Before you start

How does the UTP work?

The UTP, an abbreviation for universal tracking parameter, is a parameter added to the landing page connected to the ad media of your advertisers. Once added, the platform will produce a unique value for every touch point generated via the ad media. This value will be transmitted to the tracking server via the on-page tag, allowing the platform to identify the connection between the redirect from the ad media to the tracking domain and the so called ‘click-in’ on the advertiser’s landing page unambiguously.

Why use the UTP?

In general, the UTP was designed to improve the quality of the tracking. For a start, it helps to distinguish between clicks resulting in consumers actually visiting the site of the advertiser (i.e. the click-in) and clicks where the redirect does not result in actual site visits. There are many reasons why this might happen, but the most important one is so-called pre-loading of the advertiser’s landing page. For reasons of performance, many major online marketing publishers (among them Facebook) anticipate clicks on ad media by loading the advertiser’s landing page prematurely. If consumers actually click on ad media, they will be taken to the landing page much faster, as it has already been loaded. However, for the premature loading of the page, the publishers use click tracking links, thus generating clicks. With the UTP, you will be able to filter out these clicks.

Being able to filter out clicks that do not result in actual visits to the advertiser also is a good way to prevent fraud. Finally, the UTP helps you to keep track of cookie tracking acceptance.

Requirements

Please note that for the UTP to work, you need to make sure that the on-page tag is implemented on all pages of your advertiser’s website. For comprehensive instructions,  please read this article

When your publishers choose to work with bounceless tracking, the UTP can not be applied in a meaningful way, because no redirection is taking place.

Getting started

Enabling the UTP

Make sure you are logged in to your admin UI and click on ‘Configuration’ in the administration section of the main navigation menu. Proceed to click on ‘Platform’ in the subnavigation menu. If you do so, a page will appear allowing you to manage the configuration of your platform. Scroll down the page until you see a header called ‘Universal tracking parameter’ and go through the following steps:

• Under ‘Enable parameter’, select ‘Yes’.

• Choose a name for the parameter. This name will be used for the parameter in the advertiser’s landing page. You can use the default ‘utpid’, but please make sure you do not use the same name for any other additional parameters.

After you are done, make sure you scroll down the page further and click on ‘Save’ at the bottom of the page. Please note the parameter will not be displayed in the preview of the additional parameters.