URL parameters

What are URL parameters?

URL parameters are variables (labels) that can be added to a link to an advertiser's site. Using link parameters and web analytics tools like Yandex Metrica and Google Analytics, you can obtain additional information about the clicks generated by these links.

For example, you can use a parameter to notify Yandex Metrica that a user has reached the website via a keyword:

URL parameter is a “name = value” pair. You can enter custom names (term, block). Alternatively, you use universal tags like UTM, which help analytical systems to correctly interpret information.

Depending on the set value, parameters can be as follows:

• static: You can set the value to be passed, e.g., utm_term=sony_playstation (utm_term — name, sony_playstation — static value)
• dynamic: Relevant values are automatically added by the system, e.g., term={keyword} or utm_term={keyword}, where {keyword} stands for the keyword which triggered the ad impression. List of dynamic parameters in Yandex Direct.

How to add parameters to a link

Add the appropriate parameters to a link on your site using the operators ? or &, operators. For example:

http://www.site.com/?source=yandex-direct&term={keyword}

Choose names and values for the parameters, e.g., term={keyword} or keyword={keyword}.

Make sure that the pages the links redirect to are available.

How to add URL parameters to a campaign

UTM tags

UTM is a standard means for obtaining statistics. Key UTM tags:

Add the appropriate parameters to a link on your site using the operators ? or &, operators. For example:

http://www.site.com/?utm_source=yandex-direct&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=go_to_space&utm_term={keyword}

Recommendations

• We recommend placing tags sequentially: first specify utm_source, then utm_medium, followed by utm_campaign, utm_content, and utm_term.

• UTM data will be collected correctly if you fill in the mandatory parameters.

• Use Latin characters in the values: type in English or use transliteration. If you use Cyrillic characters, your text might get garbled. Avoid capital letters. Separate words with underscores ( _ ) or hyphens ( - ).

You can manually create a link with suitable parameters, or use the service for UTM tag generation. Make sure that the pages the links redirect to are available.

How to add UTM tags to campaigns

Dynamic parameters in Yandex Direct

The table below provides a list of values for dynamic parameters in Yandex Direct, which are recommended for collecting detailed statistics.

A link with dynamic parameters will look something like this:

http://www.site.com/?type={source_type}&source={source}&block={position_type}&pos={position}&key={keyword}&campaign={campaign_id}&name={campaign_name}&name_lat={campaign_name_lat}&retargeting={retargeting_id}&ad={ad_id}&phrase={phrase_id}&gbid={gbid}&device={device_type}&region={region_id}&region_name={region_name}

UTM tags can be used with Yandex Direct dynamic parameters

http://www.site.com/?utm_source={source}&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign={campaign_id}&utm_content={position_type}.{position}&utm_term={keyword}

For the utm_content tag, you can set several parameters using | or . For example, utm_content={position_type}.{position}.

Tags report in Yandex Metrica

Track your placement statistics using Yandex Metrica reports:

• By URL parameters: If you add parameters with custom names to the links.
• UTM tags report: If you add tags to links according to the UTM standard.

  You must use all UTM tags to get the correct information in the standard UTM tags report in Yandex Metrica. Please note that if you use all UTM tags apart from utm_content, then data for utm_term may not be received, and can only be done by reconstructing the report (you must remove theutm_content dimension in the report settings).