URL Autocorrect

With the URL Autocorrect feature with Upgraded URL support, you can choose to have the application automatically add tracking to your objects or correct mistakes in your tracking templates or Custom Parameters when your campaigns are synced into Marin.

This feature works in combination with the URL Builder.

How To Enable URL Autocorrect

  1. Click on Settings in the top-right corner of the platform. 
  2. Then, click on the Revenue & Tracking
  3. From here, click on either the URL Templates tab or the Custom Parameters tab. You can access your Autocorrect preferences from either location. 
  4. In the top-right corner of the page, select Preferences. You can set your Autocorrect preferences to On, Off, or Warn. Your Autocorrect settings will apply to your entire Marin Client Account. 

How Upgraded URL Autocorrect Works

When URL Autocorrect is set to On, the application will apply your URL Builder settings when objects are synced in. This can be triggered manually for groups and campaigns, or may happen during our nightly sync (for objects with >0 impressions in the last 4 days only). We focus on two specific attributes when performing autocorrect.

  • Incorrect Tracking Templates: The application will fix incorrect tracking templates if they are defined for keywords, creatives, product groups, and sitelinks. 
  • Tracking Templates at the ad group- or account-level: Autocorrect does not yet support ad group or account templates. This means that tracking templates and custom parameters defined for ad Groups and accounts themselves (tracking template only) won’t be added or corrected during a sync. To apply your URL Builder settings to these objects, you can use multi-edit (smart grid) or bulk edit.
  • Incorrect Custom Parameters: The application will add custom parameters when they aren’t defined for a given object. For example, if the URL builder has a Google Keyword Custom parameter defined as {_mkwid}=[uniq_id], on sync a keyword that does not have a custom parameter with the key {_mkwid} will find it added and the corresponding value of [uniq_id] replaced with the specific keyword’s unique ID.
  • Please note: If Autocorrect is Enabled and your Tracking Template has been applied at the Account level, implementing a Tracking Template at a sub-level (Campaigns, Creatives, or Keywords) will cause your Tracking Template it to be applied to all objects at this level when Autocorrect is triggered to run during the nightly sync.

Important Information About Upgraded URL Autocorrect

  • Tracking templates and custom parameters defined for ad groups and accounts (tracking template only) won’t be added or corrected during a sync. To apply your URL Builder settings to these objects, you can use multi-edit (smart grid) or bulk edit.
  • Custom Parameters defined in the URL Builder will take precedence over Custom Parameters that are synced in or added via Bulk edit. For example, if two keyword custom parameters are defined in the URLB ({_parama}=a; {_paramb}=b) and during bulk keyword create two different custom parameters are defined on the keyword ({_paramc}=c; {_paramd}=d}), then the URL Builder will do what it needs to do to make sure that {_parama} and {_paramb} are included in the final set. In this case, either {_paramc} or {_paramd} will not be included in the final custom parameter triplet.
  • Note that changes made by URL Autocorrect don't get pushed to the publisher immediately. Instead, these changes will be in the To Be Sent status within the Activity Log. They will be automatically pushed in the evening, or you can do so manually by selecting the job with the check-boxes then clicking Post Now. 
  • Even though you can access the Upgraded Autocorrect feature controls for each publisher in the URLB, it is a single setting. This means that enabling Autocorrect from the Microsoft URL Builder Settings will also apply to Google, Yahoo Japan, etc.
  • Upgraded Autocorrect evalutates tracking templates for “correctness” by separating on the ‘&’ character and checking that each key/value pair is found in the tracking template. If a key/value pair is not found or there is a key/value pair that is unrecognized, the URL Builder will overwrite the current tracking template with the value stored in the URL Builder settings.
  • As of Mid-September, Upgraded Autocorrect does not evaluate the values of key/value pairs. This means that a URL Builder setting of {lpurl}?key=value1 will not apply any changes to a tracking template containing {lpurl}?key=value2, but will overwrite a tracking template containing {lpurl}?key2=value1 because the key is unrecognized.
  • Autocorrect for sitelinks is available for Upgraded URLs as a beta feature. If you'd like to use it, please contact your platform representative.

 

 

Written by Marketing @ Marin Software

Last published at: January 18th, 2024