In this article

We review the functionality to read from GAM log files, process the click events, and feed these into the Permutive API. Once ingested, these events can be used in custom cohorts, allowing customers to target audiences based on their clicks on ads.

Google Ad Manager Logs

Google Ad Manager (GAM) is a tool used to serve adverts on publisher properties. One of its features allows access to the raw logs for events involving these adverts (see Ad Manager Data Transfer reports). We refer to these log files as GAM logs in this document and our platform. 

Note: Log access is a premium feature of GAM that not all customers have access to.

Ad Click Events

A certain type of event in GAM log files represents a user clicking on an advert. These events contain information about the advert that was clicked, in particular the identifiers that link the event back to a particular ad campaign and creative in GAM.

The log files containing click events are known as "NetworkClicks" and "NetworkBackfillClicks" in GAM. 

By reading these events from log files, we have much stronger guarantees of accuracy and support events from any type of device that uses the GAM SDK.

Setup Instructions

For a customer to start using GAM log click events in their cohorts, they must enable the GAM log integration in the dashboard and follow the instructions shown on the page.

These instructions are also included below for reference.

1. Set up access

Grant read access to your Ad Manager storage bucket. For more information please see the "Manage access to your Ad Manager storage buckets" section of the Ad Manager documentation.

2. Add key-values

Create the following keys in your GAM network:

• puid
• prmtvvid
• prmtvsid
• prmtvwid

The value type for both keys must be set as Dynamic and reporting should be disabled. For more information please see the Ad Manager documentation on how to add key values.

3. Enabling the GAM logs integration in the dashboard

Step 1: Navigate to Settings 

Step 2: Click on Integrations 

Step 3: Select "GAM Logs" 

4. Activate the GAM mobile SDK

In order for the integration to track clicks from mobile devices, please enable the appropriate SDK extension for Android or iOS.

Using GAM Log Events in Cohorts

Once the integration is enabled, a new event type named "GamLogSlotClicked", representing a click on an ad ingested from a log file, will be available for inclusion in cohorts.

Note: The "gam" prefix here, in comparison to the event without the prefix ("SlotClicked"), is generated from SDKs rather than ingested from log files and has limited device support.