Something that all affiliates and marketers should know about is UTM tracking and how to use it to pass along information. It’s an essential part of any campaigns from Google Ads and Facebook to all the affiliate ad networks out there like us.

UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters tags at the end of your URL that carry a value that can be tracked.

What are UTM parameters

UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters are a form of HTTP protocol on a URL that allows you to track everything from the source of the traffic to the name of the device that clicked on your ad. By adding them to your URL it allows you to track that specific attribute.  

To be specific, the UTM parameter is a dimension or label for what you want to track like a country or source. Then it is defined by the value following where UTM source is the parameter and the value is google thus the source of the traffic is from google.

Pushground.com/?utm_soruce=google

UTM formatting

To start, you always need to add a question mark (?) before your first UTM parameter. Then its the parameter name followed by an equal sign (=) then the value. To add multiple UTM tags, you much include an ampersand (&) between each tag. Like in all URLs, all spaces must be used with an underscore (_) or dash (-).

What are macros

The macro holds the place of the value but then dynamically changes to reflect the correct value for the parameter. For things like adding the site id to every URL would be impossible without a dynamic placeholder to automatically input the right site id.

Macros take the place of the value in the UTM tag and are always in curvy brackets {like this}.

How macros works

Let’s look at an example.  If you added the following macros: {click_id} and {country} into your URL it would look similar to what is shown below.

https://www.example.com/?your_parameter={click_id}&Country={country}

When someone clicks on your ad, the macros would automatically adjust to provide the following information about that attribute.  If that person that clicks had a click id of 100 and was in the United States the macros would change to look like this.

https://www.example.com/?your_paramater=100&Country=US

These values will be what is tracked when you send it to something like a tracker.

How to implement them

You can add macros to your Tracking URL in the create campaigns page by simply clicking on the macros you want to track.  Following the example we used about, it would look like this.

It’s Important to align the macros you are tracking in Pushground with the correct parameters of your tracker to allow you to properly track your campaigns. Most trackers are already integrated with Pushground and you might just have to add our template, but it is always smart to double-check that the macros you are recording on pushground are also be recorded on your tracker.

Available macros

All the macros or tracking tokens available from Pushground with descriptions.

{click_id}

Pushground Click ID, ex. 123456

{site_id}

Sub Source of the supply: 88_unicorn

{supply_id}

The ID of the supply, ex. 88

{bid}

The CPC bid you paid for the click. ex. 0.015

{campaign_id}    

Your campaign ID from the ad. ex. 123456

{creativity_id}      

The creative ID from the ad that was clicked, ex. 123456

{deviceName}      

The name of the device that clicked, ex samsung_galaxy_s9

{country}

The 2 digit country code from where the click came from. ex us

{city}

The city from where the click came from, ex. new_york

{language}            

The set language of the device, ex. Spanish

{bidcpm}                

The bid CPM you paid for the click, ex. 0.600

{format}                

The ad format type, ex. push

{userAge}            

The time since the user subscribed to the push source, ex. 12

{source}   (Deprecated)

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