Microsoft Invest - Create a click tracker
Click trackers are used to track user clicks on creatives served by off-platform (non-Microsoft Advertising) ad servers.
This document describes how to create and export a click tracker for use with creatives served by an external ad server. Most ad servers allow you to attach a "piggyback pixel" to a creative when you upload it. The click tracker is meant to be uploaded as a piggyback pixel so that when that creative is clicked, the click tracker will load as well and let Microsoft Advertising know that a click took place. You can report on these clicks using the Clicktrackers Feed.
Step 1. Create a click tracker
Navigate to the Click Trackers screen (Creative> Click Trackers) and select the Create Click Tracker button.
The Create new Click Tracker dialog will appear. In the Click Tracker Details section, enter the name of the click tracker. You can select Advanced Options if you'd like to assign your own custom Code and Landing Page URL to this click tracker.
Step 2. Associate with a line item (required)
Click trackers are associated with line items. In the Line Item Association section, select Edit to choose the line item you'd like to associate this click tracker with. You can also search for a line item by name.
Important
Once a line item is associated with a click tracker, you can report on the clicks coming through that tracker at the line item level. You can separate impression and click trackers by grouping by Impression Type in Member Reporting.
Step 3. Associate with a publisher (required)
Under Publisher Settings, select Edit and choose the publisher you'd like to associate this click tracker with.
Step 4. Associate with a placement (optional)
You can optionally associate your click tracker with a placement. This allows you to do performance reporting on the clicks coming through this placement.
Step 5. Associate with a payment rule (optional)
Because you are required to associate your click tracker with a publisher, you can optionally associate it with a payment rule as well.
Step 6. Export the click tracker
Finally, export the click tracker by selecting the checkbox to its left, and selecting More Actions > Export Tags from the menu to the right of the Create Click Tracker button.
The Export Trackers dialog will appear. Under Basic Options, you can choose to export a JavaScript tag or a secure pixel.
Under Delivery Options, you can choose to generate the tags now, or have them sent to you in an email.
The Advanced Options section presents several different macros that you can use to populate your click tracker. For more information about these macros, see Creative Macros.
Step 7. Add macro parameters (optional)
The exported click tracker will look something like the following (this tracker includes the macros CACHEBUSTER, ANCOST and REDIRECT_URL from the Advanced Options section of the export dialog shown above).
<!-- Click Tracker - CLIK TRAX -->
<a href="http://ib.adnxs.com/clktrb?id=21378&cachebuster=[CACHEBUSTER]&ancost=[ANCOST]&redir=[REDIRECT_URL]">YOUR TEXT HERE</a>
<!-- End of Click Tracker -->
The table below lists the parameters you can add to the click tracker and their definitions.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
cachebuster |
Cachebusters ensure that the user's browser does not cache the URL. It should be dynamically generated by the ad server from which the click originates. |
ancost |
Passes Microsoft Advertising the media cost. This should be populated with what you paid for a click in the original system. Note: This will override any payment rules. |
redir |
The URL you'd like the creative to redirect to, which must be non-encoded and fully functional. This will supersede any redirect value entered into Invest DSP. Note: This parameter must be placed at the end of the query string. If it's anywhere else in the query string, the redirect will not be successful. |