How To Add URL Parameters to Facebook Meta Ads

Imagine you’re ordering a pizza online.

You can customize your pizza by adding different toppings, choosing a specific crust, and selecting a delivery address.

URL parameters are like these customization options. They’re extra bits of information added to a basic URL to make it more specific.

URL parameters can serve as a backup for the traffic that an ad (or perhaps your page or another source) sends to your website, but they shouldn’t be used in place of your Ads Manager reporting. They can also offer more information than Ads Manager by itself.

In this blog post, you will discover what URL parameters are, how to configure them (including a dynamic method), and how to utilize that data in Google Analytics.

Let’s go.

URL Parameters: What Are They?

URL parameters are additional details added to a URL’s end. You may not have noticed them, but you have likely encountered them before.

Let’s break down the components that make up URL parameters.

Facebook has millions of users, making it one of the most effective marketing platforms available. If you already have links to your website and other online content in your Facebook profile, that’s a great start.

But how can you determine if those links are actually driving traffic? You can take advantage of Facebook’s UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters.

By comparing the performance of your Facebook ads with other marketing channels, you can identify which ones are the most successful for your campaigns.

To gain a better understanding of Facebook UTM parameters, let’s examine an example:

http://www.mantramdigital.com/landing.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=enganement-campaign-1

The details that follow the “?” symbol are the UTM parameters. Each parameter provides vital marketing data. For example, utm_source=facebook tells you that someone accessed your website from Facebook.

URL Parameters can help you monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of any advertising campaign.

5 Typical URL Parameters

1. Source (utm_source): This parameter provides the UTM’s traffic source. For example, the utm_source for Facebook posts or ads will be set to “Facebook.” Ad campaigns from other channels, such as YouTube and Twitter, will display the source here.
2. Medium (utm_medium): Medium specifies the traffic source’s marketing medium. Anything from social media posts to emails, newsletters, and banner advertising can be used.
3. Campaign Name (utm_campaign): This is useful if you are running multiple campaigns at once because it provides you with the campaign name of the traffic source. You can use it to determine whether Campaign A’s advertisements are driving more traffic than Campaign B’s.
4. Term (utm_term): This field provides the related terms that were used in the source of the advertisement. Google AdWords campaigns are the primary use case for the utm_term option.
5. Content (utm_content): You can provide more campaign-related information with this optional parameter. During A/B testing or when there are many links or buttons in the advertisement, this is most frequently used to determine which one the user clicked.

How To Add URL Parameters to Facebook Meta Ads?

1. From your page, create an advertisement.
2. Click the checkbox next to “Add default URL parameters” below the URL parameters.

This is what it looks like:

3. The URL of your advertisement will have the following default parameters:
Source: The source of traffic to your website. This will show up as utm_source=Facebook in your URL.

Medium: The location of your advertisement. This will show up as utm_source=CPC in your URL.

Campaign: The kind of advertising you’re doing. This will show up as utm_source=[campaign.id]_[adset.id]_[ad.id] in your URL.

4. By visiting Meta Ads Manager, you may modify your URL parameters.

Some Things to Keep in Mind

UTMs are case-sensitive

Capitalization and whitespace can be used in UTM parameters, which are case sensitive. However, Google Analytics treats uppercase and lowercase letters as distinct, resulting in data being tracked in separate rows. This can complicate data aggregation across dimensions.

While there is no strict rule about using uppercase or lowercase, many find that using lowercase letters without spaces makes reports easier to read. To maintain consistency, consider setting lowercase filters. In Google Analytics, it’s advisable to ensure that all URL parameters are converted to lowercase.

Default Channel Grouping

It is uncommon to use the medium field for tracking crowds. While it is permissible, doing so will disrupt GA’s default channel grouping. To address this, you can modify or create your own channel groupings.

Using the Same Naming Convention

This is very crucial. Tracking advertisements with Facebook URL parameters is one thing. Making your data readable and organized is another. It is crucial to have a uniform and unambiguous naming scheme or UTM Profile.

Custom URL parameters

Custom Facebook Ad URL parameters are helpful if you want to keep Google Analytics’ default channels unchanged. These parameters can also be utilized to track additional data. You can map custom dimensions to these custom parameters for better insights. This approach is particularly effective for monitoring non-standard marketing information, such as placement or audience targeting.

Remember to tag new ads

Always include URL parameters in your advertisements. If you forget to add them, Facebook traffic may be categorized as referral traffic. Additionally, Google Analytics does not permit updates to past traffic data. Therefore, ensure that you have UTMs set up before launching any campaign.

Why should UTM parameters be used?

Are Facebook’s UTM settings clear and beneficial for your online advertising campaigns? In short, UTM parameters provide valuable insights for businesses. Data analytics is crucial for informed decision-making and is key to corporate success.

For current and future marketing campaigns, leveraging this data can be the deciding factor between success and failure. Read on to discover why you should incorporate UTM parameters in your Meta advertisements:

1. Improved analytics and tracking

Using UTM parameters allows you to monitor the success of your advertising more accurately. Not only can you see how many people click on your Facebook ads, but you can also track how many of those clicks lead to downloads, sign-ups, and sales.

This tracking is achieved through a process called attribution, which assigns credit to various touchpoints that lead to specific outcomes— in this case, how Facebook influences users to make purchases from your company.

When a prospective customer clicks on a Facebook link that includes URL parameters, the parameters, and requests are sent to your landing page.

If you have analytics tools set up to evaluate data from these incoming requests, you can track real business results from Facebook by linking sign-ups and other conversions back to the initial click.

2. Better insights on the performance of campaigns

By default, all of these campaigns will be grouped as a single source of traffic in your website analytics. This makes it challenging to identify which specific ad campaigns are driving higher conversion rates.

Without this insight, you cannot optimize your ads effectively since you won’t know which campaigns are performing well and which ones need improvement. To gain better tracking capabilities for your Facebook advertising, you can use UTM URL parameters.

These parameters provide additional information, allowing you to identify the source of your traffic, the specific campaign it belongs to, and the exact link the user clicked on. This way, you can analyze and optimize your ads more effectively.

3. Customized data segmentation

As people’s attention spans continue to shrink, they typically spend only 2.5 seconds on each piece of content on Facebook. To encourage users to engage more with your advertisements, it’s essential to capture their attention quickly.

However, understanding what your audience likes can make this task challenging. In this context, Facebook UTM parameters become important. They provide valuable insights that can help you improve your ads.

By analyzing a specific boosted Facebook post that drives a significant amount of your traffic, you can determine what makes it engaging. Is it the images? The copy? Based on this analysis, you can replicate that success in your other marketing efforts.

Recommendation

Using URL parameters on Facebook can provide valuable insights into how well your ads are performing. This information allows you to adjust your strategies and allocate your budget more effectively. However, Facebook’s UTM settings can sometimes make your links appear cluttered and unprofessional.

Take your Facebook Meta Ads to the next level with URL parameters. Maximize your ROI and optimize your campaigns.

Last Updated on December 27, 2024