Tracking template for DSAs

[mm]

Hey guys -

I've got a question about tracking templates. As we move to upgradedUrls, we plan to move towards a model where we specify the tracking template at the campaign level and override where needed (likely at the adgroup). For a search campaign, the tracking template looks something like this:

http://tracking.com/redirector?kwid={targetid}x{adgroupid}x{campaignid}&adid={creative}&url={unescapedlpurl}

Now I'm going through and setting a tracking template at various levels in an account to test my changes. This has been working great so far. Data coming in to the tracking server looks good, etc. 

I can create a DSA with no tracking template of its own in a campaign with this tracking template. But when I tried to create a DSA with its own tracking template in this format, the create failed with AdError.INVALID_DSA_URL_TAG. After changing the template to use {escapedlpurl} I could create the DSA. 

So the question I really have is what happens when a DSA with no tracking template of its own is served and the template at a higher level uses {unescapedlpurl}? Why is that acceptable yet a DSA with the same template is not? It strikes me as problematic that I could have a template at a higher level that isn't considered valid at lower levels.

Thanks -

mm

[Josh Radcliff (AdWords API Team)]

Hi mm,

Would you happen to have the request IDs from the failed attempts at creating a DSA with {unescapedlpurl}? I'd like to look up those requests so I can investigate further.

Thanks,

Josh, AdWords API Team

[mm]

Sure - here's one: 

<requestId>000517c860f796900abfa015f100fce8</requestId>

I can certainly generate more if needed!

[Josh Radcliff (AdWords API Team)]

Hi mm,

Thanks for sending over the request ID. I was able to reproduce the behavior you described, but then things got interesting. :)

According to our DynamicSearchAd documentation:

{unescapedlpurl} can only be used at the beginning of the URL field. It will be replaced with the full landing page URL of the displayed ad. Extra query parameters can be added to the end, e.g.: "{unescapedlpurl}?lang=en".

However, I was able to create a DynamicSearchAd with the following trackingUrlTemplate:

http://www.example.com/?{_cust1}&lpurl={unescapedlpurl}

I'm following up with the upgraded URLs team to determine precisely what's going on here. I'll let you know as soon as I have more information.

Thanks,

Josh, AdWords API Team

[mm]

Hey Josh -

Any update on this? We're moving into our upgrade process & would sure appreciate it if we could get a resolution on this.

Thanks!

mm

[Josh Radcliff (AdWords API Team)]

Hi mm,

I'm still trying to get a definitive answer for you on this. One piece of information I did get was that the reason you can set a trackingUrlTemplate at the campaign or account level that wouldn't be considered valid for a specific DSA is that the campaign or account level template could be used for other ad types, criteria, sitelinks, etc. that are not in DSA campaigns.

I'm curious: with unescapedlpurl at anywhere but the beginning of the URL, are you concerned about invalid URLs being generated? It seems that you could wind up with some questionable URLs with that approach, e.g., a URL that repeats the protocol.

Thanks,

Josh, AdWords API Team

[mm]

No, I was primarily concerned that there was some reason on your end that using {unescapedlpurl} at the end of my tracking template (which directs traffic to a 3rd party tracker) would be ignored for my DSAs and I would have untracked traffic. So far, using {unescapedlpurl} at the end of my template appears to be working fine - even for DSA's. However, my DSA tests  are a sample size of one at this point, so I'm still wary :)

-mm

[Josh Radcliff (AdWords API Team)]

Hi mm,

It's my understanding that the tracking template will not be ignored in this case, but you could potentially generate invalid URLs if you place {unescapedlpurl} at any point except the beginning of your tracking template (for the reasons I mentioned in my previous email).

Thanks,

Josh, AdWords API Team

[Josh Radcliff (AdWords API Team)]

Hi mm,

We recently updated the documentation for DynamicSearchAd as well as the Help Center article on DSAs to try to clarify some of these points. In addition, we updated the validation so that the request you originally mentioned should no longer throw the INVALID_DSA_URL_TAG error.

Cheers,

Josh, AdWords API Team

[mm]

Thanks a bunch, Josh!