URL parameters can help you understand the effectiveness of your ads. For example, you can identify where your traffic is coming from (which ad) or which Facebook audience is driving conversions.
Dynamic Tags allow you to automate your tracking by using macros to populate your parameters based on ad id, audience name, and placements just to name a few. Marin supports both Facebook Dynamic Tags, as well as Marin’s own dynamic macros.
Note that in this article, we only refer to URL Tags applied in “Extra URL Tags” field on Marin and “URL Parameters” field on Facebook (not the tags applied directly in the “URL” or “Website URL” fields.).
To properly visualize the concept, below we'll provide an example of exactly what Dynamic Tags look like when included in one of your URLs.
Here is the URL of your landing page:
http://www.marinsoftware.fr/
And here's the same URL with a Dynamic Tag in place:
http://www.marinsoftware?utm_source=[audiencename]
In this case, when the ad will be synchronized to the publisher, our platform will populate the parameter with the name of the Saved Audience used to create the ad set in Marin. If a Marin Saved Audience was not used to create the ad set, nothing will be populated.
There are a couple of different places that you can add Dynamic Tags, dependding on exactly what you’re aiming to achieve.
Below we'll explain how and where you can add Dynamic Tags to your URLs within the platform:
Setting URL Tags at the Media Plan level will allow you to fully automate the work around URL building.
When you set URL tags at the Media Plan level, they will be used as a template and pre-filled in the Bulk creator at the ad level. They can also be applied to imported ads via the Mass Editor button's Apply Media Plan URL Tags option. This can save time so you don’t have to manually input your Dynamic URL tags every single time you create or import ads. Once your URL tags have been pre-filled, they can still be removed or edited at the ad level.
From MarinOne, click on the Settings icon in the Media Plan column of your grid.
When a campaign, ad set or ad has been imported via any of the Auto Import, the Manual Import, or the Download from Publisher options, the URL tags setting applied on the Facebook Ad Manager in the “URL Parameters“ field will also be imported and appear in the Final URL Tags field in the Mass Editor.
In order to apply imported ads to the URL Tags set up in the Media Plan Parameters, follow these steps:
Applying Dynamic URL tags at ad level, by comparison, allows you more granularity, but does not offer the time-saving strategies offered with applying them at the media plan level.
Fill up the Initialization and the Media section as explained in this article.
Select the specific campaign(s) where you’d like to apply URL tags or navigate to the ad set or the ad level and select the check-box next to the specific ads where you’d like to apply tags.
Click on the Mass Editor button.
Find the column URL Tags Template, then click into the corresponding cell for this column/ad.
In the Change URL Tags Template overlay, enter your new tags.
Click Ad.
Sync the objects to the publisher
URL Tags Template reflects the Media Plan settings. You can edit this field in Mass Editor on ad level for more granular control. Editing this field does not impact the settings applied in the Media Plan settings.
The Final URL Tags column shows the parameters applied on the Facebook side and how they look like in the Final URL that will be served to users. If you are using Facebook Dynamic Macros this field will not show how these parameters are populated, as Facebook populates them on impression.
Facebook’s dynamic macros can be used as part of the Media Plan URL Tags Template or at ad level from the Bulk Creator and the Mass Editor.
The list of available macros can be found here.
Note that Facebook macro are using curly brackets while Marin’s ones are using single curly brackets { } or square brackets [ ]
Below is a current list of Dynamic Tags that are available for tracking via your URLs in Marin Social:
For the Bulk Page Post ad type, The Tracking checkbox allows Marin to add automatically in the url tags &pub_id=[adHbaseId] at the end of the URL
For the Page Post Ads type, when selecting the Activate Social Tracking checkbox in the Ads section of the Bulk Creator, Marin will automatically add at the end of the url the parameter pub_id=[adId]
The “Marin” checkbox in the Tracking section of Media Plan Parameters must be selected to enable the Marin Tracker and integrations via the Channel Connect.
Dynamic Macros are not refreshed automatically. For Marin Dynamic Macros (macros using [] or {}), you have to reapply via the Mass Editor if a change in the naming convention has taken place. Facebook Dynamic Macros (those using ) cannot be refreshed, neither from the Marin app nor from Facebook Ads Manager. For more information, take a look at Facebook's help article.