URL parameter is a way to pass information about a click through its URL.
You can insert URL parameters into your URLs so that your URLs track information about a click. URL parameters are made of a key and a value separated by an equals sign (=) and joined by an ampersand (&). The first parameter always comes after a question mark in a URL. For example, http://example.com?product=1234&utm_source=google
How URL parameters work
There are two types of URL parameters that you can use in your ad’s tracking template or custom parameter:
- Content-modifying parameters pass information to the landing page and are required to be set in the final URL exclusively. For example
http://example.com?productid=1234would send someone directly to product 1234’s page on your website. - Tracking parameters pass information about the click for your account, campaign or ad group in the tracking template. There are two types of tracking parameters:
- Custom parameters represent an advertiser-defined value that can be set in the tracking template. For example, you could define
{_campaign}=brandingor{_campaign}=leadsin your campaign's custom parameters and set your account tracking template to{lpurl}?source_campaign={_campaign}Learn more about creating custom parameters for advanced tracking - ValueTrack parameters represent the value in a URL parameter (e.g. the “
{network}” in the URL parameter “network={network}”). The{network}parameter will record the network the click came from (Search Network or Display Network) in your ad's landing page URL. Learn more about ValueTrack parameters
- Custom parameters represent an advertiser-defined value that can be set in the tracking template. For example, you could define
URL parameters with anchors and AJAX fragments
Whether you are using the final URL, tracking template or other URL parameter for tracking, it's important to note the impact that anchors (#) and AJAX fragments (#!) have on your URLs. If you use an anchor or AJAX fragment in your final URL and your tracking template appends extra parameters to the end of the final URL, then you must put all the tracking parameters in your final URL. Ideally, these parameters would be behind an {ignore} tag in your final URL. Any time you use the {ignore} parameter in a final URL that contains a # or #! during crawls, Google Ads will consider everything between the {ignore} parameter and the # or #! as tracking information.
Example
Final URL: http://site.com?{ignore}param=1&tracking=1&device={device}#anchor
Tracking Template: http://redirect.com?url={unescapedlpurl}
