Google Upgraded URLs

A Guide to Google’s Upgraded URLs

Introduction

Google PPC Managment Company PowerTraffick reports that Google has announced Upgraded URLs, a major change to the way that Destination URLs are associated with keywords and other trackable objects (creatives, sitelinks etc.) and a new paradigm for how URLs are constructed and served with ads.

While traditional (‘legacy’) URLs are well-understood, they can be problematic because they’re simply not scalable if you have large numbers of keywords. For example, pushing changes to millions of keyword URLs at once can take a significant amount of time. On top of that, AdWords usually requires that a trackable (like a keyword) is re-submitted for editorial review every time a change to its URL is made.

Upgraded URLs represent a solution to these problems.

The basics of Upgraded URLs

Instead of a single Destination URL for each keyword or creative, Upgraded URLs makes it so that each URL is now created from three URL ‘building blocks’ that exist in various parts of your account, similarly to how how Product Group URLs work today. These three building blocks are:

  1. Final URL / Landing Page
  2. Tracking Templates
  3. Custom Parameters

We’ll explain each of these in depth below. Upgraded URLs also introduces several new Google ValueTrack parameters.

Note that all of your URLs must be upgraded by the end of June 2015.

Marin Support and Timeline

Date Notes
February 2015
  • Google announces Upgraded URLs.
  • Marin clients are asked not to upgrade any accounts or objects to Upgraded URLs full Marin Support.
April 2015
  •  Marin begins to work with clients to migrate to Upgraded URLs.
  • Full support for upgraded URLs fields, including syncing and bulk management.
  • Revenue tracking supports Upgraded URLs.
  • The Platform builds preview URLs for Upgraded URLs.
May 2015
  • May 15: Deadline for opting into Marin Assisted Upgrade Support.
  • The Marin Platform’s URL Builder now fully supports Upgraded URLs.
End of June 2015
  • Upgrade deadline. Old URLs will be set to read-only.
July 2015
  • Google auto-upgrades any non-redirect un-upgraded URLs where applicable.

Upgraded URLs in More Depth

 

The building blocks of Upgraded URLs are are found in several levels throughout your account. These building blocks come in three distinct flavors:

  1. Final URLs: A landing page / click-through URL.
  2. Tracking Templates: A template URL for tracking solutions and extra parameters.
  3. Custom Parameters: User-defined ValueTrack parameters.

Once set up, URLs are no longer found only at the keyword or creative level. Instead, AdWords combines a keyword’s Final URL (think of this as a click-through URL), a separate account-level Tracking Template, and any user-defined Custom Parameters it can find. The combination of these three pieces will then generate and serve a URL that looks like URLs that we recognize today.

In a nutshell:

One Tracking Template + Many Final URLs + Many Custom Parameters = Many Served URLs

Since the Tracking Template can live at the account level, you can manage common parameters and your redirect logic in one place. Additionally, because Tracking Templates don’t contain the Final URL, updates to the template won’t trigger editorial re-reviews.

Final URL / Landing Page

Every trackable object (keyword tool, sitelinks, placements, creatives, etc.) has what Google calls a Final URL. In our Platform, we call this the Landing Page. Google also has a Mobile Final URL for mobile devices, known as a Mobile Landing Page in our Platform.

The Final URL/Landing Page can be thought of as the ultimate page that a user clicking on the ad in Google will arrive at. This URL must be a domain that the company owns and can only contain redirects if they are within the company’s own domain (no third-party redirects are allowed).

 

Editing the keyword Final URL:

 

Tracking Template

A Tracking Template is the template that AdWords uses to assemble the URL that will actually be served with your ads. Its primary use, as the name implies, is to support third-party tracking solutions, such as Marin Tracker, which use URL redirects. It can also be used to add parameters in non-redirect cases for large numbers of objects.

You can add Tracking Templates to every object in your account, including: sitelinks, ads, keywords, groups, campaigns, and even the account itself. But the power of Upgraded URLs comes from having fewer higher-level templates. In fact, the ideal scenario is to have just one at the account-level.

Examples of the Tracking Template

  1. Non-redirect: {lpurl}?pcrid={creative}
  2. Redirect: http://tracker.marinsm.com/rd?lp={lpurl}

Tracking Templates need to include a reference to the Final URL/Landing Page that they are building on. For this, we use the {lpurl} ValueTrack parameter. This {lpurl} parameter will always be replaced with the Final URL/Landing Page of whichever keyword, creative, etc. is being served when the ad is shown.

When {lpurl} is at the beginning of the Tracking Template (as in example 1 above), the Final URL/Landing Page will be copied as-is into the combined URL at serving time. If {lpurl} is found anywhere else in the Tracking Template, then the Final URL/Landing Page will be encoded first and then copied into the served URL.

 

Editing the Account-level Tracking Template:

 

If Tracking Templates exist on more than one level (e.g. account and campaign), AdWords will use the lowest-level template when possible; in the case above, this is the the campaign-level template.

Custom Parameters

Additionally, Google has added Custom Parameters in order to make it easy to pass parameters and other information to the URL at serving time without hard-coding them in the Final URL/Landing Page or in the Tracking Template.

Custom parameters live at all levels except for at the account level (i.e. keywords, creatives, ad groups, campaigns, etc.) You can refer to them in both the Tracking Template or the Final URLs/Landing Pages.

Up to three custom parameters can be defined per object, and they have both a custom name and custom value. The value of a custom parameter can contain any of the characters found in a normal URL, and even Google-defined ValueTrack parameters (such as {creative}) — but cannot reference other custom parameters. Custom parameter values have a maximum length of 200 characters.

Examples of Custom Parameters

  1. Keyword level: {_MarinKwParam1} = “abc123”
  2. Campaign level: {_CampaignParams} = “?campaign=Brand_Shoes&creative={creative}”

In the first example, either the Tracking Template or the keyword’s Final URL/Landing Page needs to contain ?mkwid={_MarinKwParam1} so that when served, it is substituted with ?mkwid=abc123

Group-level custom parameters are edited from the Campaign Grid:

 

In the second example, {_MarinCampParam1} contains a fully formed query string, so in theory you could add it directly after the Tracking Template without any special characters. In this case http://www.example.com{_MarinCampParam1} would be served as http://www.example.com?campaign=Brand_Shoes&creative={creative}

Putting it all together

Let’s look at some examples and see what they might look like when set up using Upgraded URLs. We’ll start with a non-redirect case.

Non-redirect case:

  1. Account Level Tracking Template: {lpurl}?pcrid={creative}&{_mkwid}
  2. Keyword Final URL/Landing Page: http://www.example.com/basketball_shoes
  3. Keyword Custom Parameter: {_mkwid}=”mkwid=abc123”

becomes:

http://www.powpowsports.com/basketball_shoes?pcrid={creative}&mkwid=abc123

If we set up the Upgraded URL attributes as above, using an account-level template, it becomes clear how AdWords uses them to construct the URL at serving time by replacing {lpurl} with http://www.powpowsorts.com/basketball_shoes and by replacing {_mkwid} with mkwid=abc123

Redirect case:

  1. Account Level Tracking Template: http://tracker.marinsm.com/rd?cid=1teb318&{_mkwid}&pcrid={c…
  2. Keyword Final URL/Landing Page: http://www.powpowsorts.com/basketball_shoes
  3. Keyword Custom Parameter: {_mkwid}=”mkwid=abc123”

When combined, the above attributes will become the following URL at serving:

http://tracker.marinsm.com/rd?cid=1teb318&mkwid=abc123&pcrid={creative}&lp=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.powpowsports.com%2Fbasketball_shoes

In this redirect case, only the Tracking Template is different than in the non-redirect case covered earlier. Here, AdWords will again replace {_mkwid} with the keyword-level tracking ID. Additionally, AdWords will recognize that {lpurl} is in the query string, so it will be automatically escaped.

It is worth noting that AdWords also permits you to put Custom Parameters directly into the Final URL/Landing Page. This is especially useful in the case of redirects, because any Custom Parameters that are found in the Final URL/Landing Page will be automatically encoded when the URL itself is encoded and placed in the Tracking Template.

If, for example, we had placed our Custom Parameter {_mkwid} into the keyword Final URL/Landing Page like this: http://www.powpowsorts.com/basketball_shoes?{_mkwid} and not in the Tracking Template, the combined URL would have looked like this:

http://tracker.marinsm.com/rd?cid=1teb318&pcrid={creative}&lp=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.powpowsports.com%2Fbasketball_shoes%3Fmkwid%3Dabc123

Notice how the custom parameter has been encoded along with the Final URL/Landing Page.

URL ValueTrack Parameters

Google allows the use of several different ValueTrack parameters which can be used within URLs to refer to the landing page. Following is a complete list of these parameters as well as an explanation of what they do:

  • {lpurl}: returns the Final URL/Landing Page, which will be automatically escaped if {lpurl} appears anywhere in the tracking template, except in the beginning.
  • {lpurl+2}, {lpurl+3} returns the Final URL/Landing Page, escaped twice or three times, respectively. May be needed if there is a chain of redirects in the tracking template.
  • {unescapedlpurl} always returns the Final URL/Landing Page, unescaped.
  • {escapedlpurl} always returns the Final URL/Landing Page, escaped. Available only for DSA and PLA campaigns.
  • {lpurlpath} always returns the part of the Final URL/Landing Page that follows the domain. Available only for DSA and PLA campaigns.Allowed in: Tracking Template

Platform Upgraded URL Support

Syncing Pushing

The Platform syncs and pushes upgraded URL fields with its bidirectional sync.

Platform Bulk Support

Bulk functionality for upgraded URLs is key to maintaining a simple and efficient workflow. The Platform has added several new columns to support Upgraded URLs:

Column Description or Format Supported Objects
[Landing Page] This is equivalent to the AdWords Final URL Keyword, Creative, Placement, Remarketing List, Sitelink
[Mobile Landing Page] Equivalent to the Mobile Final URL in AdWords. Requires [Landing Page] Keyword, Creative, Placement, Remarketing List, Sitelink
[Tracking Template] Tracking template Keyword, Creative, Placement, Remarketing List, Sitelink, Product Group, Dynamic Search Target, AdGroup, Campaign
[Custom Parameters] {_name1}=value1; {_name2}=value2; {_name3}=value3Custom parameters must be in the same cell and separated by a semicolon and a space. {, }, and _ can be optionally omitted but are shown in report downloads. Keyword, Creative, Placement, Remarketing List, Sitelink, Product Group, Dynamic Search Target, AdGroup, Campaign

‘Preview URLs’ for Google Objects

Based on the same logic that Google uses to combine Upgraded URL components into a fully formed URL on the results pages, the Platform uses the Landing page URL, available custom parameters, and the relevant tracking template to build a Preview URL for the following Google objects:

  • Keywords
  • Creatives
  • Placements
  • Product groups
  • Sitelinks

With a Preview URL that looks similar to your legacy Destination URLs, we hope that the transition to upgraded URLs will be a little less impactful to your daily workflow. Not only can you quickly see and troubleshoot how your landing page URLs, custom parameters, and a tracking template will join together, but you can view your Google Upgraded URLs alongside all of your destination URLs from other publishers in the same Platform grid column.

Preview URLs are rebuilt whenever a change is made to its URL components or its parents’ URL components. For example when the Platform detects a change to a keyword’s Landing Page, the Platform will rebuild the keyword’s Preview URL. Likewise, if the account-level tracking template is edited, the Platform will rebuild Preview URLs for every keyword, creative, placement etc. in the account.

Notes

  • If Upgraded URL fields in the Platform are out-of-sync with AdWords, the Preview URL may not show the same URL that will be shown by Google.
  • Since Google makes real-time decisions about which ads are shown with which keywords, placements, etc. The preview URL for a keyword won’t resolve ad-level tracking templates and custom parameters. Likewise the ad-level preview URL won’t resolve custom parameters from a keyword. Sitelinks can be attached to any number of campaigns and groups so the sitelink-level preview URL will only ever resolve sitelink-level or account-level tracking templates.
  • Destination URLs are no longer editable fields. Attempting to make changes to legacy Destination URL fields for Google objects will have no effect.
  • In AdWords, custom parameters that are not able to be matched will not be resolved. For example if a tracking template looks like this: {lpurl}&mkwid={_mkwid} and no custom parameter named {_mkwid} can be found in the currently served keyword or ad, their parent AdGroup, or its parent campaign, then AdWords will simply replace {_mkwid} with a blank space when serving a URL. For a Marin preview URL, however, the custom parameter will not be substituted. Instead it will be left as-is to indicate that no match could be found.

Helpful links

 

Table of Upgraded URL Attributes by Account Object Type

AdWords Object Custom Parameters Final URL Tracking Template
Account ✓
Campaign ✓ ✓
AdGroup ✓ ✓
Product Group ✓ ✓
Ad ✓ ✓ ✓
Sitelink ✓ ✓ ✓
Keyword ✓ ✓ ✓
Placement ✓ ✓ ✓
Audience ✓ ✓ ✓
Other Trackables ✓ ✓ ✓

 

Frequently Asked Questions about Google Upgraded URLs

Introduction

With Google’s Upgraded URLs, it’s never been easier to manage the URLs within your account. You can read an overview of the feature via Marin’s Support Center article. This FAQ will address a number of questions you may have about Upgraded URLs and the migration process.

What are Upgraded URLs?

Upgraded URLs provide a smarter way for our customers to manage their URLs in AdWords. They can specify which part of their URL designates the landing page, and which part is used for tracking.

 This will allow you to specify three separate pieces of information for your URL:

  1. Final URLs: A landing page / click-through URL.
  2. Tracking Templates: A template URL for tracking solutions and extra parameters.
  3. Custom Parameters: User-defined ValueTrack parameters.

 

How will the Marin Platform support upgraded URLs?

  • We will be updating Marin’s URL builder to make it easier to manage and scale your upgraded URLs.

  • You can expect features that will help you set up tracking templates and custom parameters, and a tool that will combine upgraded URL components into a fully formed destination URL you can preview before pushing live.

How will URL Builder work with Upgraded URLs?

To help our customers with the complexity and time consuming process of migrating their URLs over to the new upgraded URLs structure, Marin is leveraging an Account Tracking Template solution for the migration and ongoing creating/management of Upgraded URLs. The use of this solution is to be considered a best practice for the following reasons:

  • Using an Account Tracking Template provides a much cleaner approach to set-up and makes it easier for advertisers to make any future changes. This solution results in ultimately cleaner looking URLs with increased readability.

  • Save time and limit operational disruption through the Account Tracking Template by being able to make basic tracking parameter changes to URLs without having to going through the Google editorial review process, which requires taking keywords and ads offline.

  • Marin provides customers with the ability to view fully constructed Upgraded URLs (visibility that customers will not get through any other platform solution) in the platform through the SmartGrid..

  • Google considers the Account Tracking solution to be an ideal one for handling Upgraded URLs.

How will Marin offer support for the Upgraded URL Migration?

  • Marin will assist with migrating your accounts to the new Google Account Structure.

  • All Paid Search Clients who opt in to the Marin Assisted Migration will be migrated unless they are using publisher tracking or GA auto-tagging with no custom parameters.

  • The deadline for opting into the Marin Assisted Migration is May 15, 2015.

A Guide to New URL Builder (Post-Upgraded URLs)

Introduction

With the release of Google Upgraded URLs in April 2015, URL Builder has been updated to support the new functionality from Google.

For Google, the settings defined in URL Builder are used to populate Tracking Templates and Custom Parameters for Google objects. These are the building blocks of Upgraded URLs.

For all other publishers, URL Builder continues to be used to construct Destination URLs.

Migration

During migration to Upgraded URLs, New URL Builder will apply to any objects that have been migrated and are using Final URL.  Legacy URL Builder settings will still be applied to Google objects that have not been migrated and are using Destination URL.

How to set up the New URL Builder

The following steps will explain how to set up the New URL Builder for both Google accounts and other publishers.

1. Select a publisher

  1. In the left pane of the URL Builder screen, select the publisher you wish to set up URL Builder for.
  2. To add a new publisher, click the Add + button at the bottom of the left pane and select the publisher you wish to add.
  3. Any URL Builder templates setup in All Other Publishers tab will apply to any publisher that has not been specifically added to URL Builder.
  4. Google will always remain a separate tab as certain URL Builder settings and field apply only to Google.

 

 

2. Select a template type

For Google, do the following:

 

After selecting the publisher, select a Template Type from the drop-down box. The default Template for each publisher is Account.

To add a new Template click Action > New Template to select the type of template you want to create.

  • Account Template: defines a PCA tracking template.  Applies to all PCAs.

  • Campaign Template: defines a Campaign tracking template.  Applies to all Campaigns.

  • Group Template: defines a Group tracking template.  Applies to all Ad Groups.

  • Keyword Template: defines a Keyword tracking template.  Applies to all Keywords.

  • Creative Template: defines a Creative tracking template.  Applies to all Creatives.

  • Placement Template: defines a Placement tracking template.  Applies to all Placements.

  • Product Target Template: defines a Product Target tracking template.  Applies to all Product Targets.

  • Sitelink Template: defines a Sitelink tracking template.  Applies to all Sitelinks.

For all other publishers, do the following:

 

Select Template Type from the drop-down box:

  • Account: defines URL Builder for account objects excluding Sitelinks and Product Targets.

  • Product Target: defines URL Builder for Product Targets.

  • Sitelinks (Bing only): defines URL Builder for Sitelinks.

 

 

3. Choose redirect options

The default value for Redirect is OFF. If you are not using Redirects, please proceed to the next step.

  1. If you are using Redirects, click Edit ( the ‘pencil’ icon) to open up the Redirect dialogue box.

  2. Select whether you are using Single or Double redirects (For non-Google publishers, the only option is On).

  3. Select the protocol for your redirect URL (http: or https:)

  4. Enter the redirect URL you are using (i.e. tracker.marinsm.com/rd?). Note: If desired, parameters and values can be added directly to the redirect URL. For example: tracker.marinsm.com/rd?cid=1teb318&pcrid={creative}

  5. (Optional): Enter the Connector parameter that contains the value of the landing page URL (i.e. lp=) (Applies to Google only). You can use the ‘connector’ to have the Platform automatically connect URLs. If not selected, you should include the connector in the URL field. For example: tracker.marinsm.com/rd?cid=1teb318&pcrid={creative}&lp=

  6. Select the encoding level of the Landing Page URL by clicking Edit (‘pencil’ icon) in the Landing Page row. (Applies to Google only).

The URL Schema field will show the building blocks of how the Redirect URL will be put together including the Redirect URL, Connector and Landing Page URL. You can add parameters to each of these section by creating Custom Parameters.

Custom parameters

For Google:

Custom Parameters allow for specifying text (typically key/value pairs) that will be appended to the URL.

URL Builder supports Custom Parameters that are stored in the Platform and Custom Parameters that are stored at Google. Custom Parameters stored in the Platform will be added onto the URL in the order they are created, and can also be re-used across templates. Custom Parameter stored at Google and can be referenced in the Google Tracking Template.

To add a new Custom Parameter:

  1. Click on the New button to open the Custom Parameters dialogue.

  2. Choose the Location of the Custom Parameter in the drop-down box.

    • Google Custom Parameters will be stored at the location of the object that is selected.

    • A maximum of 3 Custom Parameters is allowed per object type.

  3. Enter the Name for the Custom Parameter.

  4. Enter the Value for the Custom Parameter.

    • You can use drop-down shortcut menus for Tracking ID, Value Track, and Marin Macros to insert values into the Value field.

      • Tracking ID = Tracking IDs setup by user in Tracking IDs tab

      • Value Track = Publisher specific dynamic insertion parameters

      • Marin Macros = Marin specific dynamic insertion parameters

    • You can reference Google Custom Parameters within the Platform’s Custom Parameters for increased flexibility.

  5. Select the Stop Character.

    • The Stop Character will be the last character of the Custom Parameter and used to concatenate multiple Custom Parameters when building the URL.
    • In cases when no stop character is required or stop character has been input into the value, you can select None.

  6. Select the Redirect Assoc. (Association)

    • If using Redirects, you can choose whether the Custom Parameter will be appended to the Redirect URL, Landing Page URL or both.
    • If you do not want the Custom Parameter to be included in the Final Template, select  None.

  7. Click Save to Save the Custom Parameter.

For all other publishers:

For non-Google publishers, only one Platform Custom Parameter is supported. Text and parameters included in the one Custom Parameter will be appended to the uploaded URL to build the Destination URL that will be sent to the publisher. This is the same behavior as the Required Params section of Legacy URL Builder.

 

The Preview URL

For Google, the Preview URL section will show you the ‘structure’ of your URL Template, as well as a preview of the Tracking Template that will be pushed to Google for the specified object. Custom Parameters that are set up to be included in the template can be re-ordered in the Custom Parameters grid by clicking and dragging. This will change the order they display in the Structure and Preview Template.

Structure

The Structure field will display the building blocks how the URL will be put together.  The Structure will display URL blocks, Custom Parameter blocks and Connectors.

Preview Template

The Preview Template will display a rendered preview of the Tracking Template that will be pushed to Google.

Note: Marin Macros ([…]) will not be rendered in the Preview Template as Marin Macros are rendered when the Tracking Template or Custom Parameter is pushed to the specific object.

 

Applying settings and examples in bulk

When bulk adding or editing object through the Platform, URL Builder will be applied in order to ensure the proper URL configuration for new objects:

Google:

When Bulk creating / editing an object, the application will check if URL Builder has defined tracking templates or custom parameters for that object.

  • If Tracking Template has been defined for object, application will apply URL builder tracking template to new object.

    • URL Builder tracking template will override any uploaded tracking template

  • If Custom Parameters have been defined for object, application will apply custom parameters using the following logic:

    • If URL Builder custom parameters + uploaded custom parameters is <= 3, then the application will create all URL Builder and uploaded custom parameters for the object.

    • If URL Builder custom parameters + uploaded custom parameters is > 3, then application will first apply all URL Builder custom parameters.  If applied URL Builder custom parameters is <3, then application will apply the uploaded custom parameters 1 at a time, until the maximum 3 custom parameters has been reached.

All other publishers:

For trackable objects that contain Destination URL (i.e. Keywords, Creatives), URL Builder will apply redirect settings and required parameters in order to construct a Destination URL.

Constructed Destination URL will be stored with the object and pushed to the publisher. This is the same behavior as the legacy version of URL Builder.

URL Build Now

Google:

URL Build Now functionality will not be supported initially for Google.

All other Publishers:

Users can select publisher that they wish to Build URLs for. Application will build Destination URLs for selected publisher and push and Destination URL changes to the publisher.

URL Autocorrect

For Google:

AutoCorrect functionality will not be supported initially for Google.

For all other Publishers:

AutoCorrect for other publishers will continue to work the same as before the Upgrade URLs migration.

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