Tracking Facebook Ads With URL Parameters – Do you use Facebook ads to drive traffic to your website? Then you’d probably know you can’t always rely on Facebook Insights to provide you with accurate data.
This is where you need Google Analytics, which provides a more accurate picture of traffic stats from Facebook ads. However, there are a few steps involved before Google Analytics can arm you with this data.
In this article, I’ll reveal how you can start tracking Facebook ads more effectively in Google Analytics.
Why Use Google Analytics to Track Facebook Ads
Let’s get this out of the way first.
You may be thinking why it’s necessary for us to track Facebook ads in Google Analytics when we have Facebook Insights.
While it’s true Facebook Insights contains a pool of useful data, there’s a certain amount of discrepancy between the traffic data you get in Facebook Insights and the data in Google Analytics.
Since Google Analytics tracks your overall website traffic (organic, direct, social, and referral), you’d want the information presented here to be as accurate as rest of the traffic data.
This discrepancy in traffic data can be avoided by using URL parameters.
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URL parameters are used to track information about a click.
URL parameters comprise of a key and a value separated by an equals sign (=) and joined by an ampersand (&). The first parameter always comes after a question mark in a URL as shown in the example below:
URL Parameters
Image Source: Search Engine Journal
In addition to presenting you with accurate information on clicks, URL parameters also help you differentiate between the traffic you get from Facebook organic (your Facebook posts) and Facebook ads. By using URL parameters, you’ll know exactly which ad campaign, which ad set is driving traffic to your website, and you can also track conversions on your website that way.
