Create or edit tracking templates

If you use a tracking service in addition to Search Ads 360 that requires you to send data to a tracking URL, add the URL to a tracking template.

If all ads in a client account use the same tracking URL, add the tracking URL to the account's tracking template. Otherwise, add the URL to a template at the campaign level or a lower. The templates at lower levels override templates from higher up.

HTML encoding

The additional tracking solution may require you to encode (escape) your landing page URLs. Typically, anything that is encoded will be passed to your site, and anything that is unencoded will be passed to the tracking service and not passed on to your site. For example, you may want Search Ads 360 to redirect to a tracking URL that looks like this:
https://example.tracker.com?c_id=123&t_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.myproduct.com%3Fp_id%3D42%26campaign%3DSpeedyShoes-Brand%26keyword%3D123456%26src%3D55

In this case, create a tracking template like this:
https://example.tracker.com/?c_id=123&t_url={escapedlpurl}%26src%3D{param2}

Note that the tracking template specifies the {escapedlpurl} placeholder and encodes the URL parameters.

The {escapedlpurl} placeholder encodes the final URL and final URL suffix for you, so your final URL can look like this:
https://www.myproduct.com?p_id=42

Most tracking services would end up redirecting to this URL:
https://www.myproduct.com?p_id=42&src=5

Instructions

If you're adding a URL to a tracking template that already contains a Search Ads 360 tracking URL, completely remove the Search Ads 360 URL before adding the other URL. After you save your changes, Search Ads 360 reformats the tracking template so its tracking URL comes first and the additional URL comes next.

Only edit tracking templates you create. Don't edit the Search Ads 360 tracking URL if it appears in a tracking template. Instead, completely remove the Search Ads 360 tracking URL so Search Ads 360 can properly format its URL.

Create or edit a tracking template at the account level

1. Sign in to your new Search Ads 360.
2. Navigate to a client account.
3. From the page menu on the left, click Settings.
4. In the expanded menu, click Account settings.
5. Click Tracking to expand the section.
6. In the "Tracking template" field, enter a tracking URL or edit an existing tracking URL that you created.  
7. Click Save.

Create or edit a tracking template at the campaign level

1. Sign in to your new Search Ads 360.
2. Navigate to a client account.
3. From the page menu on the left, click Settings.
4. In the expanded menu, click Campaign settings.
5. Click the campaign you want to edit.
6. Under “Additional settings", click Campaign URL options to expand the section.
7. In the "Tracking template" field, enter a tracking URL or edit an existing tracking URL that you created.  
8. Click Save.

Create or edit a tracking template at the ad group level

1. Sign in to your new Search Ads 360.
2. Navigate to a client account.
3. From the page menu on the left, click Ad groups.
4. In the "Ad group" column, click the name of an ad group.
5. From the page menu on the left, click Settings.
6. Under “Additional settings", click Ad group URL options to expand the section.
7. In the "Tracking template" field, enter a tracking URL or edit an existing tracking URL that you created.  
8. Click Save.

Create or edit a tracking template at the ad level

1. Sign in to your new Search Ads 360.
2. Navigate to a client account.
3. From the page menu on the left, click Ads & assets.
4. In the expanded menu, click Ads.
5. Hover over the ad you’d like to edit and click the pencil icon  when it appears.
6. Click Ad URL options to expand the section.
7. In the "Tracking template" field, enter a tracking URL or editing an existing tracking URL that you created.
8. Click Save ad. Saving sends this new version for review.

Create or edit a tracking template at the keyword level

First, add the “Custom parameters” column to your ad group or keyword table:

1. Sign in to your new Search Ads 360.
2. Navigate to a client account.
3. From the page menu on the left, click Keywords.
4. Click the columns icon  above the table.
5. Click Attributes to expand the section. 
6. Select the checkbox next to "Tracking template". 
7. Click Apply.

Now, add your tracking template:

1. Hover over any entry in the "Tracking template" column and click the pencil icon when it appears.
2. Enter a tracking URL or edit an existing tracking URL that you created.
3. Click Save.

Create or edit a tracking template at the sitelink level

1. Sign in to your new Search Ads 360.
2. Navigate to a client account.
3. From the page menu on the left, click Ads & assets.
4. Click Assets.
5. From the summary view , click Sitelink to view all sitelink assets. From the table view , select Sitelink from the dropdown in the upper left corner.
6. Hover over the asset you’d like to edit and click the pencil icon  when it appears.
7. Select Edit.
8. Click Sitelink URL options to expand the section.
9. In the “Tracking template” field, enter a tracking URL or edit an existing tracking URL that you created.
10. Click Save. 

Good to know

• Setting up URL options at the ad group, campaign, or account level means that you can update your tracking information without resubmitting your ads for approval. However, if you set up or edit at the ad, keyword, or sitelink level, they will still need to go through review.
• When creating or editing a tracking template, you can use the “Test” button to check that your tracking is set up correctly. Once you click “Test,” Google Ads will combine your final URL with any tracking you set up to make sure your ad will lead to a landing page URL.

Related links

• About tracking URLs in the new Search Ads 360 experience