Microsoft Advertising Ads has introduced a change to URL structure, similar to Google's Upgraded URLs and known by the same name: Upgraded URLs. The benefits of this format update for Microsoft Advertising advertisers are similar to those of Google, allowing your campaigns to scale across large accounts and reduce (or remove) delays caused by unnecessary editorial review. In this article, we'll walk you through the Microsoft Advertising Upgraded URLs migration step-by-step.
When you're ready to begin your self-migration, you can get started below.
If you're a Marin Professional user, you'll need to use a different version of the Self-Migration Guide which you can find here.
The steps below provide all of the information you need to migrate your Microsoft Advertising URLs to the final URLs from start to finish. However, if you'd like more in-depth technical detail or background information about the Microsoft Advertising Upgraded URL format itself, we also offer a longer, more comprehensive version of this article which you can read by clicking here.
To accompany the written step-by-step guide below, we've also produced a two-part Microsoft Advertising Upgraded URLs Video Guide series. Click the Play button below to watch each video walkthrough now. For the best results with your migration, we recommend that you also read through the step-by-step guide after watching the videos.
Tip: Double-click the videos to watch in full-screen for the best experience.
We've designed the self-migration process to be as straightforward as possible, but to make things go as smoothly as possible, you'll want to be sure your objects are all in sync between the Platform and Microsoft Advertising. To do this, you can perform a 'hard sync' by following these steps:
Now that you're all synced up, it's time to begin the self-migration process with Step 1.
As part of the move to Microsoft Advertising Upgraded URLS, we've developed a version of the platform's URL Builder specifically for the Microsoft Advertising Upgraded URLs format. Before you continue your self-migration, you'll need to reach out to our Customer Support team to enable the Microsoft Advertising Upgraded URL Builder for your account.
To do this, simply click the Contact Us link from any page of the Support Center and choose chat, phone, or ticket to request Microsoft Advertising Upgraded URL Builder activation.
Important note: We strongly recommend that you only begin the migration process if you are sure that you will not need to stop or make any changes before you're able to complete all of the steps. For example, you shouldn't need to edit or create any new objects in the Platform or Microsoft Advertising during migration. Doing so could potentially cause conflicts or errors during the migration.
Now that you've had the Microsoft Advertising Upgraded URL Builder activated for your account, you'll need to update a few settings within the Platform to prepare for migration. To do that, follow these steps:
The next step in the self-migration process -- configuring the Microsoft Advertising Upgraded URL Builder -- leverages your existing Google Tracking Template, which is accessible via the Google URL Builder. Because not all ValueTrack parameters are compatible with both Google and Microsoft Advertising, you may need to make a few changes depending on your URL structure.
Note: For Microsoft Advertising Shopping Campaigns, you can add tracking templates at the account, campaign, and ad group level, along with the product group level.
To locate your Google URL Tracking Template, simply click on Google in the left of the URL Builder, and look at the Final Template section.
The table below shows the Google parameter and its Microsoft Advertising equivalent. Simply work through your Google URL structure and replace (or remove) any Google parameters to the Microsoft Advertising equivalent until you have a new URL Tracking Template which will work for Microsoft Advertising.
Parameter for Google |
Equivalent for Microsoft Advertising |
{lpurl}& |
{lpurl}? (If your Tracking Template is not using redirects) {lpurl}& (If your Tracking Template is using redirects. Note you will need to ensure your final URL contains a '?' symbol.) |
{lpurl}? |
{lpurl}? (If your Tracking Template is not using redirects) {lpurl}& (If your Tracking Template is using redirects. Note you will need to ensure your final URL contains a '?' symbol.) |
{matchtype} |
{BidMatchType} |
{creative} |
{AdId} |
[distribution] |
Remove (not required for Microsoft Advertising) |
{ifsearch:s}{ifcontent:c} |
Remove (not required for Microsoft Advertising) |
{adposition} |
Remove (for Google only) |
{product_id} |
{ProductID} |
{keyword} |
{Keyword} or {keyword:default} |
Campaign name (for Microsoft Advertising only) |
{Campaign} |
Group name (for Microsoft Advertising only) |
{AdGroup} |
Let's imagine that your Google Tracking Template looks like this:
{lpurl}&mkwid={_mkwid}&pcrid={creative}&pkw={keyword}&pmt={matchtype}
In this case, we can see at least a few parameters which differ in the case of Microsoft Advertising -- including {creative}, {keyword}, and {matchtype}. Once we've run our Tracking Template structure through the equivalent table above, we'll be left with the following URL structure for Microsoft Advertising:
{lpurl}?mkwid={_mkwid}&pcrid={AdId}&pkw={Keyword}&pmt={BidMatchType}
Before you finalize your Tracking Template, there are different steps you'll need to take depending on whether you're using redirects or not.
If you are using redirect URLs, we recommend the following:
If you are not using redirect URLs, we recommend the following:
Once you've got your Microsoft Advertising Tracking Template adapted from your Google version, you'll need to insert the info into the URL Builder. To do that, follow these steps:
If your Tracking Template includes one redirect, choose Single and enter the redirect portion in the Redirect 1 field. Any tracking parameters that need to be appended to the Landing Page should then be entered in the Landing Page field. Likewise, if your Tracking Template includes two redirects, choose Double and follow the same process.
Custom Parameters are used to reference Platform-specific parameters and will need to be added to the URL Builder manually. Any Microsoft Advertising ValueTrack parameters, e.g. {device}, or hard-coded parameters are added directly into the Tracking Template (as above) and do not require a Custom Parameter.
Note: In the case of campaign and group names, Google requires the creation of a Custom Parameter for these, but Microsoft Advertising does not. You should instead insert the parameters {Campaign} and {AdGroup} respectively directly into the Microsoft Advertising Tracking Template.
To make things easy, you can once again copy your existing Custom Parameter information from your Google URL Builder to the new Microsoft Advertising URL Builder. To do so, follow these steps:
The next step will apply your newly constructed URL Tracking Template to your Microsoft Advertising account and push it to the publisher. To do so, follow the steps below:
You'll next need to generate a report (also called bulk-sheet) for each type of object you wish to migrate. You can do this by creating a report via the usual method within the Platform.
Simply head to the relevant tab that contains the trackable objects (for example Keywords) to get started. You simply need to click the Create Report button to produce a report that reflects the layout of the grid at that time. This means that in order to create a report with specific data, you'll first need to use the View Builder to add or remove data.
The tables below list the columns you'll need to add using the View Builder for each type of trackable object. Note that, if you are using redirects, you'll need to use the Click Through URL field rather than the Destination URL field in the examples below.
Keywords
Account |
Campaign |
Group |
Keyword |
Match Type |
Destination URL |
Creatives
Creative ID |
Account |
Campaign |
Group |
Destination URL |
Note: The Creative ID column is not available via the View Builder, however, if you build a creative level report, this column will be included in your report automatically.
Sitelinks
Sitelink ID |
Account |
Campaign |
Group |
Destination URL |
You can learn more about exporting a list of your current sitelinks here.
Once your report has been downloaded, it's possible the Group column will be empty. This is because sitelinks are not always linked to a group; this column is not mandatory for editing sitelinks.
Product Groups
Account |
Campaign |
Group |
Product Group |
Destination URL |
Note: If your resolved landing pages (post-click) have domains that are not contained with your redirects, please let your Platform representative know that you are working with obfuscated URLs.
Once you've added the relevant fields to the grid, you can simply create a report via the Create Report button. In the bubble, be sure to select Include items with zero clicks to ensure you're downloading all objects in the grid.
You'll find your new bulk-sheet waiting to be downloaded from the Reports link in the upper-right corner of the Platform. Once you've downloaded it, open it in a spreadsheet editor like Microsoft Excel, then follow these steps:
Note: If you are using Param1 for Microsoft Advertising keyword-level tracking, the same steps apply. You should also replace instances of {param1} with a URL for your website in your creative URLs. For more information, please read our dedicated Support Center article.
Once you've made the changes described above, your bulk-sheet headers should look as follows for each object type. In all rows, the Landing Page field will contain the base 'clean' URL, and the Custom Parameters field will be blank.
Keywords
Account |
Campaign |
Group |
Keyword |
Match Type |
Landing Page |
Custom Parameters (leave blank) |
Creatives
Creative ID |
Account |
Campaign |
Group |
Landing Page |
Custom Parameters (leave blank) |
Sitelinks
Sitelink ID |
Account |
Campaign |
Group |
Landing Page |
Custom Parameters (leave blank) |
Product Groups
Account |
Campaign |
Group |
Product Group |
Tracking Template (leave blank) |
Custom Parameters (leave blank) |
With your bulk-sheets edited for each trackable object, you're all set to move to the next step and complete the Microsoft Advertising Upgraded URLs self-migration process.
The final step of the migration process is a simple matter of re-uploading your edited bulk-sheets. Doing this will cause the Platform to automatically apply your new Tracking Template to all of your objects via the URL Builder.
For each of your trackable objects, follow these steps:
Before you kick back and relax, there are just a couple more things to take care of.
Please reach out to our Customer Support team and inform them that you have completed the Self-Migration Guide and that your account is now migrated to Upgraded URLs. You can reach our Customer Support team (via various channels including phone and email) by clicking the Contact Us link in the upper-right corner of the Support Center.
Doing this will allow our Customer Support team to hide the legacy URL Builder and ensure that only Upgraded URL fields are used going forward. Once the legacy URL Builder is hidden, the name of the URL builder for Microsoft Advertising will be changed back from Microsoft Advertising Upgraded to Microsoft Advertising.
Congratulations! You've now completed the Microsoft Advertising Upgraded URLs self-migration process.
As a final step, we strongly recommend that you follow our Microsoft Advertising Upgraded URLs Migration Confirmation Checklist, which will help you confirm that everything has been implemented correctly before you push the changes to Microsoft Advertising.