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Performance tracking with Google Campaign Manager 360 (fka DCM) click-trackers

To track conversions, 1st party website analytics and collect audiences, Outbrain needs to append a click ID parameter at the end of every ad URL.

When using Google Campaign Manager 360 (fka DCM) click trackers, it often happens that the click ID parameter is stripped off in the serving process, which causes discrepancies in conversion tracking and website analytics tracking required to run Engagement Bid Strategy campaigns.

If you are using Google Campaign Manager 360 to track clicks and are looking to track conversions or utilise Engagement Bid Strategy, you will need to adjust the dynamic click-tracker with the relevant parameter to ensure the Outbrain click ID is preserved on the landing page.

Please follow the steps below to learn how:

  • STEP 1: Add Outbrain Click ID Macro to Google CM360 Dynamic Click Trackers

You’ll first need to update the Placement with the dicbo={{ob_click_id}} key-value pair. To do that:

  1. Go to “Campaigns” and select the current campaign that the dynamic click trackers are created under and select the relevant placement. 
  2. In the Placement “Properties” tab, navigate to the “Tag Defaults” section.
  3. In the Additional Key-Values field, insert dicbo={{ob_click_id}} (as seen in the screenshot below). This is the dicbo parameter and Outbrain click ID macro that will be added to your dynamic click tracker tags.
  1. Save the placement.
  • STEP 2: Update the Dynamic Click Tracker Ad to include %p macro via Landing Page Suffix 

Next, you’ll need to expand the Landing page URL suffix section to add the OB click ID parameter and click ID macro. To do this, you’ll need to use DCM’s %p (pattern matching) macro to capture the expanded click ID macro value and include it in the landing page URL. To do that:

  1. Navigate to “Ad Settings”.
  2. In the “Properties” section, open up the “Landing page URL suffix” section and use the following structure: 
  1. Save the settings.
  2. The structure of the ad tag with the added macro should look like this (note the appended dicbo={{ob_click_id}} macro):

https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/trackclk/N844515.xxxxxxOUTBRAINFR/B27549244.335784586;dc_trk_aid=527539281;dc_trk_cid=169654435;dicbo={{ob_click_id}};dc_lat=;dc_rdid=;tag_for_child_directed_treatment=;tfua=;ltd=

Lastly, make sure to send the new tags to your Outbrain representative or replace the existing tags in the Amplify dashboard.

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