Most analytics platforms, including those directly integrated with Outbrain DSP, allow you to track the post-click engagement metrics for your native advertising campaign. If you'd like to capture relevant information about your campaigns on Outbrain DSP, you can add tracking parameters to each ad group.

You can add tracking parameters while creating a new campaign or to your current campaigns as needed. To add tracking parameters at the Ad Group level, add your UTM parameters on the Settings page.

By default, Outbrain DSP passes tracking parameters to reveal the network and publisher. For example:

_z1_adgid=1840&_z1_caid=181290&_z1_msid=adiant&_z1_pub=cnn

GDPR Restrictions

If you’re running campaigns in countries that fall under GDPR restrictions, please ensure all your trackers are IAB TCF V2 compliant and registered as vendors in the IAB global vendor list. If your trackers are non-compliant, we will not be able to append them to responses from these countries.

Macros

When a user clicks on your native ad, they are redirected to your content. During the redirect, Outbrain DSP enables you to set various dynamic tracking parameters at the ad group level to send customized data back to your analytics solution.

These macros can help you create custom views in your analytics solution based on specific information so you can integrate them with your attribution systems.

The dynamic macros available in Outbrain DSP:

Macro	Description	Supported on Impression	Supported on Click	Supported on VAST tag
timestamp	UNIX timestamp of the impression or click	Yes	Yes	Yes
cachebuster	A random number allows you to circumvent browser and server caching	Yes	Yes	Yes
mediasource	Media source name as displayed in the "slug" column in the media sources tab	Yes	Yes	No
publisher	The domain of the publisher where the ad was shown	Yes	Yes	No
placement	The ID/name of the ad placement	Yes	Yes
idfa	The iOS identifier for advertising	Yes	Yes	No
idfa_lat	This signifies the user has limited ad tracking turned on	Yes	Yes	No
aaid	Android advertising identifier	Yes	Yes	No
aaid_lat	This signifies the user has limited ad tracking turned on	Yes	Yes	No
campaignid	The ID of the campaign that served the ad	Yes	Yes	No
adgroupid	The ID of the ad group that served the ad	Yes	Yes	No
contentadid	The ID of the ad that was served	Yes	Yes	No
postbackid	A unique click identifier can be sent back to the conversion pixel to connect the conversion with a specific click	No	Yes	No
random	A number that is guaranteed to be random for every event	Yes	Yes	Yes
pageurl	URL of the page where the ad was displayed	No	No	Yes
width	Width of the ad unit	No	No	Yes
height	Height of the ad unit	No	No	Yes
gdpr	GDPR consent value: "1" if there is consent, "2" if there's no consent	Yes	Yes	Yes
gdpr_consent_xxxx		Yes	Yes	Yes
us_privacy	CCPA consent string	Yes	Yes	Yes
title	Ad headline or title, used to identify which headlines are driving the most engaged audiences to make appropriate optimization decisions	Yes	Yes	No

IMPORTANT: All macros should be wrapped in either curly {}, dollar sign curly ${}, or square [] brackets and are not case-sensitive.

Please Note: In macro gdpr_consent_xxxx, xxx is the ID from the IAB list (TCF Vendor List).

Now that you have some options, let's walk through some potential use cases.

Example 1: Send the Content Ad ID as a Variable

http://www.example.com/?contentAdId={contentAdId}

In this example, your link will be different for each content creative that is served, which allows you to track the individual performance of each creative by enabling you to attribute engagement and conversions after someone has clicked on your content ad. This works especially well if you're A/B testing headlines and image combinations for a specific article.

Example 2: Send the Media Source as a Variable

http://www.example.com/?mediaSource={mediaSource}

In this example, your link will differ for each media source (or network) on which your content is served. This will help you determine where the traffic, engagement, and conversions are coming from, ie. Outbrain, TripleLift, Floor6, and others. It's important to know which media sources are driving engagement so you can make meaningful optimizations.

These macros and tracking parameters will help you capture relevant information about your campaigns on Outbrain DSP, giving you more data to make the optimizations that matter most.