We continue our new heading “Keitaro Best Practices”, and in today’s article, we will talk about global parameter aliases. Let’s figure it out!
A bit of theory about the parameters: After the campaign has been created, it’s time to configure its parameters (the third tab of the campaign settings).
Here we see three columns: Name, Parameter, and Token or Value.
The Name is what a parameter will be called in the tracker report. This doesn’t affect anything else. Basic parameters whose names cannot be changed are Keyword – Site. The rest go by default as Sub ID 1–15 and Extra param 1–10. The latter are included separately in the tracker settings (Maintenance – Settings – General – Enable extra params). Extra params are used only for storing data and displaying it in reports. These cannot be used in parameter filters.
How does it work?
We set a custom value, and then we can see it when creating a report:
Build a report (click on the three dots to the right of the “Log” button, then “Clicks”).
Quite simply! Let’s move on. The second column is Parameter.
Parameter is the naming convention used for the parameter that you want to pass to the tracker—not the value of the parameter, but its name. For example, when working with Facebook, you pass the adset name using the standard Facebook dynamic parameter {{adset.name}}. But to pass the value of the adset name, you must write it to some parameter (at your discretion). Let it be adset_name. The total we get is adset_name={{adset.name}}.
Where adset_name is the name of the parameter and {{adset.name}} is a macro.
{{adset.name}} is also a token and a value, which will be substituted in the end for a macro when a click leaves Facebook via your link.
So, in the second column of the tracker, called Parameter, we must fill the name with the adset_name parameter, after which we can send adset_name=any_our_value to the tracker and the tracker will be able to record it, since it will find a parameter named adset_name and will know exactly where to write the received parameter value.
And here we smoothly come to the third column: Macro/ Token/ Value.
In our case, {{adset.name}} is a macro. It is indicated in the traffic source because it is on the source side, in which the real value should be substituted for the macro. But the tracker has such a setting: Traffic Sources (Learn more about sources and S2S). This is a set of ready-made templates of known traffic sources that already contain all the necessary parameters and their tokens (macros) for the convenience of the client, eliminating the need to fill them in manually. That is, if you add a ready-made template in the campaign settings, for example, the same Facebook—then we will get the filled Parameter and Token columns.
The third column is filled in here only so that you can take the campaign link (to the left of the “Log” button) and get a ready-made set of all tags written in the URL:
https://keitarosupport1.xyz/N27j6z?utm_creative={{ad.name}}&utm_campaign={{campaign.name}}&utm_source={{site_source_name}}&utm_placement={{placement}}&campaign_id={{campaign.id}}&adset_id={{adset.id}}&ad_id={{ad.id}}&adset_name={{adset.name}}
In fact, the value of the parameter is checked at the input of the click to the tracker, so if you delete all values from the Token column, nothing will change in the tracker, but the link will have to be collected manually (substituting macros for the parameters).
Important Point!
The Keitaro tracker provides for static transmission of parameters from a campaign along its streams, so if you filled in the Token column but didn’t send any real values from the source, the tracker will take the content of this column as a basis and record it as the only correct one.
For example: utm_creative={{ad.name}}
If Facebook returns the real value along with the click, then the tracker will receive conditionally: utm_creative=creo1
If, for some reason, the tracker does not receive this data (utm_creative=any_value), then it will write down the value utm_creative={{ad.name}} along with the click.
This is done to implement those cases in which the client needs to transfer fixed data from the tracker without receiving it from the source.
Now that we understand parameters, it’s time to move on to the main question of this article – Global Parameter Aliases.
They are located at: Maintenance – Settings – General – Global parameter aliases. As you already understand, these are the aliases for our second column of campaign parameters.
What are they needed for?
Above, we reviewed the procedure for setting parameters for a specific campaign. You must perform this action repeatedly when creating new campaigns. Global aliases simplify this point and allow you to specify a list of parameter names one time at the level of the entire tracker.
How can you use it?
If, in your work, you are accustomed to using a certain set of parameters, then just set those parameters at the level of global aliases and forget about constant parameter adjusting for every campaign. For example, if you need to use the names sub1–10 and use custom parameter names—such as name, app_name, geo, etc.—then go to the global aliases and, opposite the columns you need (according to the list we have in the first column, Name, as you will see it in the reports), write your custom names.
Save the changes, and from now on, global aliases will immediately work in the tracker for any created campaign. You can create a new campaign and immediately use sub1=token&name=token&app_name=token in your link without setting up the Parameters tab. The tracker will recognize the values and record them.
Implementation
Create a new campaign and leave the Parameters tab unaffected. Take the campaign link
https://keitarosupport1.xyz/27fdgz
and add name=testname to get https://keitarosupport1.xyz/27fdgz?name=testname, make the click, and see the report on “Clicks.”
The alias name was recorded in creative_id, so we display this column in the report and check it.
Setup Works!
Follow the “KBP” heading, because in the next issues, you will find even more analyses of unique Keitaro functions.
