Depending on your advertising goals, you can use ValueTrack to get more details about your ad performance -- such as finding out where your ads get the most traffic, or which ads and keywords get the most clicks. This article illustrates a few examples of ways you can use ValueTrack.
Remember, your options aren't limited to just the scenarios below -- you can use any combination of ValueTrack parameters listed in this article to gather more details about your ads.
Goal
You want to know how much of your ad traffic is coming from the Google Search Network versus the Google Display Network.
Applicable ValueTrack parameters
ValueTrack allows you to set two tracking URLs per keyword: {ifsearch:[value]} for search, and {ifcontent:[value]} for display.
Example tracking template
Since only one parameter will be triggered by your ad and therefore only one value will appear in your data, you don't need to include an & between the two URL parameters. The URL parameters will look like this: {ifsearch:[value]}{ifcontent:[value]}.
In our example, we replaced [value] with "Search Network" for the ifsearch condition and "Display Nework" for the ifcontent condition, and we used the label source. The resulting ValueTrack URL looks like this:
{lpurl}?tracking={ifsearch:1234}{ifcontent:5678}
Example data
ValueTrack will update your URLs with information about the network that the ad appeared on.
For a Search Network click, you'll see:
http://www.example.com/?tracking=1234
For a Display Network click, you'll see:
http://www.example.com/?tracking=5678
Goal
You want to see which keyword triggered an ad that a customer clicked, as well as what the keyword's match type was.
Applicable ValueTrack parameters
Search campaigns: The {keyword} parameter will tell you the specific keyword that triggered your ad.
Display campaigns: The {keyword} parameter will tell you the best-matching keyword, since targeting on the Display Network is done at the ad group level.
The {matchtype} parameter records the match type of the keyword that resulted in the ad click ("b" for broad or modified broad, "p" for phrase, or "e" for exact).
Example tracking template
The resulting tracking template looks like this:
{lpurl}?keyword={keyword}&matchtype={matchtype}
Example data
ValueTrack will update your landing page URLs with the actual keyword and match type:
http://www.example.com/?keyword=socks&matchtype=e
http://www.example.com/?keyword=pink%20socks&matchtype=p
Goal
You want to see the specific ad that was displayed and received the click.
Applicable ValueTrack parameter
The {creative} parameter records the creative ID of the ad that was displayed.
Example tracking template
The resulting tracking template looks like this:
{lpurl}?creative={creative}
Example data
ValueTrack will update your landing page URLs with the ad's creative ID:
http://www.example.com/?creative=599041118
Goal
You want to find out which category your ad appeared for in a placement-targeted campaign.
Applicable ValueTrack parameters
For a placement-targeted campaign, the {placement} parameter records the matching placement targeting criteria for the website where your ad appears (example.com/homepage.html, for example). In other words, we'll record whatever placement you decided to target, instead of the full URL of the website where your ad appears.
The {target} parameter records the placement category that generated the click.
Example tracking template
The resulting tracking template looks like this:
{lpurl}?target={target}&placement={placement}
Example data
ValueTrack will update your landing page URLs with the placement and placement category:
http://www.example.com/?target=%2Fentertainment%2Fcelebrities&placement=gmail.com
Goal
You want to find out the device on which your ad appeared.
Applicable ValueTrack parameters
The {device} parameter is replaced with "m" if your ad appeared on mobile devices, "t" if on tablet devices, or "c" if on desktop or laptop computers.
Example tracking template
The resulting tracking template looks like this:
{lpurl}?device={device}
Example data
ValueTrack will update your landing page URLs with information about the device on which your ad appeared.
For a click from a mobile device, you'll see:
http://www.example.com/?device=m
For a click from a tablet device, you'll see:
http://www.example.com/?device=t
For a click from a desktop or laptop computer, you'll see:
http://www.example.com/?device=c
Goal
You want to append different values to your URL depending on which device your ad appeared.
Applicable ValueTrack parameters
The {ifmobile:[value]} parameter is replaced with [value] if your ad shows on a mobile device.
The {ifnotmobile:[value]} parameter is replaced with [value] if your ad shows on a tablet or on desktop and laptop computers.
Example tracking template
Let’s say that you track performance by device, using your own internal IDs. For the keyword “widgets,” you have an internal ID of “1212” on mobile devices, and “3434” on tablets and computers. The resulting tracking template looks like this:
{lpurl}?myid={ifmobile:1212}{ifnotmobile:3434}
Example data
ValueTrack will update your landing page URLs with information about the device on which your ad appeared.
For a click from a mobile device, you'll see:
http://www.example.com/?myid=1212
For a click from a tablet or computer, you’ll see:
http://www.example.com/?myid=3434
Goal
You want to optimize your tracking by defining a tracking template at a high level. For example, if you set a tracking template at the campaign level, the tracking template would be shared across your entire campaign.
Example tracking template
Let’s say you want to track all the clicks that came from a campaign called “ppc.” The resulting tracking template (set at the campaign level) looks like this:
{lpurl}?source=ppc
Example data
ValueTrack will update all of your ads’ landing page URLs with the URL parameter source=ppc, assuming you didn’t define a tracking template at a lower level of the campaign (e.g. ad level).
For any click related to this campaign, you'll see:
http://www.example.com/?source=ppc