Use iframe and image tags for Floodlight

Campaign Manager 360 now supports the Google tag for Floodlight measurement. We’re recommending that customers update their Floodlight tag implementation to use the Google tag in order to benefit from the latest features and integrations.

If you manage your Floodlight activities in Display & Video 360, the Dynamic tag switch under Web tag settings is currently only used for YouTube tracking enablement. It's not possible to configure dynamic or publisher tags in Display & Video 360.

Implement iframe and image tags

Insert the Floodlight tags between the <body> and </body> tags, as close to the top of the webpage and the opening tag as possible. This will help ensure that the Floodlight request is sent to Campaign Manager 360 even if the user presses "Stop" or navigates away from the page.
To defeat caching and ensure accurate counts, you need to insert a numeric value for the ord= parameter. The value cannot contain semicolons or special characters. For standard Floodlight tags, use a random number. For unique user tags, use a constant value. For sales tags, use an order confirmation number. Unique user tags also require a random number as the value of the num= parameter.
Insert device IDs into dc_rdid= parameter to enable in-app conversion tracking.
Choose the "Secure Servers Only (https)" option if the Floodlight tag will be placed on a webpage hosted on a secure server. This option changes http:// to https:// in the Floodlight tag. If this change isn't made, Floodlight data will not be captured, and certain browsers will display a security warning.

Best practices

Place Floodlight tags near the top of the page

To ensure accurate counting, Google Marketing Platform recommends that Floodlight tags be placed as close to the top of the webpage as possible. That way, even if a user clicks the Stop button in the browser or navigates away from the webpage, the Floodlight impression is counted.

Keep in mind that Floodlight tags are often used to record information about actions that the user took on the previous page. For example, if a user is making a purchase, the Floodlight tag that records the value of the purchase will be placed on the confirmation page where the user is taken after the purchase. That's why it's important to ensure that the Floodlight tag is called as early as possible in the process of loading the page. Request times vary, but are usually completed within 300 milliseconds, so the call should have a minimal impact on latency.

Using multiple Floodlight tags on a single webpage

Each Floodlight tag is processed independently, so you can put more than one set of Floodlight tags on a webpage. Keep in mind, however, that a Floodlight impression will be recorded for each set of Floodlight tags whenever the page is loaded, potentially resulting in a higher cost for the advertiser. Consider your Floodlight strategy carefully before implementing multiple Floodlight tags on a single webpage.

Floodlight tags and frames

If you're placing Floodlight tags on a webpage that uses frames, put the tags in the HTML page with the main content. Do not put the Floodlight tags in the HTML page containing the <frameset> tags.

Passing data to parameters in iframe and image tags

You'll need to dynamically pass data to parameters in your Floodlight tags. Your website must be technically capable of passing information into the tags. The format for these parameters is key=[value], where the value is passed dynamically into the tag when the webpage is loaded. What data you insert into the Floodlight tag, and how you collect that data, are up to your website administrator. You must not pass any data that Google Marketing Platform could use or recognize as personally-identifiable information.

Let's look at some example Floodlight tags to understand how they're put together. The following are all iframe tags.

Counter activity tags

Counter tags are used to count the number of conversions. Depending on how you set up your activity, counter tags count every conversion event, or they limit the counting so that each user is only counted as converting once per day or per user session.

Example:

<iframe src="http://1234567.fls.doubleclick.net/activityi;src=1234567;type=abcde123;cat=fghij456;u1=[friendlyname1];u2=[friendlyname2];ord=[Random Number]?" width="1" height="1" frameborder="0" style="display:none"></iframe>

To get a better understanding of the Floodlight iframe tag, let's look at it part by part.

http: Indicates that this is a non-secure tag.

iframe src: Indicates that this is a dynamic HTML iframe tag. The src parameter tells the browser where to find the requested content for the iframe.

fls.doubleclick.net: The web address of the Floodlight servers.

activityi: Identifies the tag as a Floodlight activity tag that uses the iframe format.

src=1234567: Identifies the Floodlight configuration that is the source of the Floodlight activity. The value of the src= key is the advertiser ID.

type=abcde123: The group tag string, which identifies the activity group with which the Floodlight activity is associated in Campaign Manager 360. (The activity group is used for reporting purposes.) You can set your own value for the group tag string or use the default value. The default group tag string is based on the first five letters of the activity group name, plus a string of three random alphanumeric characters, underscores, and dashes. (If the activity group name has fewer than five characters, extra letters are appended before the alphanumeric characters so that there are still eight characters.) Note that the string used for type= is case sensitive.

cat=fghij456: The activity tag string, which identifies the Floodlight activity. You can set your own value for the activity tag string or use the default value. The default activity tag string is based on the first five letters of the activity name, plus a string of three random alphanumeric characters, underscores, and dashes. (If the activity name has fewer than five characters, extra letters are appended before the alphanumeric characters so that there are still eight characters.) Note that the string used for cat= is case sensitive.

u1=[friendlyname1];u2=[friendlyname2]: Key-values where the key is u followed by a number are custom Floodlight variables. You can use these variables to pass to Floodlight data that you want to use as criteria for reports. Note that you must not pass any data that Google Marketing Platform could use or recognize as personally-identifiable information.

ord=[Random Number]: In general, the ord= parameter is used to make the Floodlight tag unique. When and how you refresh the value, and how the parameter is embedded within the tag, depends on the counting method you use to count conversions. Conversions with the same value for ord= (provided the floodlight activity, user ID, floodlight configuration ID, and conversion timestamp also match up) will be de-duplicated. If ord= is not unique, only the first conversion for each user, for each day, is recorded.

How the ord= parameter is displayed for each counter type

Using the ord= parameter with different counter types
Counter type	How ord= is displayed	How it's used
Standard	`ord=[Random Number]`	To enable Campaign Manager 360 to count each visit to the Floodlight-enabled webpage as a separate activity, the advertiser is responsible for dynamically inserting a unique string as the value of the `ord=` parameter each time the Floodlight-enabled webpage is accessed.
Unique	`ord=1;num=[Random Number]`	To enable Campaign Manager 360 to count only the number of conversions by unique users within a 24-hour period, the value of `ord=` is set to `1`. That way, Campaign Manager 360 doesn't count each visit as unique. Instead, it uses each user's cookie ID to count the number of unique users. The `num=` parameter is added to prevent browser caching of the Floodlight tag. The advertiser is responsible for dynamically inserting a unique string as the value of the `num=` parameter each time the Floodlight-enabled webpage is accessed.
Per Session	`ord=[SessionID]`	To enable Campaign Manager 360 to count only one Floodlight activity per browser session, the advertiser is responsible for dynamically inserting a session ID, typically based on data included in a session cookie served to the user by the advertiser. It's up to the advertiser to decide how a session is defined. For example, you could count a session as beginning when a user signs in to your website or app and ending when the user session times out. When the Floodlight tag is delivered, dynamically replace the variable with a unique session identifier to prevent browser caching.

width="1" height="1": Sets the dimensions of the invisible iframe.

frameborder="0": Sets the borders of the iframe to 0 pixels so that they won't show.

style="display:none": Tells the browser not to display any box around the iframe, ensuring that it doesn't show as a visible element on the advertiser's webpage.

Sales activity tags

Sales activity tags are mostly the same as counter activity tags, with a few exceptions. Typically they're placed on the confirmation page following a sale, with information about the sale passed to the tag.

Here's an example:

<iframe src="http://1234567.fls.doubleclick.net/activityi;src=1234567;type=abcde123;cat=fghij456;u1=[friendlyname1];u2=[friendlyname2];qty=[Quantity];cost=[Revenue];ord=[OrderID]?" width="1" height="1"frameborder="0" style="display:none"></iframe>

Here are the elements that are unique to sales activities:

qty=[Quantity]: How this parameter is used depends on the counting method you're using for the sales activity.

If you're counting each transaction as a single conversion, the parameter is qty=1.
If you're counting each item sold during a single transaction as a separate conversion, the parameter is qty=[Quantity], and the advertiser is responsible for dynamically inserting the number of items sold as part of each purchase. If you'd rather count a single conversion, set the value to 1.

The [Quantity] value must be an integer greater than zero. Campaign Manager 360 multiplies the [Quantity] value by the number of conversion events to get the number of conversions for the sales tag. If the value is zero, no conversions will be counted. Similarly, if you delete the qty= parameter or pass a non-numeric value, Campaign Manager 360 won't count any conversions.

cost=[Revenue]: The amount of revenue generated by the transaction—in other words, the purchase price of the items in the sale. In most cases, the relevant value is the revenue generated, not the total purchase price, which might include sales tax, VAT, shipping costs, or other costs that are less useful to track.

The advertiser is responsible for dynamically inserting the value of each purchase. The value should be inserted as a number, without commas or currency symbols. You can use a decimal point (.) if desired.

ord=[orderID]: The advertiser is responsible for inserting a unique identifier for each transaction. The order IDs are included in the Path to Conversion (P2C) report, enabling advertisers to see the connections between ad exposures and their own order-tracking data.

Other parameters for iFrame and image tags

Parameter / Example	Description
`dc_lat` `dc_lat=1;`	This field applies to tags on mobile devices. It accepts a value of 0 or 1. A value of 1 means that the user has activated the “Limit Ad Tracking” option for IDFA or AdID in order to opt out of interest-based ads and remarketing. If "Limit Ad Tracking" is off, the value is 0. If missing or unpopulated, this field will default to 0.
`tfua` `tfua=1;`	It accepts a value of 0 or 1. A value of 1 indicates that this particular request may come from a user under the age of 16 (may differ by country), under compliance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or other regulations.
`npa` `npa=1;`	It accepts a value of 0 or 1. A value of 1 indicates that this particular request may come from a user who wishes to opt-out of remarketing. If missing or unpopulated, this field will default to 0.
`tag_for_child_directed_treatment` `tag_for_child_directed_treatment=1;`	This field applies to tags on mobile devices. It accepts a value of 0 or 1. A value of 1 indicates that this particular request may come from a user under the age of 13, under COPPA compliance.
`match_ID match_id=[your_chosen_id];`	A unique advertiser created identifier (passed via Floodlight) that can be synced with Google to attribute offline conversions. Match ID has a limit of 50 characters and is case sensitive. Match ID can only contain letters, numbers, underscores, hyphens and periods.

More details about image tags

Image tags are most commonly used when:

The advertiser has security concerns or other issues with their website architecture that prevents the use of iframes.
You're adding Floodlight tags to an app or mobile site, since web browsers on some older devices may not handle iframes well.

Image tags do not support dynamic tags.

Image tag enablement

You can enable image tags for:

A single Floodlight activity, on the properties page for that activity.
All of an advertiser's activities, on the Floodlight > Configuration tab.
Your entire Campaign Manager 360 account, on the Advanced tab under Admin > Account.

If you update your Floodlight configuration or account to use only image tags:

You will not be able to edit the tag format for existing Floodlight activities.
Existing tags that have been implemented on your websites aren't changed automatically. To begin using image tags, you need to replace existing iframe tags with the new image tags created in Campaign Manager 360.
Dynamic tags don't stop delivering automatically. If you've previously set up dynamic tags and implemented standard Iframe Floodlight tags, the dynamic tags continue to deliver, even if you've switched the activity to using image tags within Campaign Manager 360. To stop delivery of dynamic tags, remove the existing iframe tags from the advertiser's webpage and replace them with the newly created image tags.

Parameters in image tags

Here's an example of an image tag, with the unique elements in bold; the example is a counter activity tag, but the same changes are made for a sales activity tag:

<img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/activity/src=1234567;type=abcde123;cat=fghij456;u1=[friendlyname1];u2=[friendlyname2];ord=[Random Number]?" width="1" height="1" alt=""/>

Here are the elements that are unique to image tags:

img src: An HTML image tag. The src parameter tells the browser where to find the requested image, which in this case is a 1x1 pixel transparent GIF.

ad.doubleclick.net: The web address of the Campaign Manager 360 ad servers, which are used to deliver the image file.

activity: Identifies the tag as a a Floodlight activity tag that uses an image tag format.

alt="": Specifies that there is no alt text for the image.

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