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Custom Parameters are custom values you can assign to your URL Tracking Template. Unlike ValueTrack parameters (which we'll discuss in more detail later in this article), Custom Parameters allow you to designate your own values, which can be uniquely tied to objects in your campaign. Custom Parameters offer the highest level of parameter customization while still being uniform, easy to set up, and easy to scale across your entire account.
Custom Parameters can be defined at all levels of your account except for the account level itself. They are assigned at the object level and referenced from your Tracking Template. The Tracking Template, Landing Page, and Custom Parameters are then stitched together to create your Final URL (previously referred to as Destination URL).
Let's look at a few examples.
The following is an example of a URL with all three of these components (Tracking Template, Landing Page, and Custom Parameter) working together to create the Final URL. The portion in bold shows how a Custom Parameter will appear in your Tracking Template.
http://www.domain.com/path/landingPage.html?mkwid={_mkwid}&pcrid={creative}&pdv={device}&pmt={matchtype}&pkw={keyword}
If the Custom Parameter in the above example is defined as: {_mkwid}=abc123, the URL will contain the resolved Custom Parameter when it is served, as you can see in the example below:
http://www.domain.com/path/landingPage.html?mkwid=abc123&pcrid=31031531230&pdv=d&pmt=e&pkw=mykeyword
To further elaborate on this example, note that all other trackable values in the URL can be accomplished via ValueTrack parameters, which we can see in the first example with {creative}, {device}, {matchtype}, and {keyword}. Only the mkwid, or the unique identifier for Marin, utilizes a Custom Parameter for tracking in this example.
Use the table below to help you determine when to use Custom Parameters vs. when to use other types of Parameters.
Type of Parameter | Definition | Example | When to Use |
Static/Hardcoded | The value will always be the same regardless of campaign, keyword, etc | utm_medium=cpc | When you need to capture the same value across-the-board |
ValueTrack | The value will be dynamically populated by the publisher | pcrid={creative} | Whenever there's a ValueTrack available that meets your needs. Use whenever possible. |
Marin Text Insertion | Marin will replace the value before the URL is pushed to the publisher. | utm_campaign=[campaign] becomes utm_campaign=Brand |
When there is no available ValueTrack parameter. |
Marin Dimension | Marin will replace the value with a Dimension tag before the URL is pushed to the publisher | category=[dimCat] becomes category=WinterSale |
When there is no available ValueTrack or Text Insertion to meet your needs. |
Custom Parameter | The parameter is uniquely tied to an object but is not a ValueTrack and lives on a different level than your Tracking Template. For example, if your Tracking Template is set at the publisher account level, but you need to assign values at the keyword level. | mkwid={_mkwid} where {_mkwid}=[uniq_id]. [uniq_id] is the unique ID of a trackable object. |
You are using a Unique ID, Dimension, or Text Insertion which is not at the same level as your Tracking Template. |
You can define up to three Custom Parameters per object and each one will have both a custom name and custom value.
Note: Google currently allows up to eight Custom Parameters per object, while Marin support is currently three.
Custom Parameter names can contain up to 16 alphanumeric characters. The value of a Custom Parameter can contain any of the characters found in a typical URL, and even contain ValueTrack parameters (such as {creative}) - but cannot reference other Custom Parameters. Custom parameter values have a maximum length of 200 characters.
Custom Parameters allow a user to specify URL snippets (in the form of name=value pairs) that can be substituted by the publisher when the ad is served. Custom parameters will not be substituted into a Tracking Template unless they are explicitly referenced (the "name" portion of the name=value pair).
Existing Custom Parameters can be viewed at the object level by navigating to that object’s tab (for example, the Campaigns tab) and including the Custom Parameter column in your view. You can add this column using the View Builder.
To confirm whether Custom Parameters exist for all of your objects, you will need to navigate to each tab (Creatives, Placements, etc.) individually.
If you are utilizing the Marin URL Builder to build out your Custom Parameters, you can see your current URL schema by navigating to the URL Builder by clicking on Admin, then selecting the Revenue tab, then clicking on the URL Builder. From here, select the publisher in question and take a look at the Preview Template section. This will show you the building blocks being used to create your Tracking Template structure.
For more information about using the URL Builder, please read our dedicated Support Center article.
Each publisher may differ in the number of Custom Parameters available at each object level. If you need more Custom Parameters than permitted by the publisher, consider placing your parameter at the highest level possible in the campaign hierarchy.
As a simplified example, the Custom Parameters assigned at the keyword level might look like {_mkwid}=[uniq_id], {_group}=[group], and {_campaign}=[campaign]. Google has a maximum of eight per object, which means eight at the campaign level, eight at the group level, and so on.
Note: Google currently allows up to eight Custom Parameters per object, while Marin support is currently three.
A better setup would be to assign the {_campaign}=[campaign] and {_group}=[group] Custom Parameters at the Campaign and Group levels, respectively. These are the highest possible levels of granularity for the parameters to be able to populate. This frees up the keyword level for two additional Custom Parameter allowances and allows for additional keyword-level tracking parameters if desired.
Note: Custom Parameters that need to live across multiple object levels (keyword, creative, placement, etc.) will need to be created for each object type individually.
There are multiple ways to apply Custom Parameters to your trackable objects, depending on your preferred workflow. You can learn about the various options available to you below.
We'll go over a few of these options in more detail below.
The URL Builder is designed to work with objects synced in from the publisher, provided you have enabled Autocorrect. On a nightly sync or a manual sync, an object’s Custom Parameters will update according to the settings in your URL Builder. This is the expected behavior whether the object has existing Custom Parameters or not.
Syncing will not update values in a name=value pair if a value already exists (example: myparam=value1 will not update to myparam=value2). To force a value refresh, perform a bulk upload within the Marin platform to completely rebuild parameters.
Syncing in additional Custom Parameters defined in the publisher will not be overwritten by any of your URL Builder settings - they will simply be added on. The exception to this is if your objects have hit the limit for the number of Custom Parameters. If this is the case, the Custom Parameters set in the publisher will take priority.
To confirm Autocorrect is on in your account, navigate to the URL Builder and click the Edit button ('pencil' icon) next to Preferences. Here you can set Autocorrect to On, Off, or Warn Only.
To learn more about Autocorrect, check out our New URL Builder Advanced Guide.
Custom parameters have different bulk upload results, depending on a few factors specific to your account’s settings.
If Custom Parameters have been defined in the URL Builder, bulk uploading a blank Custom Parameter column will update objects with Custom Parameters according to the URL Builder settings, including Dimension updates.
If you need to force a re-build of your Custom Parameters based on your URL Builder settings, you should create a bulk upload with a blank Custom Parameter column.
Bulk uploading with manual (additional) Custom Parameters will append them to any existing Custom Parameters in the URL Builder settings.
Note: The system is designed to prioritize URL Builder settings over manual/additional settings. If your objects have already hit the limit for the number of Custom Parameters and you attempt to add additional/manual Custom Parameters, they will only be added after the settings in the URL Builder have been fulfilled. If you require more Custom Parameters, consider placing one or more at a higher level in the campaign hierarchy.
To learn more about Bulk Upload formatting and required columns, please see our dedicated Support article on Bulk Uploading or our Bulk Uploads Advanced Guide.
You can trigger the build of custom parameters via multi-edit from the grid. Please keep the following in mind when using this feature:
Dimension tags can be used to insert specific Dimension values into your URLs. By tagging Dimensions at the campaign, group, or other object level, you can insert the Dimension name as part of the URL Builder via Custom Parameters.
You can learn more by following the steps outlined below.
**Note: For building out Dimension Parameters via bulk upload, you need to include the {_dimension1}={dimensionvalue} parameter for it to build out properly.