How tracking fields work
Zeno avatar
Written by Zeno
Updated over a week ago

Each traffic source (outside of FunnelFlux) has its own set of dynamic tokens. 

When you give to your traffic sources a redirect URL containing one or more of their dynamic tokens, they process these tokens **before** redirecting their visitors through your URL. 

These dynamic tokens are their own proprietary language, that only they can convert to actual values.

If you try to use Google Adwords dynamic tokens when you create a campaign at RevContent, these tokens will be disregarded by RevContent, and vice versa. You need to feed each traffic source with the language it understands.

It can be difficult to find all this information, but FunnelFlux makes it easy for you thanks to its Traffic Sources templates.

Let's proceed and load the Bing template as an example:

The names on the left side are arbitrary. These are the names you will see in FunnelFlux, when you run your reports. They are up to you and will also determine the custom tokens that match these, since they are {customfield-fieldname} 

The names on the right side are the dynamic tokens understood by that specific traffic source, Bing in this example.

While you can use any name you want on the left, you MUST use very specific names on the right, normally found at your traffic source support pages.

When you build a funnel URL and select your traffic source, these tracking fields are automatically appended to your URL:

Copy the funnel tracking URL, give it to your traffic source, and here is what will happen (Bing in this example):

  1. Someone searches for "cheapest flight to Dubai"

  2. Bing finds that you are bidding on a related keyword "dubai flights"

  3. Bing loads your campaign details and URL:
    yourdomain.com/flux_fts=123&kw={keyword}&qs={QueryString} 

  4. Bing replaces all the dynamic tokens it understands with actual values:
    yourdomain.com/flux_fts=123&kw=dubai+flights&qs=cheapest+flight+to+Dubai 

  5. Bing shows your ad, with your transformed URL to the visitor.

  6. A visitor clicks your ad, and is redirected to your FunnelFlux tracking server through this url:
    yourdomain.com/flux_fts=123&kw=dubai+flights&qs=cheapest+flight+to+Dubai

  7. FunnelFlux finds the tracking fields in the URL and save them into the database: kw = dubai flights, qs = cheapest flight to Dubai, etc.

  8. When you run your reports, you see that you got 1 visit from someone searching for "cheapest flight to Dubai"

Troubleshooting non-translated tokens:

Sometimes, you may see non-translated tokens in your reports. 

FunnelFlux cannot do anything about it, because these tokens are not part of FunnelFlux's language - they must be changed by the traffic source before it sends you visitors as we just saw above.

Here are the most common reasons you may see non-translated tokens in your reports:

  • You use a dynamic token that is not part of your traffic source's language. It redirects through your URL without changing it.

  • Those visits come from human editors or spiders from your traffic source, to check the redirect destination. When they do so, they do not always transform the dynamic tokens.

  • You are using FunnelFlux's no-redirect JS script on your landing page, and have enabled the option "Embed Traffic Source & URL Params in script"

When you do this, the dynamic tokens are not in the URL anymore, and as such cannot be transformed by your traffic source.

The solution is to put back into your url the tracking fields you are interested in. They will overwrite the default values saved in the script.
​ 
With the example URL above (funnelflux.com/demo-lander1/) you could put back the kw and qs tracking fields manually like this:

funnelflux.com/demo-lander1/?kw={keyword}&qs={QueryString}

Bing would then see these dynamic tokens and replace them with the actual values before redirecting to your lander. These variables found in the URL would then overwrite the default values found in the JS script.

Did this answer your question?