Use URL Tags for Tracking

Updated: Apr 23, 2020

You can track performance of a campaign with an external tool by using the url_tags of ad creative to distinguish different objects.

You can provide your own custom tags in the format of key=value, where key and value can both be customized. These are combined using the & character. For example, you might have something like utm_source=fb&ad=my_ad, which can be set using:

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PHP Business SDK

---

...  
$creative->setData(array(AdCreativeFields::URL_TAGS => 'utm_source=fb&ad=my_ad',));  
  
$creative->create();

Facebook also provides special macros that can be used in the value position of the format above. To have the ad's name automatically filled in, you can utilize the {​{ad.name}​} macro, which will be dynamically replaced when the ad is rendered with the name of the ad. For example, you create an ad named summer_2019, and set the url tag to ad_name={​{ad.name}​}. When the ad link is rendered for the viewer, they will see ad_name=summer_2019.

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PHP Business SDK

---

...  
$creative->setData(array(AdCreativeFields::URL_TAGS => 'ad_name={​{ad.name}​}',));  
  
$creative->create();

You can use a few different macros to help with tracking your campaigns:

• {​{campaign.id}​}
• {​{adset.id}​}
• {​{ad.id}​}
• {​{campaign.name}​}
• {​{adset.name}​}
• {​{ad.name}​}

Name-based parameters have special functionality. When you first publish your object, we store the name values used in a snapshot. When you use a name-based parameter in the tags for that object, Facebook then pulls from the snapshot rather than the live value.

Resources

• Business Help Center: URL Parameters⁠