Microsoft Clarity expands Google Ads metrics

Microsoft Clarity has significantly expanded its Google Ads integration capabilities, introducing several new data metrics and enhanced column management features. The update, announced just three days ago on March 6, 2025, builds upon the initial integration launched in January 2025, providing marketers with a more comprehensive toolkit for analyzing advertising performance alongside user behavior patterns.

The expanded integration introduces six additional data columns to the existing Google Ads metrics already available in Clarity. According to Clarity documentation, the platform previously offered access to intent categorization (classifying users as low, medium, or high intent based on engagement levels), sessions tracking, click-through rate (CTR), cost per click (CPC), conversion rate (CVR), and cost per action (CPA).

With this update, users now have access to:

• Clicks: Total number of ad clicks
• Conversions: Completed primary business actions
• All conversions: Combined primary and secondary conversion actions
• Cost: Overall campaign expenditure
• Conversion value: Total value generated by primary conversions
• All conversions value: Combined value from both primary and secondary conversions
• Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): Target return goals per dollar spent
• Campaign type: Category classification of Google Ads campaigns (Search, Display, Shopping, etc.)

The introduction of these metrics creates a more complete picture of advertising performance, particularly for financial impact assessment. The addition of campaign type data allows for strategy comparison across different ad formats.

A significant technical enhancement in this update is the new "Manage columns" feature, which provides greater customization capabilities for the advertising dashboard. According to the Clarity staff announcement, this feature allows users to selectively display preferred metrics and rearrange columns based on analysis priorities.

The column management system implements a drag-and-drop interface for reordering data points, streamlining the analysis workflow. Users can select key performance indicators such as sessions, impressions, clicks, cost, and conversions, creating a personalized dashboard that highlights their most critical metrics.

Microsoft Clarity's integration with Google Ads represents a unique approach to combining behavioral analytics with advertising metrics. The platform's documentation indicates that this connection enables advertisers to analyze post-click user behavior for specific campaigns.

According to Clarity documentation, "The primary goal of this integration is to bring behavioral insights to your advertising data, allowing you to understand user behavior post-ad click on your Google Ads campaigns."

The system categorizes user engagement into three intent levels:

• Low-intent sessions: Brief visits with minimal engagement
• Medium-intent sessions: Moderate engagement with clicks or scrolls toward specific goals
• High-intent sessions: Highly engaged users interacting to achieve smart event goals

This intent classification helps marketers identify which campaigns drive meaningful engagement versus those generating shallow interactions. The documentation notes specific classification rules when percentages are equal: "If High and Medium are equal, it's classified as High. If all levels are equal, it's classified as Medium. If Medium and Low are equal, it's classified as Medium. If High and Low are equal, it's also classified as Medium."

The Clarity advertising dashboard operates with notable technical specifications. An important distinction exists in time zone handling: "The Advertising dashboard follows the respective time zone of the connected ad account, while the Clarity dashboard uses your local time zone," according to Clarity documentation.

Implementation requires several technical prerequisites:

1. An active Clarity project
2. An active Google Ads account
3. UTM parameters configured in campaigns
4. Unique UTM campaign parameter values for accurate linking with Clarity data

The implementation process follows a four-step sequence:

1. Project selection and navigation to Settings > Setup, with "Get Started" selection under Google Ads integration
2. Google authentication and account selection
3. Account linking, providing access to campaign details on the main Clarity Dashboard
4. Access to the dedicated Advertising dashboard for detailed campaign analysis

The expanded system offers robust filtering capabilities for granular analysis. Users can filter both Clarity and Google Ads data by:

• Time period
• Device type
• Campaign status
• Geographic location (Country/Region)

Data sorting options include:

• Campaign name
• User intent level
• Session count
• Impression volume

The system also supports data export functionality, allowing users to download campaign details in CSV, PNG, or PDF formats for external analysis or reporting.

A distinctive aspect of this integration is its connection to Clarity's fundamental analytical tools. Campaign data links directly to session recordings and heatmaps, providing visual evidence of user interactions following ad clicks.

The Ad Campaign Details documentation explains: "This card provides valuable data and insights, including a list of active and paused Google Ads campaign. In addition, there are links to session recordings and heatmaps for each campaign. Select the recordings or heatmap icons to view the corresponding data."

This direct connection between advertising metrics and behavioral analytics creates a comprehensive view of the customer journey from initial ad impression through website interaction. Marketers can observe how users from different campaigns navigate their sites, identify potential friction points, and optimize both ad targeting and website experience accordingly.

While the current integration focuses exclusively on Google Ads, Microsoft indicates plans for broader advertising platform support. According to the documentation, "Clarity currently supports integrating with your Google Ads project and is also in the process of expanding support to include other advertising platforms."

This suggests the company intends to provide similar integrated analytics for additional major advertising networks, potentially creating a multi-platform advertising analytics solution within the Clarity ecosystem.

The expanded Google Ads integration is immediately available to all Microsoft Clarity users. Implementation requires completing the integration process through the platform's Settings menu. Once connected, the Advertising dashboard becomes accessible via a dedicated button in the main navigation interface.

In contrast to many enterprise analytics solutions with tiered pricing models, Microsoft Clarity—including this expanded Google Ads integration—maintains its free-to-use model with no traffic limitations. This accessibility makes advanced advertising analytics available to businesses of all sizes without cost barriers.

Timeline of Microsoft Clarity's advertising features

• January 2025: Initial Google Ads integration launched, providing basic campaign metrics and intent classification
• March 6, 2025: Expanded integration released with six additional metrics and enhanced column management
• Future development: Planned support for additional advertising platforms beyond Google Ads

This latest update represents a significant enhancement of Microsoft Clarity's advertising analytics capabilities, providing marketers with deeper insights into campaign performance while maintaining the platform's focus on understanding user behavior patterns.