Create a URL template for an engine account, manual campaign, or ad group

Before you start, review the restrictions for using a URL template.

Here's an overview of creating a URL template for a search engine account, manual campaign, or ad group:

1. Create a URL template for any of the following:
   1. Search engine account
   2. Manual campaign
   3. Ad group
2. Confirm that the URL template is applied correctly.

Create a URL template for a search engine account

1. If you're not already viewing the account settings, view the settings in an account that supports Search Ads 360 URL templates:
   1. Navigate to the engine account.

      Steps for navigating to an engine account

      1. In the left navigation panel, click All accounts.
         What if the left navigation pane isn't visible?

      2. Click the navigation bar to display navigation options.

      3. In the "Agency" list, click on the agency that contains the advertiser. You can search for an agency by name or scroll through the list.

      4. In the "Advertiser" list, click on the advertiser that contains the engine account.

      5. In the "Account" list, click on the engine account.

      6. Click Apply or press the Enter key.

      Search Ads 360 displays the engine account page.

   2. Click the account settings icon , which appears above the tabs.
      
      The settings panel for the engine account appears.
2. In the URL template field, enter properties for the template.
3. Click Save.

Create a URL template for a manual campaign

1. Navigate to the campaign and click the campaign settings icon , which appears above the tabs.
2. In the URL template field, enter properties for the template.
3. Click Save.

Create a URL template for an ad group

1. Navigate to the ad group and click the ad group settings icon ,  which appears above the tabs.
2. In the URL template field, enter properties for the template.
3. Click Save.

Confirm that Search Ads 360 applied the URL template

The steps for confirming that the URL template is applied in the way you intended are different for different types of engine accounts.

Confirm URL templates in accounts with shared templates

In accounts with shared templates, Search Ads 360 traffics URL templates and landing page URLs to the engine, and the engine applies the templates. To confirm that the templates are applied in the way you intended,  sign into the engine account and use the engine's URL preview feature (if the engine provides one).

For example, follow these steps for a Google Ads account:

1. Sign in to Google Ads.

2. Click the Ads tab or Keywords tab.

3. Display the tracking template in the Google Ads reporting table:

   1. Click the Columns button, and then click Modify columns.

   2. In the Modify columns window, click Attributes.

   3. Next to Tracking template, click Add.

   4. Click Apply to close the window.

   The Tracking template column will be empty unless you created a URL template for the specific item you clicked.

4. In the Tracking template column, click the pencil icon .

5. Click Test in the popup.
   (The popup will will be empty unless you created a URL template for the specific item you clicked.)

6. Click the message icon   that appears below the Test button.
   

7. In the popup that appears, view the URL under Tracking URL.
   This is the tracking URL that Google Ads sends a request to when a customer clicks an ad.
   
   The ds_dest_url parameter contains the URL that Search Ads 360 will redirect the click to. For example, in the following click URL, Search Ads 360 will redirect to https://www.trackingc.com?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2Fblue%3Fcolor%3Dblue:
   http://clickserve.dartsearch.net/link/click?lid=43700006138899290&ds_s_kwgid=58700000415488460&&ds_e_adid=23309172907&ds_e_matchtype=search&ds_e_device=c&ds_e_network=g&&ds_url_v=2&ds_dest_url=https://www.trackingc.com?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2Fblue%3Fcolor%3Dblue

Confirm URL templates in other types of accounts

In accounts that don't support shared templates, you can confirm that Search Ads 360 applied the URL template by doing any of the following:

• Look for a status message that says Applying URL Builder settings to all landing page URLs. This message displays just above the reporting tables for engine accounts, campaigns, ad groups, and keywords while Search Ads 360 is applying templates to existing landing page URLs.
• View the history of the engine account, campaigns, or lower scope.
• Add the Effective landing page column to a report in the UI.