Most sites never see it
s_kwcid only shows up for advertisers who connect Adobe Advertising to Adobe Analytics. Adobe calls it the AMO ID, and its documentation notes the name is "sometimes pronounced as 'squid.'" Adobe Advertising adds it to the ad's link, and Adobe Analytics reads it off the landing page URL on the click-through. The value is stored in an Analytics dimension called AMO ID.
Reading it field by field
The value is a row of fields joined by exclamation marks. Search, social and commerce ads start with AL, which Adobe's example channel rules map to Paid Search. Display ads bought through Adobe's DSP start with AC, followed by an ad key and a placement key. For a Google Ads click, Adobe documents this order, shown here with the example link above:
- AL: a search, social or commerce ad
- 1234: the Adobe Advertising user ID
- 3: the ad network, where 3 is Google Ads and 10 is Microsoft Advertising
- 569345525675: the Google Ads creative ID
- e: the match type, e for exact, p for phrase, b for broad
- g: where the click happened, g for Google search, s for a search partner, d for display
- adobe express: the keyword that triggered the ad
- 15557590691 and 136734402131: the campaign ID and ad group ID, present on newer accounts
The empty slots between some exclamation marks are fields left blank for this click, such as placement and product partition. The value itself is Adobe's own documented example.
Why analytics teams care
Adobe says paid search click-through URLs always include s_kwcid, and that Paid Search detection rules should include the s_kwcid and ef_id parameters. It also says to order the Paid Search rule before Natural Search, or paid search data may be counted as natural search. ef_id is the companion value. Adobe generates a new one for every click or view, which usually pushes it past Analytics' limit of 500,000 unique values per variable, so it is not used in reports.
What stripping it changes
The visitor sees the same page. s_kwcid describes the ad and its keyword. Nothing in it identifies you. For the advertiser, a click that lands without it loses the URL route into Adobe Analytics, though Adobe notes its JavaScript can still capture a click-through when it detects an ad click within the prior two minutes. Compare Google's own click ID on the gclid page and Microsoft's on the msclkid page.