URL parameters

You can pass various parameters and tags (including UTM tags) in Direct ad URLs. They can be used for tracking various statistical data (such as traffic sources) and evaluating the effectiveness of ad campaigns.

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 to your site using the operators ? and &, for example:

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

Choose names and values for the parameters, such as term={keyword} or keyword={keyword}.

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

Alert

Cyrillic characters transferred in the URL are automatically encoded in UTF-8. It's important that your site correctly accepts requests in this encoding. When Cyrillic characters are encoded in UTF-8, the URL becomes longer. If the URL exceeds 4096 bytes, only the yclid and openstat tag values will be passed.

How to add URL parameters to a campaign

UTM tags

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

Name Description Examples
utm_source Click source or ad platform, required utm_source=yandex: Ads are placed in Yandex Direct
utm_medium Ad type, required cpc, search — contextual ads; display — display ads
utm_campaign Ad campaign name, required utm_campaign=polet_v_kosmos or utm_campaign={campaign_id}
utm_content Additional information that helps to differentiate ads, optional You can use several values, separating them by "|" or ".": utm_content={position_type}.{position}
utm_term Keyword, optional. utm_term={keyword}

toAdd the appropriate parameters to a link to your site using the operators ? and &, 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.

Value to be inserted in URL

Description

Transmitted value

{ad_id} or {banner_id}

ID of ad

number

{campaign_name}

Campaign name

text up to 255 characters

{campaign_name_lat}

Transliterated campaign name

Latin text, up to 255 characters

{campaign_type}

Campaign type

type1 — Unified performance campaign.

type2 — Ads for mobile apps (no longer supported).

type3 — Dynamic ads (no longer supported).

type4 — Smart banners (no longer supported).

type6 — Search banner

{campaign_id}

Ad campaign ID

number

{creative_id}

Creative ID from Ad Builder

number

{device_type}

Device type on which impression was made

desktop — desktop

mobile — mobile phone

tablet — tablet

{gbid}

Group ID

number

{keyword}

The keyword for which the ad was displayed (Text & Image Ads or Ads for Mobile Apps)

keyword text without negative keywords

{phrase_id}

Image Ads or Ads for Mobile Apps

number

{retargeting_id}

Audience target ID that links an ad group with a retargeting list or mobile app interests. Read more about audience targets in the Yandex Direct API documentation

number

{coef_goal_context_id}

Bid adjustment ID for retargeting list

number

{match_type}

Type of match between impression criteria and search query

rm — autotargeting

syn — semantic matching

{matched_keyword}

Matched keyword (used instead of {match_type})

text of a selected keyword or semantic match

{adtarget_name}

Dynamic text ad targets

name of a dynamic text ad target

{adtarget_id}

ID of the targeting condition

number

{position}

Exact position of an ad within a section. Transfers only the position number for which it isn't possible to determine the type of section where the ad is displayed (use with {position_type})

position number in the section (for example 1)

0 — ad was displayed in the ad networks (YAN or ad exchanges)

{position_type}

Type of ad section if the ad was served on a Yandex search results page

premium — premium placement

dynamic_places — dynamic placements

other — section to the right or at the bottom

none — ad was displayed in the ad networks (YAN or ad exchanges)

{source}

Placement

ad network publisher domain (for example, travel.ru) for impressions in ad networks (YAN or ad exchanges)

none for impressions on Yandex search

To serve on search sites in the Yandex Advertising Network, use either the domain or the value none.

{source_type}

Ad network type

search — search site

context — ad network site

{region_name}

Name of the region where the ad has been displayed

name of the region

{region_id}

ID of the region where the ad has been displayed

number

{yclid}

ID of a click on a Yandex Direct ad. It's used to track the source of traffic to your site For more information, see Yandex Metrica Help.

number

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}

Note

We can guarantee that the values for {campaign_id}, {ad_id}, {banner_id}, and {phrase_id} are populated in sitelinks only when these parameters are also present in the ad URL.

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 tag 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).

Learn more

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