Parallel Tracking in Bing (Microsoft) Ads
Just like Google Ads introduced Parallel Tracking back in 2018, Bing (Microsoft) Ads made Parallel Tracking mandatory in early 2021.
But what is Parallel Tracking?
- In traditional sequential tracking, when an ad click occurs, the consumer is taken through a series of redirects before landing on the final URL.
- With parallel tracking, the consumer is taken directly to your final URL while all the click-measurement processing is done in the background.
- That means a much faster page load time.
How does CPV Lab Pro handle Parallel Tracking?
CPV Lab Pro (opens new window) offers the option to track visitors without having them access the Campaign URL (redirect page) by using the Direct Traffic feature.
- This feature was added some time ago when Google first announced their intentions to ban redirect pages and send traffic directly to the Landing Page.
The Direct Traffic feature uses a piece of code (JavaScript or PHP) that gets placed in the Landing Page and performs all the tracking instead of the Campaign URL (base.php page).
What to change?
1. (OPTIONAL) Use Landing Page in Campaign
- If you are Direct Linking to Offer pages, then you need to switch to using a Landing Page in your Bing Ads campaigns.
- There are many advantages to putting a landing page between the ad and the offer and generally you can get more profits by doing this.
2. CPV Lab Pro campaign setup
- The CPV Lab Pro campaign setup will remain unchanged.
- You need to
- get the Direct Traffic code provided on the Campaign Setup page by clicking on the "
<>" button next to your landing page - and place it in your Landing Pages, in the
"body"section, just below the 2 lines of code from Step 2 in the campaign setup page.
- get the Direct Traffic code provided on the Campaign Setup page by clicking on the "
- This code is provided in 2 versions (JavaScript and PHP) so use the appropriate one based on the Landing Page type.
- If your Landing Page is a PHP page, then use the PHP version, otherwise use the JavaScript version.
- If you are using a landing page builder tool to create your pages, then use the JavaScript version of the code.
- The Direct Traffic code is also available at the bottom of the campaign setup page, in the Links & Pixels section.
- If using the Direct Traffic code from the bottom of the campaign setup page, then you need to replace the ‘xxx’ part with the actual Landing Page ID defined in CPV Lab Pro Campaign setup page.
- Make sure that you defined unique IDs for all Landing Page and Offers in your campaign!
3. Bing (Microsoft) Ads account setup
- Now you need to make changes in your Bing (Microsoft) Ads account to make sure you are linking to the Landing Page instead of the CPV Lab Pro Campaign URL.
- You will need to define your Landing Page as the Final URL for all your ads and to leave the Tracking Template empty since the Direct Traffic code will handle visitors tracking.
- Copy any parameters that appear in the Campaign URL textbox from the CPV Lab Pro campaign setup page after the “key” parameter and enter them in the Final URL Suffix field from your ads.
WARNING
- It’s very important to leave the Tracking Template textbox empty!
The complete Campaign URL provided in CPV Lab Pro will not be entered anywhere, only the parameters will go in the Final URL Suffix field.
- After making these changes you can click on the Test button for your ad to make sure your setup is correct.
- You should see
‘(none)’as the Tracking template and your Landing Page URL with the desired parameters as Click URLs, like in the following image:
What if I want to rotate traffic between 2 or more landing pages?
- Since you are direct linking to the landing page instead of using the Campaign URL in your Bing Ads campaign, you cannot have the landing pages rotated directly and you need an alternative approach.
- One solution is to create different ads in Bing Ads for different landing pages.
- Another solution that will actually allow you to split-test the same ad is to use the MV Lab tool which offers a Landing Page Rotator option.
- MV Lab will generate the code to create a redirect page that will be uploaded in the same server location as the landing pages.
- Then in your ad defined in Bing Ads you will use the URL of the redirect page instead of the URL of the landing page.
- Visitors come from Bing Ads to the redirect page first, then they are sent to one of the landing pages based on the share% defined in your campaign setup page.
- MV Lab (opens new window) is a multivariate testing tool which integrates with CPV Lab Pro and can also act as a Landing Page Rotator for your CPV Lab Pro campaigns.
Tokens/macros accepted by Bing Ads
- You will use tokens added in the Final URL Suffix textbox to pass data from Bing Ads to CPV Lab Pro.
- Tokens that you track are defined in CPV Lab Pro as Keyword Token, Ad Token, Unique Token and Extra Tokens in order to be captured and included in Reports.
- Available tokens for Bing Ads are:
| # | Token Name | Token Description | CPV Lab Pro Token Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | {AdGroupId} | Adgroup ID that triggered the ad | Extra Token |
| 2 | {AdId} | Ad ID of the displayed ad | Ad Token |
| 3 | {BidMatchType} | Match type of the bid (e=bidded exact p=bidded phrase, b=bidded broad, c=bidded content) | Extra Token |
| 4 | {CampaignId} | Campaign ID that triggered the ad | Extra Token |
| 5 | {Device} | Device type of where the click came from m=mobile, t=tablet device, c=desktop or laptop computer) | Extra Token |
| 6 | {IfContent:True} | 'True' if the ad is displayed on the content network | Extra Token |
| 7 | {IfMobile:True} | 'True' if the ad is displayed on a mobile device | Extra Token |
| 8 | {IfNative:True} | 'True' if the ad is displayed as a native ad | Extra Token |
| 9 | {IfSearch:True} | 'True' if the ad is displayed on the search network | Extra Token |
| 10 | {MatchType} | Match type that triggered the ad (e=exact p=phrase b=broad c=content) | Extra Token |
| 11 | {OrderItemId} | Keyword ID that triggered the display of the ad | Extra Token |
| 12 | {ProductId} | ID of the product that triggered the ad (Bing merchant center for product ads only) | Extra Token |
| 13 | {QueryString} | Search query text that the visitor entered | Extra Token |
| 14 | {TargetId} | Target ID of the keyword ("kwd") or remarketing list ("aud") that triggered the ad | Extra Token |
| 15 | {Campaign} | The name of the campaign that triggered the ad | Extra Token |
| 16 | {AdGroup} | The name of the ad group that triggered the ad. | Extra Token |
| 17 | {Network} | The Ad network type on which the ad was served. | Extra Token |
| 18 | {keyword:default} | Substitutes the keyword that matched the user's search term. Spaces in the keyword will each be substituted with "%20" to ensure the URL is valid. | Extra Token |
| 19 | {loc_physical_ms} | The geographical location code of the physical location of the click | Extra Token |
| 20 | {loc_interest_ms} | The geographical location code of the location of interest that triggered the ad. | Extra Token |
| 21 | {keyword} | The keyword searched by the user | Keyword/Target Token |
| 21 | {msclkid} | Unique identifier | External ID Token |
You may also find useful: