Correct URL Syntax (legacy document)
This article is not about how to implement and activate the Productsup tracking, but about the basic syntax of a product URL in order to successfully use the tracking.
1. URL Syntax intro
Online marketing needs tracking. Management and optimization of the marketing campaigns are only possible with statistics about the performance. To get the correct statistics tracking is mandatory.
To make it work it is important to follow basic syntax rules for the URL. More information can be found here.
Examples of a basic Product URL:
http://www.yourdomain.co.uk/categorie/product/super-item-123456.html http://www.nl.yourdomain.com/something/456fcvr548/default.aspx/ http://yourdomain.com/denomination/items-b/ etc.
2. Parameter
A parameter contains a name and a value. First comes the name followed by "=" (equal) and the value of the parameter.
Example: For pixel tracking Productsup provides the export channel id in the URL. - name: pup_e - value: 6 (for Idealo)
Result: pup_e=6
3. Order
It doesn't matter how many parameters are added in the URL. But there are some basic rules:
The first parameter comes directly at the end of the URL and is introduced by a question mark "?"
An ampersand "&" is never positioned in front of a question mark "?"
the parameters are always seperated by an ampersand "&"
there can only be ONEquestion mark "?" per URL
Example:
In the URL are two Productsup parameters - Export ID: pup_e=6 - Product ID: pup_id=123456
Result: http://www.yourdomain.co.uk/categorie/product/super-item-123456.html?pup_e=6&pup_id=123456
4. Productsup Pixel Tracking
Often the product deeplinks contain parameter(s) when they are imported to the PUP platform. After activating the Productsup Pixel Tracking the platform will add two parameters (see above). To add these parameters at the right place, Productsup firstly looks for any already existing question mark in the given URL's.
Case #1: There is a question mark in the URL.
Example:
http://www.yourdomain.co.uk/categorie/product/super-item-123456.html?utm_campaign=cpc&wmc=1234
Productsup detects the question mark and starts with "&".
Result:
http://www.yourdomain.co.uk/categorie/product/super-item-123456.html?utm_campaign=cpc&wmc=1234&pup_e=6&pup_id=123456
Case #2: There is no question mark in the URL.
Example:
http://www.yourdomain.co.uk/categorie/product/super-item-123456.html
Productsup can't detect any question mark and starts with "?"
Result:
http://www.yourdomain.co.uk/categorie/product/super-item-123456.html?pup_e=6&pup_id=123456
Case #3: The URL is not correctly syntaxed before and the parameters start with an "&" instead of "?"
Example:
http://www.yourdomain.co.uk/categorie/product/super-item-123456.html&utm_campaign=cpc&wmc=1234
Productsup appends the parameters beginning with a question mark.
Result:
http://www.yourdomain.co.uk/categorie/product/super-item-123456.html&utm_campaign=cpc&wmc=1234?pup_e=6&pup_id=123456
Please note: to correct the URL first!
5. Redirect Tracking
As written above, there can only be one question mark per URL. But when adding the redirect from a bidding management tool a second question mark is added as you can see in the example below:
Example of a product URL:
http://yourdomain.com/123456.html?utm_campaign=cpc&wmc=1234&pup_e=1&pup_id=123456
Example of that product URL with the redirect from a bidding management tool:
http://pixel.megatool.net/3084/c?site_id=3&keyword={keyword}&url=http://yourdomain.com/123456.html?utm_campaign=cpc&wmc=1234&pup_e=1&pup_id=123456As you can see three parameters apply to the URL "http://pixel.megatool.net/4567/c" :
site_id = 3
keyword = {keyword}
url = http://yourdomain.com/123456.html?utm_campaign=cpc&wmc=1234&pup_e=1&pup_id=123456
The product URL became itself a parameter of the redirect URL and includs a second question mark. Thus it is necessary to encode the second part:
Result:
http://pixel.megatool.net/3084/c?site_id=3&keyword={keyword}&url=http%3A%2F%2Fyourdomain.com%2F123456.html%3Futm_campaign%3Dcpc%26wmc%3D1234%26pup_e%3D1%26pup_id%123456