Use placeholder keywords in "Other" client accounts

To track conversions for engines that aren't supported by the new Search Ads 360, create placeholder keywords in a client account of type "Other." For example, you can use Search Ads 360 placeholder keywords to track conversions on social networks.

You can use URL templates in "Other" client accounts just as you can in supported client accounts. For example, instead of manually adding the same parameters to each landing page URL, you can create a URL template and apply the parameters automatically.

To track conversions on other advertising platforms:

1. Create a social account.
   • Note: Only a manager or sub-manager manager can create a social account.
2. Create a campaign in the new client account.
3. Create an ad group in the new campaign.
   If your other client account doesn't have ad groups, you can still use them as a way to organize keywords. They won't affect reporting. In the new Search Ads 360, placeholder keywords can only be created inside an ad group.

4. Create a placeholder keyword:

   1. Navigate to the ad group you created in the "Other" client account.

   2. Click + Keyword, which appears above the reporting table.

   3. In the table that appears, enter keyword text and a landing page URL for each keyword.

      Here's what to enter in each column:

      • Keyword text: Specify something to help you identify the purpose of the placeholder keyword. Because this keyword won't traffic to the advertising platform, the keyword text will never be used to match a customer search.

      • Landing page URL: Specify the URL you want Search Ads 360 to redirect users to. This could be a page on the advertiser's site or the address of another tracking service that will eventually redirect to the advertiser's site.

      For example:

      Keyword	Match type	Max CPC	Landing page
      mortgage interest rates		(inherited)	https://www.example.com/mortgage
      home loan		(inherited)	https://www.example.com/loan

      Note that Match type and Max CPC are irrelevant for a placeholder keyword in an "Other" account, so you can leave the columns set to their default values.

   4. Click Save. The new keywords appear in the reporting table.

5. Copy the keyword's clickserver URLs:
   1. Click the Columns button above the performance summary graph.
   2. Type clickserver URL in the search box.
   3. Click next to the column name in the "Available columns" list.
   4. Click Apply.
   5. Copy the URL from the Clickserver URL column.
6. On the search engine, paste the clickserver URLs as the destination URLs for the items you'd like to track (ads, keywords, and so forth).

Paste the identifiers into custom parameters

Paste the identifiers into the custom parameters for the items you want to track.

Google Ads accounts

If you've set up Google Ads campaigns that target the Google Display Network (GDN), Search Ads 360 can report on keywords and text ads in those Google Ads campaigns by default.

1. Sign in to Google Ads.
2. Edit your bids for placements, topics, or interests, which is required before you can edit a display item's tracking template.
3. Display the tracking template and custom parameter options in the Google Ads reporting table:
   • Click the Columns button, and then click Modify columns.
   • In the Modify columns window, click Attributes.
   • Next to Tracking template, click Add.
   • Next to Custom parameter, click Add.
   • Click Apply to close the window.
4. Click Campaigns, then click Settings.
5. Click the campaign you want to edit.
6. Under “Additional settings", select Campaign URL options.
7. Next to "Custom parameter," enter the name and value of your custom parameters.
8. Click Save.
9. Make sure the Tracking template column is empty.
   If an item already specifies its own tracking template, the item will not inherit a tracking template that contains a Search Ads 360 clickserver URL and Search Ads 360 will not be able to report on the item.
10. In the Custom parameter column, click the (pencil icon) and enter the following:
    • Name: dssagcrid
    • Value: lid=keyword-id&ds_s_kwgid=ad-group-id
      Where:
      • keyword-id is the value from the Search Ads 360 ID column.
      • ad-group-id is the value from the Search Ads 360 Ad group ID column.

    For example:
    {_dssagcrid}=lid=43700006505881321&ds_s_kwgid=58700000448996899

    

11. Click Save.

How does this work?

Here's an overview of how Search Ads 360 uses the placeholder keywords and custom parameters to report on display targeting items:

1. To report on activity in a Google Ads account, Search Ads 360 generates one clickserver URL for each Search Ads 360 URL template you've defined. Then Search Ads 360 encodes the clickserver URL as part of the URL template and then traffics the template to Google Ads.
2. Google Ads saves the Search Ads 360 URL template as a tracking template.
3. When Google Ads serves an ad triggered by a targeting item, it applies a tracking template and all custom parameters in the path to the final URL.
   For example, if you define custom parameters for your placements and a final URL for an ad, when Google Ads serves the ad, it includes the custom parameters from the placement that caused the ad to display.
4. Because the tracking template contains a clickserver URL, when a customer clicks the targeting item, the click is redirected to Search Ads 360. Search Ads 360 uses information in the clickserver URL and in the _dssagcrid custom parameter to attribute the click to the placeholder keyword you created for the targeting item.
5. When you review a report in Search Ads 360, the placeholder keyword will show visits, as well as conversion data attributed to the associated targeting item in the display campaign.

All Google Ads client accounts in Search Ads 360 receive a URL template at the account level by default. This ensures that Search Ads 360 can track all items that use custom parameters and a tracking template in Google Ads. Because URL templates are hierarchical, you can also define additional URL templates at lower levels in a client account. For example, you could create a separate URL template for each ad group and specify ad-group specific parameters in the template. On the Google Ads side, Google Ads will apply the lowest-level template that's available. For example, Google Ads will apply ad-group level templates if you have defined them. Otherwise, it will apply campaign templates or the account-level template.

Microsoft Advertising

1. Sign in to Microsoft Advertising and navigate to the item that you want to track in Search Ads 360.
2. Make sure the item's Tracking URL field is empty. If an item already specifies its own tracking template, it will not inherit the Search Ads 360 tracking URL and Search Ads 360 will not be able to report on the item.
3. Add a custom parameter to the item that contains the following data: 
   • Name: dssagcrid
   • Value: lid=keyword-id&ds_s_kwgid=ad-group-id
     Where:
     • keyword-id is the value from the Search Ads 360 ID column.
     • ad-group-id is the value from the Search Ads 360 Ad group ID column.

For example:
{_dssagcrid}=lid=43700006505881321&ds_s_kwgid=58700000448996899

Yahoo! Japan

1. Sign in to Yahoo! Japan and navigate to the item you want to track in Search Ads 360, such as a QuickLink.
2. Make sure the item's Tracking URL field is empty. If an item already specifies its own tracking template, it will not inherit the Search Ads 360 tracking URL and Search Ads 360 will not be able to report on the item.
3. Add a custom parameter for the item that contains the following data:
   • Name: dssagcrid
   • Value: lid=keyword-id&ds_s_kwgid=ad-group-id
     Where:
     • keyword-id is the value from the Search Ads 360 ID column.
     • ad-group-id is the value from the Search Ads 360 Ad group ID column.

For example:
{_dssagcrid}=lid=43700006505881321&ds_s_kwgid=58700000448996899

Next steps

To report on placeholder keywords, add any of the following columns to the reporting table:

• Visits
• Floodlight activity
• Google Analytics activity

You can then save the report view that includes your selected columns so that you can quickly display the report the next time you want it.