Optimize Channel Setup Scenario Examples

The resources listed below introduce foundational concepts needed to set up Optimize Rules to Identify. In this article, you can view several scenarios and will see how those foundational concepts are applied. This will illustrate the recommended ways to apply what you have learned.

First, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the following resources before moving on:

• Optimize Startup Guide

• What is a Rule To Identify?

• What is a Credit Group?

• Rules To Identify Setup Strategy

Setup scenarios

Scenario 1: Paid Search

You most likely employ some type of paid search into your marketing mix, and likely are active on multiple search engines. This scenario will assume that the paid search media sources employed are Google Ads, Bing Ads, Yahoo Search, and Baidu. The tagging strategy for each media source is as follows:

• https://www.landingpage.com?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google

• https://www.landingpage.com?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=bing

• https://www.landingpage.com?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=yahoo

• https://www.landingpage.com?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=baidu

Within Optimize, you should capture this set of circumstances as one Paid Search channel with the following Rule To Identify:

Rule Target	Rule Value 1	Rule Logic	Rule Value 2
Landing Page Parameter	utm_medium	Exactly Matches	cpc

This Rule will correctly identify traffic from all 4 search engines and associate it to your Paid Search Optimize Channel.

Scenario 2: Organic search & Organic social

Note: For this scenario, Organic is the naturally occurring traffic that does not stem from any paid or owned marketing efforts. This traffic is the result of search engine results or unpaid shares, like a coworker sharing a link.

Organic referral traffic is more challenging to track simply because brands don't control any aspect of the landing page URLs. Consequently, impact.com recommends using some aspect of the Referring URL as one of the rules to identify (RTI) this traffic.

Referring URL-based targets are less reliable because the Referring URL is not always tracked. This is due to several factors including the growing influence of privacy and intelligent tracking prevention policies, like Apple's iOS 14.5 update.

impact.com also recommends using disqualifiers to help limit accidental identification of paid traffic. For Organic Search, the main search engines make the job easier through their use of click IDs. For example, Google Ads utilizes the click ID GCLID, and Bing and Yahoo utilize MSCKLID. Our recommended Organic Search RTI would then be:

Rule Target	Rule Value 1	Rule Logic	Rule Value 2
Landing Page Query String	--	Does Not Match Regex	utm|gclid|mscklid
AND
Referring Domain	--	Contains Any	.google.,.bing.,.search.yahoo.

You can employ a similar strategy for Organic Social traffic:

Rule Target	Rule Value 1	Rule Logic	Rule Value 2
Landing Page Query String	--	Does Not Match Regex	utm|fbclid|epik
AND
Referring Domain	--	Contains Any	facebook,twitter/X,instagram,youtube,linkedin,pinterest

• In both cases, the operator AND is utilized, meaning both Rules must be met for referral traffic to be identified as part of this Channel.

• Both cases also leverage the same Rule Targets (Referring Domain and Landing Page Query String) as well as the same Rule Logic options (Contains Any and Does Not Match Regex).

• The only difference between these two channels is the values supplied into the Rule Value 2.

Test cases for the Organic Channels

Below are some examples of combinations of Referring URLs and Landing Page URLs. The Organic Channels created above will be applied to these example URLs, and you will see whether or not a given URL will be identified as part of that Channel. If the Evaluation is No Match, the URL matched with neither channel.

Referring URL	Landing Page URL	Evaluation
https:// www.facebook.com	https://www.landingpage.com/product-category?campaign=product&fbclid=IwAR1kt1ttQhErJZfveSsHv-eFmTEZ6SK_nG3e_dO0gfNd4nM4wM7Rt6UhA6U_aem_AXQf6vc-IiMqtXq-zVwOiXj8RCyDTEN2yk&click_id=904509823	No Match
http:// m.facebook.com	https://www.landingpage.com/product-category?click_id=474641068&utm=fb&utm=paid_social	No Match
http:// www.pinterest.com	https://www.landingpage.com/product-category/recently-purchased-product-category	Organic Social
https:// l.facebook.com/	https://www.landingpage.com/?click_id=216899102	Organic Social
http:// www.google.com/	https://www.landingpage.com/ca/build-your-own-ring/review?offerId=81169&gclid=Cj0KCQjw9_mDBhCGARIsAN3PaFMckApB33NY8yvhU831_YUDpovgezw8VwwXU_cSgEO27CKMrOa_jugaAisQEALw_wcB	No Match
http:// cn.bing.com/search?q=product+name	https://www.landingpage.com	Organic Search
https:// r.search.yahoo.com	https://www.landingpage.com/category/build-your-own?offerId=81939&msclkid=bddae6b02dd01b9b137286cfeca0cd87	No Match
https:// us.search.yahoo.com/	https://www.landingpage.com/category/product	Organic Search

Scenario 3: Multiple Variations

You might find more than one set of parameter variations for a particular channel. Say, for example, you employed both Criteo and AdRoll for retargeting, but somehow the parameter strategy was not consistently employed:

• https://www.landingpage.com?utm_medium=retargeting&utm_source=criteo

• https://www.landingpage.com?utm_medium=display&utm_source=adroll

You will still only need one set of Rules to identify this traffic effectively:

Rule Target	Rule Value 1	Rule Logic	Rule Value 2
Landing Page Parameter	utm_medium	Matches Any	retargeting,display
AND
Landing Page Parameter	utm_source	Matches Any	criteo,adroll

Marketing tactics

You should consider your marketing tactic (i.e., how you plan on reaching an audience) when determining how you will set up a channel within your Optimize solution. Below is a list of examples of each category.

Earned Media

The types of audience sharing, namely:

• Mentions

• Shares

• Reposts

• Reviews

Paid Media

The types of advertising, namely:

• Search

• Display

• Retargeting

• Paid Influencers

• Paid Content

• Social Media Ads

Owned Media

The types of Media Properties, namely:

• Website

• Mobile Site

• Blog Site

• Social Media Channels

Common channels

The list below contains suggestions of the Channels you might configure in Optimize. While this list is not exhaustive, it will be a good start to begin grouping your partners and media into different Channels.

• Comparison/Product Listing Ads

• Display

• Email

• Organic Search

• Organic Social

• Paid Search

• Paid Social