenue credit.

ClickTrail is not an attribution dashboard, hosted server-side GTM platform, lead manager, or ad optimizer. It complements GA4 and GTM. Browser tags remain site-owned, and configured-endpoint delivery and provider acceptance remain runtime-unverified.

ClickTrail applies documented first-touch and last-touch rules and makes the resulting context available at configured WordPress boundaries:

• WooCommerce orders
• configured form paths
• browser events
• optional server-side delivery

In WooCommerce, ClickTrail stores attribution on the order, pushes enriched purchase events on the thank-you page, and can optionally emit GA4-style storefront events for view_item, view_item_list, view_cart, add_to_cart, remove_from_cart, and begin_checkout, plus post-purchase milestones, through the same ClickTrail pipeline.

Pick a starting path

• WooCommerce store: enable Capture and WooCommerce. Configured orders can carry campaign context; add storefront events later if you want funnel signals.
• Lead-gen forms: enable Capture and Forms. Contact Form 7 and Fluent Forms get hidden fields automatically; Gravity Forms and WPForms fill the ct_* fields you add.
• GTM / sGTM stack: enable Capture, Events, and Delivery. Browser events push to the dataLayer; configured endpoint adapters send canonical JSON, while provider tags/API authentication remain separately owned and verified.

What problems it solves

• Campaign context on configured orders: Paid traffic can look direct by the time an order is placed. ClickTrail can store observed context on configured WooCommerce orders.
• Configured WooCommerce journey signals: WooCommerce storefront journeys can emit opt-in view_item, view_item_list, view_cart, add_to_cart, remove_from_cart, and begin_checkout signals through the same ClickTrail event layer used elsewhere in the plugin.
• Client-side support for cached or dynamic forms: Hidden fields can fail on cached pages or dynamically rendered forms. ClickTrail includes client-side fallback and dynamic-content support for configured paths.
• Configured cross-domain continuity: Approved link decoration and attribution tokens can preserve observed context between configured domains or subdomains.
• Consent and privacy lifecycle: queued retries recheck current consent immediately before delivery; browser consent authority is synchronized across tabs; and WooCommerce order metadata has an allowlisted export, erase, retention, and uninstall lifecycle. Live WordPress, browser, CMP, WooCommerce, and provider verification remains a separate release gate.

Core capabilities

• Capture: first-touch and last-touch UTMs, major ad click IDs, and referrers with automatic organic/social/referral fallback when UTMs are absent.
• WooCommerce: checkout attribution persistence, thank-you purchase event push, enriched commerce payloads, optional storefront commerce events, and optional order-status milestones.
• Forms: three documented patterns: automatic hidden fields for Contact Form 7 and Fluent Forms, matching ct_* hidden fields for Gravity Forms and WPForms, and submission-record storage for Elementor Forms (Pro) and Ninja Forms; plus client-side fallback, dynamic form support, and WhatsApp attribution continuity.
• Events: browser event collection with dataLayer pushes, canonical REST intake, webhook ingestion, lifecycle updates, one-time WordPress follow-up events such as login, sign_up, and comment_submit, and optional WooCommerce storefront events.
• Delivery: optional server-side transport, retry queue, diagnostics, and consent-gated dispatch with known edge cases documented for the next release.

Recent additions

Recent releases extended the Gravity Forms integration with channel classification, merge tags, and per-form controls:

• Channel classification: configured Gravity Forms entries receive a ct_ft_channel value, a human-readable label such as Google Ads, ChatGPT, or Mailchimp, derived from click IDs, UTM parameters, or referrer context. A server-side fallback covers sessions where JS attribution was unavailable.
• Expanded click ID capture: six additional click IDs (Reddit rdt_cid, Pinterest pin_cid, Snapchat snap_cid, Mailchimp mc_cid / mc_eid, and Display & Video 360 dclid) are now captured and stored.
• Merge tags: nine {clicutcl_*} merge tags are available in GF notifications and confirmations, including {clicutcl_channel}, {clicutcl_click_id}, and seven UTM-based tags.
• Per-form toggle: attribution tracking can be enabled or disabled per form via a dedicated ClickTrail section in Gravity Forms form settings.
• Admin QA mode: attribution data is stored in sessionStorage only when a manage_options user is logged in, preventing admin browsing from appearing in attribution reports.
• sessionStorage fallback: attribution capture now falls back to sessionStorage when the browser blocks cookies.
• Minification protection: ClickTrail script tags carry exclusion attributes recognised by Autoptimize, Cloudflare Rocket Loader, WP Rocket, and LiteSpeed Cache (corrected attribute set in 1.7.0).

Current admin structure

The main settings experience is organized by capability:

• Capture
• Forms
• Events
• Delivery

Operational screens stay separate:

• Logs
• Diagnostics

Integration inventory and status

• Forms: Contact Form 7, Elementor Forms (Pro), Fluent Forms, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, WPForms
• Commerce: WooCommerce
• CMP sources: ClickTrail banner, Cookiebot, OneTrust, Complianz, GTM, custom
• Webhook providers: Calendly, HubSpot, Typeform
• Server-side adapter keys (source-present / runtime-unverified): Generic collector, sGTM, Meta CAPI, Google Ads / GA4, LinkedIn CAPI, Pinterest Conversions API, TikTok Events API. These currently serialize canonical JSON to configured endpoints; provider API/authentication and acceptance are not proven by registry presence.
• Browser/GTM-mediated only: Meta/Facebook Pixel, Google tag/GA4, TikTok Pixel, LinkedIn Insight, Pinterest Tag, and Reddit Pixel. ClickTrail does not inject these SDKs.
• Reddit: relay-only destination toggle and rdt_cid capture; no native Reddit delivery adapter.

Forms behavior by plugin

• Contact Form 7 and Fluent Forms: ClickTrail can add hidden attribution fields automatically.
• Gravity Forms and WPForms: ClickTrail can populate matching hidden fields you add to the form.
• Recommended for Gravity Forms and WPForms: add the hidden fields you want stored or exported, and ClickTrail will fill them.
• Elementor Forms (Pro): ClickTrail uses the available submission hooks and attribution fallback, not automatic hidden-field injection.
• Ninja Forms: ClickTrail stores attribution with the submission and surfaces it in the submission record, not as automatic hidden-field injection.

Supported click IDs

• Google: gclid, wbraid, gbraid
• Meta: fbclid
• TikTok: ttclid
• Microsoft: msclkid
• X / Twitter: twclid
• LinkedIn: li_fat_id
• Snapchat: sccid, snap_cid
• Pinterest: epik, pin_cid
• Reddit: rdt_cid
• Mailchimp: mc_cid, mc_eid
• Display & Video 360: dclid

Additional capture fields

• Extended UTMs: utm_id, utm_source_platform, utm_creative_format, utm_marketing_tactic
• Browser/platform identifiers: fbc, fbp, _ttp, li_gc, ga_client_id, ga_session_id

Release phasing and evidence

The repository release-phasing plan separates truth-containment
docs, consent/privacy remediation, delivery integrity, provider-contract releases, and later reach work.

Common use cases

• Lead-generation forms: keep campaign context attached to supported form entries.
• WooCommerce orders: keep observed source context available on the order and purchase event path.
• Cached or dynamic forms: use the client-side fallback and dynamic-form path when server-rendered fields are not enough.
• Approved multi-domain funnels: continue attribution only across domains you control and configure.
• Consent-aware sites: connect ClickTrail to one consent source and validate granted and denied paths before launch.

See the use-case guide and
tutorial index for setup steps.