Tracking Parameters & Macros
Updated over a week ago

Most analytics platforms, including those directly integrated with Zemanta, 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 in Zemanta, you can add tracking parameters to each ad group.

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

By default, Zemanta 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 make sure all of your trackers are IAB TCF V2 compliant and registered as a vendor in the IAB global vendor list. In the case of non-compliant trackers, we will not be able to append your trackers to responses coming from these countries.

Macros

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

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

The dynamic macros available in Zemanta:

Macro

Description

Supported on
impression

Supported on
click

Supported on VAST tag

timestamp

UNIX timestamp of the impression or click even.

Yes

Yes

Yes

cachebuster

A random number allowing 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

Signifies if the user has limited ad tracking turned on.

Yes

Yes

No

aaid

Android advertising identifier.

Yes

Yes

No

aaid_lat

Signifies if 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

Unique click identifier that can be sent back on the conversion pixel to connect 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.

Note: In macro gdpr_consent_xxxx, xxx is the ID from the IAB list: Vendor List TCF v2.0.

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

Example 1: Send the Content Ad ID as a variable:

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:

In this example, your link will be different for each media source (or network) your content is served on. This will help you determine where the traffic, engagement, and conversions are coming from, ie. Outbrain, TripleLift, Floor6, and more! 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 in Zemanta, giving you more data to make the optimizations that matter most.

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