You can add a unique reference to your affiliate URLs to allow more granular tracking of your Google Play Affiliates campaigns.
How it works
To track a specific campaign, you need to add a custom parameter to the end of the Google Play Store URL of the item you’re promoting. This parameter is called the PCamRefID.
After you create the PCamRefID parameter and add it to your URL, you can see more granular click and conversion stats for different campaigns within the same Google Play vertical.
Technical guidelines
Your PCamRefID is an unencoded string of characters that you create yourself. Here are some technical guidelines for creating your PCamRefID:
- The string can include numbers, letters, hyphens (-), periods (.), and plus signs (+).
- Note: We recommend that you use hyphens (-) instead of underscores (_) in your URLs.
- The string should not include delimiters such as commas (,), quotation marks("), and parentheses(()).
- The string should not be longer than 50 characters. Strings longer than 50 characters will be truncated.
- The string is case-sensitive, so make sure to keep that in mind when using letters.
- Note: The PCamRefID parameter itself isn’t case sensitive.
- If the Play Store URL already contains a “?,” make sure to add the PAffiliateID and PCamRefID with an ampersand (&).
- A campaign needs at least 10 clicks per day for that campaign ID to show clicks in reporting data.
- A campaign needs at least 10 conversions per day for that campaign ID to show conversion in reporting data.
Create your PCamRefID
We recommend including any of the following elements in your string:
- Channel: This indicates where your campaign is featured:
android,desktop,web,facebook, ortwitter. - Campaign: If your campaign is related to a special event, such as the Grammys or the Oscars, you could include in your string:
grammysoroscars. - Content: Information related to the actual content your campaign is promoting, such as artist’s name, album title, or movie director.
- Source: Name of the advertiser, site, or publication that’s sending traffic to your property:
google,billboard, orcosmopolitan.
For example, if your campaign is promoting a Smash Mouth album on Twitter because it’s nominated for a Grammy, your PCamRefID might be: smash+mouth+grammys+twitter.
Implement your PCamRefID
After you create a PCamRefID string, add it to the end of the item’s Google Play Store URL after the Affiliate ID.
For example, if you’re tracking the Twitter campaign for the Grammy-nominated Smash Mouth album, here’s what your entire URL might look like after adding the PCamRefID:
Note: The Affiliate ID (0000xyz) is in italics, while the custom PCamRefID (smash+mouth+grammys+twitter) is in bold.