Glossary

Cross-cutting terms, listed alphabetically. Each entry links to the page that explains the concept in context.

ad_storage

A Consent Mode v2 signal that gates writing of advertising-related cookies. Trackbridge writes its _tb_* click-identifier cookies only when ad_storage is 'granted'. See Consent Mode v2.

adsConversionId

The Google Ads property identifier of the form AW-1234567890. Required field on createBrowserTracker. Used to construct the send_to parameter on each gtag conversion event as ${adsConversionId}/${label}.

clientId

In the GA4 Measurement Protocol context: the per-browser identifier GA4 reads from the _ga cookie. Required on every server-side trackEvent call so that GA4 can stitch the server event into the same session as the user’s browser activity. Not used on the conversion path, which is keyed on transactionId instead.

In the OAuth context: the public identifier of your Google Cloud OAuth 2.0 client. Used by the server tracker to refresh access tokens.

clickIdentifierStorage

Configuration field on createBrowserTracker that controls where captured gclid, gbraid, and wbraid values are kept. One of 'cookie' (the default — first-party cookies, gated on ad_storage), 'memory' (in-memory only, lost on tab close), or 'none' (the SDK never keeps the values).

conversionAction

A Google Ads API resource describing one trackable conversion (purchase, signup, lead). Identified by a resource name of the form customers/{customerId}/conversionActions/{actionId}. Distinct from the gtag conversion label (a short string like abcDEF1234), which identifies the same conversion to the browser-side gtag library. Trackbridge maps your friendly labels to resource names through the ads.conversionActions config — see Mapping conversion actions.

Google’s signal protocol for granular advertising consent: ad_storage, ad_user_data, ad_personalization, analytics_storage. Trackbridge surfaces these via tracker.updateConsent({...}). When consentMode: 'v2' is configured, the SDK gates click-identifier cookies on ad_storage and holds pre-grant values in memory until consent resolves. See Consent Mode v2.

customerId

The Google Ads customer account number, displayed in the Ads UI as 123-456-7890 and required by the Ads API as digits only (1234567890). Trackbridge does not strip the dashes — pass digits.

debug mode

A boolean flag on both createBrowserTracker and createServerTracker. When true, the SDK emits console.warn(...) on every gtag exception, GA4 Measurement Protocol non-2xx response, and Ads API non-2xx response, with the response body included where available. Default: false. The auto-generated-transactionId warning fires regardless. See Debug mode & the warning catalog and the warning catalog.

developer token

A string credential issued against your Google Ads manager (MCC) account that authorizes API requests against linked customer accounts. Required by the server tracker as ads.developerToken. Initial issuance is in test mode; production traffic requires explicit upgrade to basic or standard access. See Setting up Google Ads OAuth.

dual-send

The pattern at the heart of Trackbridge: the same conversion event is fired from the browser via gtag and from your server via the Google Ads API and GA4 Measurement Protocol, both keyed on the same transactionId. The browser side captures the conversion when client-side fires succeed; the server side guarantees delivery when ad blockers, ITP, consent gates, or redirect drops kill the browser fire. See The dual-send pattern.

enhanced conversions

Google’s protocol for matching ad clicks to conversions using user identity (email, phone, address, name) when click identifiers alone are insufficient. The fields Google expects hashed are normalized and SHA-256-hashed; address-locality fields stay plaintext. Trackbridge does the normalization and hashing on both sides identically — never hash in your own code. See Enhanced conversions: normalization & hashing.

ga4ApiSecret

Required field on createServerTracker. The per-property API secret you mint in the GA4 admin under Data streams → Measurement Protocol API secrets. Server-only. Never exposed to the browser.

ga4MeasurementId

The GA4 property identifier of the form G-XXXXXXXXXX. Required on createServerTracker and the most common shape for browsers. Public — safe in the client bundle.

gbraid

Click identifier passed by Google Ads on iOS in-app to web flows where ATT-restricted attribution applies. Trackbridge captures it from ?gbraid=... and persists it as the _tb_gbraid cookie on consent. Forward it to the server with getClickIdentifiers() so server-side conversions can include it.

gclid

Google Click Identifier. The standard click identifier passed by Google Ads on most web traffic. Captured from ?gclid=..., persisted as the _tb_gclid cookie on consent, forwarded to the server like the others.

gtag

The browser-side global function (window.gtag) loaded by the Google Tag (gtag.js) library. Trackbridge does not load gtag for you — you load it on the page (typically via Google Tag Manager or a <script> tag), and the SDK calls into it via window.dataLayer.push(...). See Migrating from a gtag-only setup.

label

A short string that identifies one conversion to gtag, embedded in the send_to parameter as ${adsConversionId}/${label}. Distinct from the Ads API conversionAction resource name. Trackbridge keeps both: the browser side uses label directly; the server side uses label to look up the resource name in the conversionActions map.

Measurement Protocol

The HTTP-based GA4 ingestion endpoint at https://www.google-analytics.com/mp/collect. Used by the server tracker for GA4 events. Requires ga4ApiSecret and the clientId of the originating browser session. Does not carry conversions to Google Ads — that’s the Google Ads API.

refreshToken

A long-lived OAuth 2.0 token granted once via the OAuth Playground flow that the server tracker exchanges for short-lived access tokens. Production refresh tokens should be issued from a Google Workspace account, not a personal @gmail.com — Google revokes refresh tokens from personal accounts more aggressively. See Setting up Google Ads OAuth.

transactionId

The dedup key on every conversion. The same string must appear on the browser-side tracker.trackConversion({ transactionId }) and the server-side serverTracker.trackConversion({ transactionId }). The order ID from your database is the canonical choice. If you omit it, the SDK auto-generates one (tb_<uuid>), warns loudly, and dual-send is disabled for that call. See Deduplication & transactionId.

userData

The optional payload of identity fields (email, phone, firstName, lastName, address) on trackConversion calls. The SDK normalizes and hashes the fields Google expects hashed, sends address-locality fields as plaintext, and produces byte-identical output on both sides. Pass raw values — never hash in your own code.

wbraid

Click identifier passed by Google Ads on iOS in-app to web flows where ATT consent is denied. Same handling as gclid and gbraid: captured, persisted on consent, forwarded to the server.

Google Ads API

The HTTPS API at https://googleads.googleapis.com/<version>/customers/{id}:uploadClickConversions that the server tracker uses for conversions. Authenticated with an OAuth 2.0 access token plus a developer token in headers. Returns partialFailure: true semantics — a 200 may still report per-conversion errors in the response body, which the SDK logs in debug mode.

`_tb_gclid`, `_tb_gbraid`, `_tb_wbraid`

The three first-party cookies the browser tracker writes when consent permits. Secure, SameSite=Lax, Path=/, 90-day expiry by default (configurable via cookieExpiryDays). Optional Domain= attribute when cookieDomain is set on the tracker config. See Cookies.