A tracking URL sends measurement data to a tracking service when someone clicks your ad. This URL is separate from the landing page URL that sends customers to your site.
Search Ads 360 generates its own tracking URL in each client account. When your ad is clicked, the ad server sends your customer to the ad's landing page URL while sending a second request to the Search Ads 360 tracking URL. In some types of accounts and campaigns, clicks are first sent to the tracking URL. The tracking service then redirects the request to the landing page URL.
The data in the tracking URL enables Search Ads 360 to attribute a visit and any subsequent conversions to the ad that was clicked.
Here's an example Search Ads 360 tracking URL (also called the clickserver URL):
http://clickserve.dartsearch.net/link/click?lid=123456789&ds_s_kwgid=987654321&ds_e_adid={creative}&ds_e_matchtype={ifsearch:search}{ifcontent:content}&ds_e_device={device}&ds_e_network={network}&ds_url_v=2&ds_dest_url=https://
www.example.com
Tracking URLs at the account level and lower
Search Ads 360 automatically adds its own tracking URL to the account-level tracking template of each client account. If you need to add a tracking URL for another service to the account-level template, completely remove the Search Ads 360 URL before adding your own URL. After you save your changes, Search Ads 360 reformats the template so its tracking URL comes first and the additional URL comes next.
If you add tracking URLs at the campaign level or lower, after you save your changes Search Ads 360 also adds its tracking URL to the tracking template you updated.
When a customer clicks your ad and the ad server sends a request to the Search Ads 360 tracking URL, Search Ads 360 records the data in its tracking URL and then redirects the request to the additional tracking URL.
Custom parameters in the Search Ads 360 tracking URL
The Search Ads 360 tracking URL contains a placeholder to uniquely identify items in your account. To specify values for the placeholder, Search Ads 360 creates a custom parameter for each keyword, sitelink, product group, and other trackable item. The custom parameter uniquely identifies the item. When your ad is served, the ad server inserts the custom parameter into the Search Ads 360 tracking URL, and Search Ads 360 uses the unique identifier from the parameter to attribute the click to the item.
Here's an example of URLs and custom parameters in a Google Ads campaign with a campaign-level URL template:
|
Campaign |
Tracking template: |
|---|---|
|
Ad |
Final URL: |
| Keyword | Custom parameter in tracking template:"_dssagcrid" = "lid=39700000000000001&ds_s_kwgid=58700000000000001" |
When a customer search matches the keyword in the example above, the ad server serves an ad with this tracking URL:
https://clickserve.dartsearch.net/link/click?
dssagcrid=lid=39700000000000001&ds_s_kwgid=58700000000000001
&ds_e_adid=44700001892079667
&ds_e_matchtype=search&ds_url_v=2...
Notice the following in the URL:
-
The keyword's custom parameter provided a value for the {_dssagcrid} custom parameter. Search Ads 360 uses this unique ID to attribute conversion data to the keyword.
-
The {_dssftfiid} custom parameter isn't in the tracking URL that was served. Search Ads 360 uses this parameter only for sitelinks and other trackable assets.
-
The ad server provided the ad's unique ID for the {creative} placeholder. This is expected to be the same ID Search Ads 360 uses to uniquely identify the ad.