What is a tracking parameter?

A tracking parameter is a defined piece of code that’s added to the end of a URL. It can then be parsed by a system backend to share information contained by that URL.

At Adjust, we have three distinct groups of parameters that we work with; campaign parameters, redirect parameters and additional parameters.

When a user views or clicks on an ad, the advertiser wants to know information about that click or view. If there wasn’t any way to record and transfer the information about that interaction, then it would be impossible to accurately measure the performance of that ad. However, with the use of tracking parameters, we can capture a snapshot at the time of the click, and share information regarding which campaign sparked the click, what network served the ad that attracted the click and more.

Parameters allow a level of specificity in reporting, providing a space to add levels of granularity to the information that’s captured. Each parameter creates a place for a label to be attached to data, enabling that information to be shared between systems, and also allowing that information to be parsed in such a way that humans can understand it.

A campaign parameter provides four levels of granularity, with the tracker itself providing one ‘space’ to understand the context of the click or impression. Beyond that, having these parameter spaces defined allows the capture of values in the ‘creative’, ‘campaign’ or ‘adgroup’ tracking parameters. With these four spaces to store information, you can drill down into the data to provide more context.

In terms of redirect parameters, these specify where the user should end up after clicking the ad. In the default tracker behavior, the user will end up at the app store page for your app. But perhaps you want a user to instead arrive at a landing page outlining a promotion? Or you would like a user to be deep linked directly to a product page within your app? These can be accomplished by redirect parameters. Redirect, fallback and deep link are all types of redirect parameters that can be powerful tools to drive conversions and improve UX.

Additional parameters are varied. The label parameter allows you to affix any additional information you might like to transfer that doesn’t fit into a defined space such as the ones discussed above. Other examples of additional parameters include cost parameters that track ad spend, a referrer parameter allows information about referral programs to be stored and a server-to-server parameter enables the Ad Network to handle the redirect to the store directly.

To get started with using trackers, make sure to read our blog on app install tracking.