Troubleshoot Floodlight tags and use implementation alerts

There are several ways that you can troubleshoot if your Floodlight tags are implemented correctly.

You can use the conversion referrer as a tool to identify where a Floodlight tag has been implemented. Learn more

Confirm Floodlight activity is active

Navigate to your Advertiser > Floodlight activities. Verify that your activity's status is active and check the "Impressions yesterday” and “Average impressions last 7 days” columns to see if the activity’s Floodlight tag has been implemented. If activity shows 0 average impressions over the last 7 days, the most likely explanation is that the tag has not yet been implemented.

Run a Floodlight impressions report

If you want to check if your Floodlight tag is recording data for longer than 7 days, create a Floodlight impressions report.

1. Navigate to Report Builder > New Report > Floodlight > Floodlight Impressions.
2. Name the report, and the report file that will be generated.
3. Choose a date range containing visits to the page where Floodlight is implemented.
4. Choose a Floodlight ID and Activity to verify.
5. Run the report, then see if Floodlight is counting impressions.

Use Tag Assistant debug mode

If your Floodlight is included as an event within a Google tag, you can use Tag Assistant debug mode to check if your Floodlight event is firing. The hits sent and hits detail sections will show more information about your floodlight event.

Use Floodlight implementation alerts

Floodlight implementation alerts let you know if Campaign Manager 360 has detected one or more issues with a Floodlight tag implementation that could result in incorrect conversion reporting. These alerts are updated once a day and display information for the previous day. Floodlight activities will show alerts if 20% or more of Floodlight impressions are impacted by a specific issue type.

View alerts for individual Floodlight activities

Campaign Manager 360 will alert you to issues with specific Floodlight activities. To view the alerts:

1. Navigate to your Advertiser > Floodlight > Activities.
2. At the top of the page, you’ll see a message letting you know how many Floodlight activities have alerts. Click on the message to filter the activities with alerts.
3. Hover over the  icon next to the name of each activity to see a summary of the alerts.
4. Click View details to see a detailed description of each type of alert, including:
   • The percentage of Floodlight impressions impacted by the issue
   • Sample impacted Floodlight impression request URL
   • The referring URL (usually the page where the tag is implemented)
   • Suggestions for resolving the issue

Depending on the specific issue with your implementation, your Floodlight tags may not be counting conversions, or they could be counting conversions and other data inaccurately. The following is a summary of the issues that can cause a Floodlight implementation alert.

Alerts for iframe and image tags

Required parameter has a missing value

Floodlight tag type	Counting method	Alert issue	Action to resolve
Sales	Items sold	The qty= parameter is missing from the tag or is empty.	Export the tag again from Campaign Manager 360 and send it to your website administrator to implement. Let them know that the qty= parameter is missing or has no value.
Sales	Items sold	The qty= parameter contains a non-numeric value.	Export the tag again from Campaign Manager 360 and send it to your website administrator to implement. Let them know that the qty= parameter has an incorrect value in the live tag.
Sales	Transactions	The qty= parameter is missing from the tag or does not equal 1.	If you are counting conversions based on transactions, export the tag again from Campaign Manager 360 and send it to your website administrator to implement. Let them know that the qty= parameter is missing or has a value other than 1. If you are trying to count conversions based on items sold instead of transactions, update the counting method for the tag in the Floodlight activity settings, export the tag again, and send it to your website administrator to implement.
Counter	Unique	The ord= parameter is missing from the tag or does not equal 1.	Export the tag again from Campaign Manager 360 and send it to your website administrator to implement. Let them know that the ord= parameter is missing and/or needs to be set to ord=1.

Optional parameter has an invalid value

Floodlight tag type	Counting method	Alert issue	Action to resolve
All	All	The dc_rdid= parameter does not include a user resettable device identifier in the form of IDFA for iOS or advertising ID (AdID) for Android.	Contact your app developer and let them know that they need to correctly populate user IDs into the dc_rdid= parameter.
All	All	The dc_lat= parameter contains a non-alphanumeric value.	Contact your app developer and let them know that they need to correctly populate 0 or 1 into the dc_lat= parameter.
Sales	All	The cost= parameter contains a non-numeric value.	Contact your website administrator and let them know that they need to correctly populate the cost= parameter.
All	All	A numeric custom Floodlight variable received a string.	If you want to use string values for the custom Floodlight variable, update the variable settings in your Floodlight configuration. If you want to use a number for the variable, contact your website administrator and let them know that they need to correctly populate the u= parameter with a number.
All	All	A string custom Floodlight variable contained an invalid character.	Contact your website administrator and let them know that they need to correctly populate the u= parameter.

Cache buster is missing or has an invalid value

Floodlight tag type	Counting method	Alert issue	Action to resolve
All	All except unique counter	The ord= parameter is missing from the tag or is empty.	Export the tag again from Campaign Manager 360 and send it to your website administrator to implement. Let them know that the ord= parameter is missing from the live tag.
All	All except unique counter	The ord= parameter contains a non-alphanumeric value.	Export the tag again from Campaign Manager 360 and send it to your website administrator to implement. Let them know that the ord= parameter contains non-alphanumeric values in the live tag.
Counter	Unique	The num= parameter is missing from the tag or is empty.	Export the tag again from Campaign Manager 360 and send it to your website administrator to implement. Let them know that the num= parameter is missing from the live tag.
Counter	Unique	The num= parameter contains a non-alphanumeric value.	Export the tag again from Campaign Manager 360 and send it to your website administrator to implement. Let them know that the num= parameter contains non-alphanumeric values in the live tag.

Duplicate custom Floodlight variable

Floodlight tag type	Counting method	Alert issue	Action to resolve
All	All except unique counter	The tag contains the same custom Floodlight variable multiple times.	Contact your website administrator and ask them to remove the duplicate parameter from the Floodlight tag.

Unconfigured custom Floodlight variable

Floodlight tag type	Counting method	Alert issue	Action to resolve
All	All except unique counter	The tag contains a custom Floodlight variable that was not set in the Floodlight configuration.	If you want to use this custom Floodlight variable, add it to the list of defined variables in your Floodlight configuration. If you do not want to use this custom Floodlight variable, contact your website administrator and ask them to remove it from the Floodlight tag.

Violation collecting personally identifiable information (PII)

Floodlight tag type	Counting method	Alert issue	Action to resolve
All	All	The Floodlight tag is collecting personally identifiable information (PII). The Google Platforms Policy prohibits passing any information to us that we could use or recognize as PII.	Contact your website administrator to let them know that they must immediately stop collecting personally identifiable information (PII) through the Floodlight tag.

Alerts for Google tags

Required parameter has a missing value

Floodlight tag type	Counting method	Alert issue	Action to resolve
Sales	Items sold	The quantity field is missing from the tag or is empty.	Export the tag again from Campaign Manager 360 and send it to your website administrator to implement. Let them know that the quantity field is missing or has no value.
Sales	Items sold	The quantity field contains a non-numeric value.	Export the tag again from Campaign Manager 360 and send it to your website administrator to implement. Let them know that the quantity field has an incorrect value in the live tag.
Sales	Transactions	The quantity field is missing from the tag or does not equal 1.	If you are counting conversions based on transactions, export the tag again from Campaign Manager 360 and send it to your website administrator to implement. Let them know that the quantity field is missing or has a value other than 1. If you are trying to count conversions based on items sold instead of transactions, update the counting method for the tag in the Floodlight activity settings.
Counter	Unique	The optional dc_custom_params field contains an ord field that is missing or has an incorrect value.	If you are counting conversions based on unique sales, export the tag again from Campaign Manager 360 and send it to your website administrator to implement. Let them know that the ord field is missing or has a value other than 1. If you are trying to count conversions differently, update the counting method for the tag in the Floodlight activity setting, export the tag again from Campaign Manager 360, and send it to your website administrator to implement.

Optional parameter has an invalid value

Floodlight tag type	Counting method	Alert issue	Action to resolve
All	All	The optional dc_custom_params field contains a dc_lat field that has an incorrect value.	Contact your app developer and let them know that they need to correctly populate 0 or 1 into the dc_lat field.
Sales	All	The value parameter contains a non-numeric value.	Contact your website administrator and let them know that they need to correctly populate the value field.
All	All	A numeric custom Floodlight variable received a string.	If you want to use string values for the custom Floodlight variable, update the variable settings in your Floodlight configuration. If you want to use a number for the variable, contact your website administrator and let them know that they need to correctly populate the field with a number.
All	All	A string custom Floodlight variable contained an invalid character.	Contact your website administrator and let them know that they need to correctly populate the value.

Cache buster is missing or has an invalid value

Floodlight tag type	Counting method	Alert issue	Action to resolve
All	All except unique counter	The optional dc_custom_params field contains an ord field that has an incorrect value.	Export the tag again from Campaign Manager 360 and send it to your website administrator to implement. Let them know that the ord field contains non-alphanumeric values in the live tag.
Counter	Unique	The Floodlight activity is set to a unique counter, but the tag on your website does not match this type of tag.	If you are counting conversions based on unique counters, export the tag again from Campaign Manager 360 and send it to your website administrator to implement. If you are trying to count conversions based on a different methodology, update the counting method for the tag in the Floodlight activity settings and export the tag again from Campaign Manager 360 and send it to your website administrator to implement.
Counter	Unique	The optional dc_custom_params field contains a num field that has an incorrect value.	Export the tag again from Campaign Manager 360 and send it to your website administrator to implement. Let them know that the num field contains non-alphanumeric values in the live tag.

Duplicate custom Floodlight variable

Floodlight tag type	Counting method	Alert issue	Action to resolve
All	All except unique counter	The tag contains the same custom Floodlight variable multiple times.	Contact your website administrator and ask them to remove the duplicate parameter from the Floodlight tag.

Unconfigured custom Floodlight variable

Floodlight tag type	Counting method	Alert issue	Action to resolve
All	All except unique counter	The tag contains a custom Floodlight variable that was not set in the Floodlight configuration.	If you want to use this custom Floodlight variable, add it to the list of defined variables in your Floodlight configuration. If you do not want to use this custom Floodlight variable, contact your website administrator and ask them to remove it from the Floodlight tag.

Violation collecting personally identifiable information (PII)

Floodlight tag type	Counting method	Alert issue	Action to resolve
All	All	The Floodlight tag is collecting personally identifiable information (PII). The Google Platforms Policy prohibits passing any information to us that we could use or recognize as PII.	Contact your website administrator to let them know that they must immediately stop collecting personally identifiable information (PII) through the Floodlight tag.

Receive notifications for Floodlight implementation alerts

Campaign Manager 360 will notify you if your advertiser’s Floodlight configuration has any activities with alerts by adding a message in your “Notification” pane.

If you’d like to receive notifications for Floodlight implementation alerts, star a campaign by selecting the  star next to a campaign name from your campaign list or while viewing the campaign. Starring a campaign triggers notifications for all issues related to that campaign, including Floodlight configurations.

If you already have starred campaigns but do not want to see Floodlight implementation alerts, you can turn them off.

1. Click  Settings.
2. Select Notifications.
3. In the Floodlight notifications section, turn Floodlight implementation issues to OFF.
4. Click Save. 

Notifications for personally identifiable information (PII)

These notifications are enabled by default and cannot be disabled. It may take up to a week or more for the notification to disappear once the error is fixed.

 

If the notification does not disappear, please contact support.

Floodlight activities that collect PII violate Google policy. Campaign Manager 360 will notify you when any such activity is detected. 

Alert notifications appear in your Floodlight Activities list for each Advertiser as well as on each applicable Activity page. Notifications will provide a sample request to highlight where PII was detected. Look for =redacted in the example request to find the exact u-variable sending PII. 

Notifications are updated once per day and display an example from the past 8 days. Learn more about our best practices to avoid sending PII