Early this week, Google surprised advertisers with an announcement that they will be rolling out updated URLs to make URL management easier.
In a blog post by Google AdWords Product Manager Leo Sei, the search engine giant said they are introducing the upgraded URLs to give advertisers an easier and faster way of managing and tracking important information about the clicks on their AdWords ads.
The new features are a big help for advertisers as these:
- Minimize time spent managing URL tracking updates
- Reduce crawl and load times of websites
- Provide additional insights about ads through the new ValueTrack parameters
What’s Changing
Sei explains that with destination URLs, “anytime you need to adjust tracking, you have to update the entire destination URL. This triggers a re-review of your entire destination URL and your ads stop running while your URL is re-reviewed — causing you to lose time and potential new business.”
With the upgraded URLs, you can enter the landing page part of your URL and tracking information separately in AdWords. You now have the option to update the tracking information using your account, campaign, or ad group without the need to re-set your ad stats.
For the new ValueTrack parameters, meanwhile, you can gain more information about your business by tracking how many ad clicks were triggered for your creative by location. These new parameters can be set up at the account level, letting you track these values across all the URLs in your account.
The rollout of the new features will start on the week of February 9, 2015. Advertisers are encouraged to upgrade to the new system by July 1, 2015 so their URLs will update to the new structure.