One of the most important aspects of managing an account is making sure tracking is implemented and set up correctly. The data that conversion tracking and final URLs bring in, is a crucial part of the steps you take to further optimize your paid search efforts. Let’s go through two important tracking changes and updates happening in Bing Ads.
First, starting October 31st, 2018, Bing Ads will no longer be supporting the ability to edit or create destination URLs at the keyword level. We’ll walk through what steps to do you need to take in order to be prepared.
After that, we’ll go through how to keep conversion tracking working across all browsers.
Migrating keyword destination URLs to final URLs
Starting at the end of October, keywords with existing destination URLs will continue to serve until further notice, but you will not be able to edit their destination URLs. You will still be able to pause and enable them, as well as change their bids.
Bing Ads recommends taking steps to migrate existing destination URLs at the keyword level to Final URLs. If destination URLs do not include tracking information, follow these steps in the Web UI to transition to final URLs.
- Click the Keywords tab.
- Make sure you can see the Landing page column. If you don’t see the column, go to the Columns drop-down, select Modify columns, and under the Attributes section, add the Landing page column.
- Click on the Landing page cell for the keyword whose Destination URL you would like to change to final URL
- In the pop-up, select the Final URL radio button. Your URL will still be populated in the text box.
- Optional: Enter a mobile URL in the Mobile Final URL field.
- Click Save.
If you have set up tracking in Bing Ads by adding URL parameters to your destination URLs, you will be interested in Upgraded URLs.
Upgraded URLs separate the landing page URL from the tracking or URL parameters so if you want to edit your URL parameters, your ad doesn’t have to go through another editorial review.
It also allows you to define a separate mobile landing page URL if you have a website that is optimized for smaller devices.
Benefits of Upgraded URLs
- More efficient tracking management: Manage and update tracking information of multiple URLs with a single shared tracking template. Turn hundreds or thousands of URL edits into one quick change.
- Less down time; more conversions and clicks: Updates to tracking templates don’t require an editorial review. This means your ads keep on running, so you don’t lose out on potential conversions.
- Additional tracking insights:Ability to add both URL parameters and custom parameters to your tracking template to gain additional insights about the source of your ad clicks.
If your destination URL does include tracking information, you can get more information on the Bing Ads help page.
Conversion tracking across all browsers
We rely on conversion tracking to help us understand how each of our ad campaigns are performing and how they are contributing to our overall marketing and business goals. To ensure useful reporting and actionable insights, accurate conversion tracking is a must.
Last year, Apple debuted a feature called Intelligent Tracking Prevention. It restricted access to cookies after 24 hours and because this impacted the way some conversions could be tracked on Safari, Bing Ads published the steps advertisers would need to take to maintain accurate conversion tracking across Safari. Apple has recently updated this feature to further restrict all third party cookies, and if you haven’t yet completed all the required steps, virtually all conversions tracked on Safari will be impacted.
Steps to take to ensure accurate conversion tracking across all browsers:
- Enable auto-tagging of Microsoft Click ID, and ensure the MSCLKID parameter is passed thru any redirection trackers to the final landing page.
The “Auto-tagging of Click ID” box needs to be selected within the URL options of the Shared Library for each of your accounts.
- Add the UET tag to all of your webpages, especially to your ad landing pages where the Microsoft Click ID will be automatically captured from the URL and stored in a first party cookie.
- Use the JavaScript version of the UET tag, and do not place the UET tag within any iFrames.
Validate UET tag is setup correctly across the entire website:
Once the above steps are completed, use the UET Tag Helper to help validate the UET tag is setup correctly across your website.
- Add the UET Tag Helper to your Chrome browser and turn the extension on.
- Go to Bing.com and search for and click on your own search ad.
- On the landing page you can see detailed information about the UET tag, including whether is it set up correctly or if there are actions needed.
If you miss any of the above steps or don’t complete it correctly, you may see errors. See the Bing Ads help page for more info.
There are so many steps to take in order to ensure the most accurate data is being reported. The data that conversion tracking and final URLs bring in, is a crucial part of the steps you take to further optimize your paid search efforts. Use the above steps and gather all the data that is available for your account.