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:
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=googlehttps://www.landingpage.com?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=binghttps://www.landingpage.com?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=yahoohttps://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 |
|
Exactly Matches |
|
This Rule will correctly identify traffic from all 4 search engines and associate it to your Paid Search Optimize Channel.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
Referring Domain |
-- |
Contains Any |
|
Landing Page Query String |
-- |
Does Not Match Regex |
|
AND | |||
You can employ a similar strategy for Organic Social traffic:
Rule Target |
Rule Value 1 |
Rule Logic |
Rule Value 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
Referring Domain |
-- |
Contains Any |
|
Landing Page Query String |
-- |
Does Not Match Regex |
|
AND | |||
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.
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 |
|
|
No Match |
|
|
No Match |
|
|
Organic Social |
|
|
Organic Social |
|
|
No Match |
|
|
Organic Search |
|
|
No Match |
|
|
Organic Search |
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=criteohttps://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 |
|
AND | |||
Landing Page Parameter |
utm_source |
Matches Any |
|
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
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