Event tag setup guidelines

You’ll need to create one event tag for each tracking URL you’ll use. You can apply your event tags to many ads at once, and quickly manage them across your campaigns. When you apply an event tag to an ad, it uses your third-party tracking URL each time it serves. By default, every creative in the ad will use the tracking URL.

In each tracking URL, you can add additional keywords, key-value pairs, and macros that capture the exact creative involved in each impression, click, survey, as well as other useful information about the ad activity.

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Supported uses and limitations

• Ad and creative types: All ad and creative types are supported, except for click tracker ads and brand-neutral ads. Backup images are fully supported for event tags.
• Placement tag types: Event tags are supported for iframe, JavaScript (JS), and pre-fetch placement tags. For non-video inventory, it’s recommended that you send both iframe and JS tags to your publisher so your publisher can choose which to use. For tracking ads, include the JS and iframe versions in the tracking creative section of the tag.
• Environment: Event tags work in all environments. For mobile apps that support MRAID, impression event tags are fired once an ad is partially on screen.
• Browser: The user's browser must support the event tag tracking URL and placement tag type you use. Event tags may not be able to capture information if the user's browser does not support iframes, JavaScript, or the site VPAID player. Refer to the table below for more information.

Browser support for event tags

Placement tag type on site or app	Browser support for JS or iframes	Impression event tag - image URL	Impression event tag - JS URL	Click event tag
JS	JS and iframes
JS	JS only
JS	Iframes only
JS	Neither
Iframes	JS and iframes
Iframes	JS only
Iframes	Iframes only
Iframes	Neither
Standard	JS and iframes
Standard	JS only
Standard	Iframes only
Standard	Neither
Prefetch	Browser support for event tags depends on whether the browser can support the VPAID player on the site. Different event tags may or may not work depending on browser support.

Considerations

• For HTML5 or rich media creatives, event tags do not distinguish which asset serves or which exit receives a click. There are workarounds available if you need to capture this information. Learn how to log information about assets and exit events.
• For in-stream audio, in-stream video, and VPAID creatives, event tags are included in pre-fetch tags by Campaign Manager 360, but it is up to the publisher serving the ad to fire the URL at the relevant time. If you want to use event tags for in-stream and VPAID creatives, note that survey URLs cannot use parentheses. Also, the total character count for all survey URLs applied to any given ad cannot exceed 2048 characters. For event tags to work on your creative, you must also remove any survey URLs you applied manually. Learn how to log information about in-stream and VPAID creatives.
• For in-stream video redirect creatives, click event tags don’t get appended to click-through URLs.

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Frequently asked questions

What are some use cases for event tags?

The simplest use of an event tag is to allow vendors to log the number of impressions or clicks on your ads. You can also add a survey URL to an impression event tag to launch surveys for your vendor when your ad serves.

Event tags log clicks and impressions for ads, not their creatives, but you can add additional parameters to specify the creative involved, as well as other information.

• You can hard-code keywords and other information into the tag URL so that it’s included each time the event is counted.
• You can also add macros that expand dynamically. The publisher’s system replaces macros with specific information that can change with each event. For example, you might add a macro that captures the keyword a user searched before seeing the ad, or the particular site the creative appeared on, or which Campaign Manager 360 campaign served the ad.

Technically, the vendor collecting this information is a fourth party: The advertiser, publisher, and Campaign Manager 360 are the first three parties and the event tag sends information to a fourth party, such as Coremetrics, Dynamic Logic, or comScore.

You can also use event tags to add an Online Behavioral Advertising (OBA) icon to an ad. This is also known as the YourAdChoices icon.

What are the advantages of event tags over manual tracking URLs?

Event tags are a much faster, more efficient way to manage tracking URLs than manual options would be.

• You can apply event tags in bulk, without manually editing each and every creative.
• You can update all your ads at once when you edit your tag.
• You can set rules for how your tags are applied. You can apply them to all ads in all campaigns, or just to one campaign, or just to a few ads. You can also define site rules to allow or not allow your tags for a list of up to 500 sites.

Can you give me an example of how event tags are applied to ads in Campaign Manager 360?

You might apply a tag to all the ads in your advertiser, or just to a few ads in a few campaigns, and even to just one ad. Campaign Manager 360 gives you options to manage your tags in bulk, but you can also add or remove the tag manually.

Refer to the following example when you apply an impression event tag to one ad but not the other.

Example

Say you have 2 ads in Campaign Manager 360, namely Ad 1 and Ad 2. Both ads have the same Soda Creative. You then applied an impression event tag to Ad 1. Now any creative assigned to Ad 1 will be tracked with the impression event tag when Ad 1 serves. You didn’t apply the impression event tag to Ad 2.

• When Ad 1 serves, it includes the impression event tag with your Soda Creative. The tag fires and the vendor logs an impression on Ad 1. If the tag includes macros that capture other information, such as the creative ID, the vendor logs this as well.
• When Ad 2 serves, it doesn't include the impression event tag with your Soda Creative. Campaign Manager 360 might log impressions, but your impression event tag won't send any data to your vendor.

What’s the process to set up event tags for a common goal?

Here are some common vendor goals and the kinds of event tags you might need for them.

Validate campaign delivery and performance

1. Ask your vendor or publisher for impression pixel and click tracking URLs.
2. Create both an impression event tag for your impression pixel and a click event tag for your click tracking URL.
3. Apply the tags to your ads.

Collect audience analytics

1. Ask your vendor for an impression pixel URL.
2. Create an impression event tag in Campaign Manager 360 for your impression pixel.
3. Apply the tag to your ads.
4. If you want to track audience analytics for all the ads on a particular site, apply your impression event tag to all the ads in every placement on that site.

Study brand advertising through a survey

1. Ask your survey vendor for a survey URL.
2. Create an impression event tag in Campaign Manager 360 for your survey URL.
3. Apply the tag to every ad in your campaign. Typically, you'll want the survey to launch for every ad in your campaign.

Add an OBA (YourAdChoices) icon to my ad

1. Ask your OBA icon vendor for an OBA script URL.
2. Create an impression event tag in Campaign Manager 360.
3. Select the script tag type, then enter the script URL.
4. Apply the tag to the OBA-compliant ads in your campaign. If your creatives will run on Display & Video 360, always use a script tag and not an image tag. Otherwise, creatives may be misaligned with the ad slot.

You can also use our interactive guide to find steps for your needs.

Where can I find my event tags?

You can find your impression and click event tags in your advertiser properties, campaign properties, or the event tag view in your campaign.

Advertiser properties

1. Go to All advertisers and select your advertiser you want to check.
2. Click Properties from the left hand menu.
3. Expand the Event tags section.
4. Click the Advertiser tags tab. You can open each event tag to check the tag URL.

Campaign properties

1. Go to All campaigns and select the campaign you want to check.
2. Click Properties from the left hand menu.
3. Expand the Event tags section.
4. Click the Campaign tags tab. You can open each event tag to check the tag URL.

Event tag view (campaign)

1. Go to All campaigns and select the campaign you want to check.
2. Click the Views drop-down and select Views: Event tags.

How many event tags can I create and apply?

You can create:

• Max of 20 impression event tags at the advertiser level.
• Max of 20 click event tags at the advertiser level.
• Max of 50 impression event tags at the campaign level.
• Max of 50 click event tags at the campaign level.

You can apply:

• Max of 70 impression event tags for any given ad. If you create 20 impression event tags at the advertiser level and 50 more at the campaign level, you can apply 70 to any given ad in a campaign.
• Max of one click event tag for any given ad. You can only apply one click event tag per ad. If you create 20 click event tags at the advertiser level and 50 more at the campaign level, you will have 70 to choose one from for any given ad.

What are the character limits in event tags?

Event tag names have a limit of 255 characters. Each event tag can use a URL of up to 500 characters for impression or click event tag URLs.

For survey URLs in in-stream and VPAID creatives, the character count must be under 2,048 if you combine all the survey URLs applied to your in-stream or VPAID creative. If you exceed this limit, the survey URLs will not work for the creative. This limit does not affect other creative types.

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Related links

• Set up event tags
• Manage event tag application