Add URL parameters to a Final URL Suffix in Google Ads accounts

To clearly distinguish between URL parameters that are used to determine the content of a page from parameters that are used for tracking purposes on your own site, and from parameters that are used by third-party trackers, Google Ads has introduced a new field named Final URL Suffix. This field is intended to contain URL parameters that your site uses for tracking purposes, while parameters used by third-party trackers remain in the URL template, and parameters that determine the content of a page remain in the final URL. 

Parameters required by your landing page should go in a Final URL Suffix

URL parameters defined in a Final URL Suffix are added to the final URL when Google Ads serves an ad, and are always sent to the landing page. URL parameters defined in a URL template might not be sent to the landing page, depending on how you define the template. The best practice is to place tracking parameters that your landing pages require in a Final URL Suffix.

Final URL Suffixes available at multiple levels

If you want all ads in the account to send the same set of parameters to your landing pages, define a Final URL Suffix at the account level. If you need to specify different parameters for a campaign, ad group, ad, keyword, or other item, create a Final URL Suffix for that specific item. The suffixes at lower levels override suffixes from higher up.

How to specify a Final URL Suffix

The following sections describe how to add a Final URL Suffix to new accounts, campaigns, and other items, or update existing items one a time. Bulk edits in the UI cannot update the Final URL Suffix. To update or create a Final URL Suffix for a large number of campaigns or other items, use bulksheets.

For new items

When creating any of the following new items, enter properties for the URL suffix in the "Final URL Suffix" field:

• Google Ads engine account
• Campaign
• Ad group
• Keyword
• Dynamic targets

In the "Final URL Suffix" field, you can enter static URL parameters or Google Ads ValueTrack parameters. Don't add ? or & before the first parameter, but do use & to separate additional parameters. For example: src=google&kwd={keyword}

To specify a Final URL Suffix for a sitelink or product group, first create the sitelink or product group, then update the existing item.

For ​an existing engine account

This may place your account under review in Google Ads.

1. View the account settings.
2. In the Final URL Suffix field, enter properties for the URL suffix.
   
   Don't add ? or & before the first parameter, but do use & to separate additional parameters. For example:
   src=google&kwd={keyword}
    
3. Click Save.
   Search Ads 360 traffics the Final URL Suffix to Google Ads.

For existing campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and items

This may place your account under review in Google Ads.

1. Navigate to a Google Ads 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 any of the following tabs:
   • Campaigns
   • Ad groups
   • Keywords
   • Targets, then click Dynamic ad targets
3. Add the "Final URL Suffix" column to the reporting table.
4. Click in the Final URL Suffix column and enter properties for the URL suffix.
   
   Don't add ? or & before the first parameter, but do use & to separate additional parameters. For example:
   src=google&kwd={keyword}
    
5. Click Save.
   Search Ads 360 traffics the Final URL Suffix to Google Ads.

For existing specific product groups or sitelinks

To specify a Final URL Suffix for specific product groups, use Search Ads 360 bulksheets.

To specify a Final URL Suffix for specific sitelinks, sign into Google Ads and edit the sitelink URL options.

For inventory templates

1. Start editing a campaign, ad group, ad, or keyword template. 
2. Navigate to the template's Campaign settings, Ad group settings, Ad settings, or Keyword settings page.
3. If you're on the "Keyword settings" page, click + Columns just above the table and select URL template.
4. In the Final URL Suffix field, enter properties for the URL suffix.
5. Click Save.

The next time Search Ads 360 uses the inventory template to generate a new campaign, ad group, ad, or keyword, Search Ads 360 traffics the Final URL Suffix to the engine and the engine applies the template when it serves ads.

Search Ads 360 does not traffic the URL template for items that have already been generated. For example, if you add a URL template to a campaign template, Search Ads 360 does not copy the URL template into campaigns that have already been generated. Only newly generated campaigns will contain the URL template.

Properties for Final URL Suffix

Final URL Suffix can contain one or more of the following:

• Static URL parameters
• URL parameters that specify Google Ads ValueTrack parameters as values. Only ValueTrack parameters supported for "Final URL, tracking template, or custom parameter" are allowed in the Final URL Suffix.

Final URL Suffix cannot start with the following characters: ?, &, or #
Note that Final URL Suffix cannot be used to pass parameters to the URL fragment (anything that comes after # in the URL.)

In addition, the Final URL Suffix cannot contain the following ValueTrack parameters: {ignore}, {lpurl}, or {escapedlpurl}, or other variations of final URL placeholders.

The Final URL Suffix can contain up to 1,024 characters. This character limit includes the Final URL Suffix properties that you enter, plus any parameters that Search Ads 360 automatically adds for remarketing and the conversion API. Search Ads 360 will display a trafficking error if the Final URL Suffix contains more than 1,024 characters.

Use a bulksheet to specify a Final URL Suffix

1. Navigate to an advertiser or lower scope.

   Steps for navigating to an advertiser

   1. Click the navigation bar to display navigation options.

   2. 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.

   3. In the "Advertiser" list, click on the advertiser.

   4. Click Apply or press the Enter key.

   Search Ads 360 displays the advertiser page, which contains data for all of the advertiser’s engine accounts.

2. Click any of the following tabs:
   • Engine accounts
   • Campaigns
   • Ad groups
   • Keywords
   • Targets ▼, then select Product groups or Dynamic ad targets
   • Ads
3. Optionally use a filter to display only the items for which you want to add, edit, or remove parameters in the Final URL Suffix.
4. Add the "Final URL Suffix" column to the reporting table.
5. Click the download icon   and download an editable bulksheet.
   The downloaded bulksheet contains:
   • One row for each item that was in scope when you clicked the download icon .
   • Columns for editing each item's settings, including the "Final URL Suffix" column.
6. Open the downloaded bulksheet and do the following in each row:
   1. Leave the "Action" column set to "edit".
   2. In the "Final URL Suffix" column,  do one of the following:
      • To add a Final URL Suffix, enter properties for the suffix.
        The item will no longer inherit any Final URL Suffix that may be defined at a higher level.
      • To edit an existing suffix, change the properties for the suffix.
      • To remove a suffix that has been applied directly to the item (as opposed to inherited), enter remove_content.
        The item will now inherit any Final URL Suffix that may be defined at a higher level.
7. Save the bulksheet and upload it back into Search Ads 360.

You can also use a bulksheet to apply a Final URL Suffix to Google Ads sitelinks.

Additional details

Search Ads 360 adds parameters to the Final URL Suffix

Some Search Ads 360 features require specific URL parameters to be in the landing page URL. For example, the integration with Google Analytics requires both the gclid and gclsrc parameters to attribute traffic to Search Ads 360, and cross-channel remarketing relies on the ds_rl parameter to signal to social and search engines to add cookies to a remarketing list.

To use these features with parallel tracking, add the required parameters to the Final URL Suffix. The following parameters appear in the Final URL Suffix in your Google Ads account settings: gclsrc=aw.ds&{_dsmrktparam}

Note that these parameters don't appear in Search Ads 360 since they're added just before Search Ads 360 traffics changes to Google Ads. If you sign into Google Ads and view the account settings' Final URL Suffix, you'll see these parameters in addition to any parameters you added to the Final URL Suffix. If you defined a Final URL Suffix at the campaign level or lower, Search Ads 360 adds its parameters to the campaign or lower-level Final URL Suffix as well as the account-level suffix.

If you accidentally remove these parameters from the Final URL Suffix in Google Ads, Search Ads 360 will add them back when you sync the account.

Ampersands added to the Final URL Suffix

By default, Search Ads 360 also adds an extra ampersand (&&) to the Final URL Suffix.

Campaign copy doesn't copy Final URL Suffix to other engines

When you copy Google Ads campaigns to other types of engine accounts, URL parameters in the Final URL Suffix are not copied into the other account. If the URLs in the destination account require these parameters, do one of the following:

• Don't add these parameters to Final URL Suffix. Instead, leave them in your landing page URLs, after the {ignore} parameter
• After the copy completes, add the parameters to the landing page URLs or URL template in the destination account