Display Campaign Implementation Guide

Organizations can collect data from their advertising campaigns by including the Salesforce Audience Studio impression and click tracking tags in their ads. This article describes the general process for including the Audience Studio tags in Display ads in an ad server, followed by the specific steps involved for trafficking the Audience Studio tags into Google's DoubleClick Campaign Manager (DCM) as well as Sizmek's MDX Open Ad Management Platform. It also outlines what to send to partners for site served placements as well.

There are three steps for implementing the Audience Studio tags for tracking impressions and clicks in display ad campaigns:

1. Traffic a Salesforce Audience Studio Impression Tracker to track ad impressions, and the Salesforce Audience Studio Click Tracker to track any clicks
2. Validate that the tags are firing correctly for both trackers (see the Media Tag Validation article for more)
3. Provide Audience Studio with access to an ad server API or a mapping file to translate IDs from the ad server into their names (see theHuman Readable Names (Import / Export) Tool for more)

If you use DCM, you can provide Audience Studio with access to connect to the ad server to request the names associated with the IDs.

There are two steps to grant Audience Studio access to the DCM API. The first is that your DCM account must be enabled for API access. The second is that a user profile for Audience Studio must be set up that has access to the account as well. To enable the API access, you contact your DoubleClick account representative or the DCM support team at [e-mail]. The administrator of your DCM account can set up the user profile. Please ask them to set it up using the [e-mail] account. Write into the Support team with all confids of the media tags being run in DCM. Support will need to be updated each time a new media tag/confid is deployed to update the DCM connection on the backend.

• The Salesforce Audience Studio Impression and Click Trackers
• Generating the Tags
• Trafficking the Tags in a Display Ad Server
• Trafficking the Tags in DCM
• Trafficking the Tags in Sizmek
• What to Send with Site Served Placements
• Validating Your Implementation
• Need Help?

The Salesforce Audience Studio Impression and Click Trackers

There are two versions of the Audience Studio Impression Tracker: a dynamic JavaScript-based version of the impression tracker, and a static pixel-based version of the tracker. When possible, we suggest using the JavaScript-based version because it's more flexible, and will allow you to also fire additional third-party tags, if need be, through Audience Studio. This can be helpful when your ad server has a limited number of slots in it for third-party tags. If the publisher or environment doesn't support JavaScript, though, then you can always use the pixel-based version of the tracker instead. Only one version of the Audience Studio Impression Tracker should be delivered with an ad. If both are delivered, then there could be double counting of the impressions into Audience Studio.

JavaScript-based Impression Tracker

The JavaScript-based version of the Impression Tracker adheres to the following format:

CLICK TO SCROLL and view entire tag

https://cdn.krxd.net/controltag/Config123.js#kxbrand=Brand&advertiserid=Advertiser&campaignid=Campaign&placementid=Placement&adid=Ad&creativeid=Creative&siteid=Site&ksgs=KruxSegList

If the ad server you are using has issues with hash signs (#) in URLs, you can also use this alternate format, which uses a question mark (?) instead:

CLICK TO SCROLL and view entire tag

https://cdn.krxd.net/controltag/Config123.js?kxbrand=Brand&advertiserid=Advertiser&campaignid=Campaign&placementid=Placement&adid=Ad&creativeid=Creative&siteid=Site&ksgs=KruxSegList

In this case, in a valid impression tracker, you would find that:

• Config123 is the Audience Studio Configuration ID for the ad server 'Site' as described in the Introduction here (required field)
• Brand is an optional parameter for grouping and tracking by brand in the Audience Studio Platform
• Advertiser is the Ad Server's Advertiser ID
• Campaign is the Ad Server’s Campaign ID, or Order ID in some ad servers (required field)
• Placement is the Ad Server's Placement ID
• Ad is the Ad Server's Ad ID
• Creative is the Ad Server’s Creative ID
• Site is the Ad Server’s Site ID
• ksegs parameter is optional, but if included, the >KruxSegList would be replaced by a comma delimited list of the Audience Studio Segment IDs that the ad or campaign is targeted to.

The Configuration ID is a required field, and must be the correct Audience Studio Configuration ID for the Media Tag associated with the Display channel.  This value can be found in the Audience Studio console by selecting Manage >> Sites from the top navigation.

This will take you to the Manage Sites screen in the console. Listed there you should see a Media Tag for the Display channel for your ad server. You should also see a column labeled Config. The alphanumeric string listed in this column is the Audience Studio Configuration ID, and is what should be used for the confid value in the Impression and Click tags.

If your ad server supports macros, you can use them to have the ad server dynamically paste the correct values in to the Audience Studio tags when the ad is served. For instance, if the Audience Studio Configuration ID for your Display channel Media Tag was EXAMPLE, and you were using DCM and wanted to use the DCM ad server macros, a valid Audience Studio Impression Tag would look like:

CLICK TO SCROLL and view entire tag

https://cdn.krxd.net/controltag/Config123.js#kxbrand=brand&advertiserid=%eadv!&campaignid=%ebuy!&placement=%epid!&adid=%eaid!&creativeid=%ecid!&siteid=%esid!

Note: The acceptable values for these fields can be alphanumeric characters (a-z,0-9) and hypens or dashes. Please see the table of Fields and Field Types in the Generating the Tags section for what is accepted for each field. If the macro passes in a value that includes an unaccepted character - such as non-alphanumeric character like a space, asterisk (*), comma(,) exclamation mark (!) or a percent sign (%) - data won't be collected. The macro itself can include special characters, but the value it is replaced with cannot.

Pixel-based Impression Tracker

The Pixel-based version of the Impression Tracker adheres to the following format:

CLICK TO SCROLL and view entire tag

https://beacon.krxd.net/ad_impression.gif?confid=Config123&kxbrand=Brant&advertiserid=Advertiser&campaignid=Campaign&placementid=Placement&adid=Ad&creativeid=Createive&siteid=Site

The only difference between the Pixel-based version of the Impression Tracker and the JavaScript-based version is how the two trackers start. With the Pixel-based version, it starts with https://beacon.krxd.net/ad_impression.gif?, where as the JavaScript-based version starts with https://cdn.krxd.net/controltag/. When these tags are trafficked, however, the Pixel-based version should be being served as an image - so the HTML that calls it should start with '<img src='. When the JavaScript-based version is served, it should be being served as a script, not an image. The HTML for that would look something like '<script type="text/javascript" src=' .

The fields included in both versions of the impression trackers are the exact same. The named strings in the above Pixel-based examples would again need to be replaced with the correct information. Please note, the field names are case-sensitive and should be used exactly as shown. The fields represent the following:

• Config123 is the Audience Studio Configuration ID for the ad server 'Site' as described in the Introduction here (required field)
• Brand is an optional parameter for grouping and tracking by brand in the Audience Studio Platform
• Advertiser is the Ad Server's Advertiser ID
• Campaign is the Ad Server’s Campaign ID, or Order ID in some ad servers (required field)
• Placement is the Ad Server's Placement ID
• Ad is the Ad Server's Ad ID
• Creative is the Ad Server’s Creative ID
• Site is the Ad Server’s Site ID
• ksegs parameter is optional, but if included, the >KruxSegList would be replaced by a comma delimited list of the Audience Studio Segment IDs that the ad or campaign is targeted to.

The only required fields are the confid and the campaignid, but it's a good idea to pass as much information as possible into the Audience Studio Platform. That way, if you decide in the future that you want to create an audience segment of people who have seen a particular ad or creative, Audience Studio will have the data to be able to create that segment.

For help finding the Audience Studio Configuration ID in the console, please see the instructions in the JavaScript-based Impression Tracker section.

As with the JavaScript-based Impression Tracker, it is possible to use ad server macros to dynamically paste the correct values into the Pixel-based Impression Tracker when the ad is served. However, please note that the values for these fields can often only be integers, although there are some that can accept alphanumeric characters. Please see the table of Fields and Field Types in the Generating the Tags section for what is accepted for each field. If the macro passes in a value that includes an unaccepted character - such as non-alphanumeric character like a space, asterisk (*), comma(,) exclamation mark (!) or a percent sign (%) - then that data won't be collected. The macro itself can include special characters, but the value it is replaced with cannot.

Click Tracker

The Click Tracker adheres to the following format:

CLICK TO SCROLL and view entire tag

https://apiservices.krxd.net/click_tracker/track?kxconfid=Config123&kxbrand=Brand&kxadvertiserid=Advertiser&kxcampaignid=Campaign&kxplacementid=Placement&kxadid=Ad&kxcreativeid=Creative&kxsiteid=Site&clk=

With a valid click tracker, you would have:

• Config123 is the Audience Studio Configuration ID for the ad server 'Site' as described in the Introduction here (required field)
• Brand is an optional parameter for tracking and grouping by brand in the Audience Studio Platform
• Advertiser is the Ad Server's Advertiser ID
• Campaign is the Ad Server's Campaign ID, or Order ID in some ad servers (required field)
• Placement is the Ad Server's Placement ID
• Ad is the Ad Server's Ad ID
• Creative is the Ad Server's Creative ID
• Site is the Ad Server's Site ID
• The clk parameter is a required field, and must be followed by the destination URL where people should be redirected to.

If you were using DCM ad server, had a Audience Studio client ID of XYZ123, and used the DCM macros to populate the values, the click tracker would look like:

https://apiservices.krxd.net/click_tracker/track?kxconfid=Config123&kxbrand=brand&kxadvertiserid=%eadv!&kxcampaignid=%ebuy!&kxplacementid=%epid!&kxadid=%eaid!&kxcreativeid=%ecid!&kxsiteid=%esid!&clk=%u

For help finding the Audience Studio Configuration ID in the console, please see the instructions in the JavaScript-based Impression Tracker section.

As with the Impression Trackers, it is possible to use ad server macros to dynamically paste the correct values into the Click Tracker when the ad is served. However, please note that the values for these fields can often only be integers, although there are some that can accept alphanumeric characters. Please see the table of Fields and Field Types in the Generating the Tags section for what is accepted for each field. If the macro passes in a value that includes an unaccepted character - such as non-alphanumeric character like a space, asterisk (*), comma(,) exclamation mark (!) or a percent sign (%) - then that data won't be collected. The macro itself can include special characters, but the value it is replaced with cannot.

Generating the Tags

Please see the Media Tag Generator help article for the steps involved in creating a tag, or retrieving previously created tags.

Trafficking the Tags in a Display Ad Server

Many ad servers include a user interface which lets you paste in third-party Impression and Click tracker URLs. If possible, it's recommended that you traffic the Impression and Click trackers at the Advertiser level and use ad server macros to populate the appropriate values in the trackers. It doesn't have any impact on the trackers themselves whether you traffic them at the Advertiser, Campaign, or Ad level, but it cuts down on the amount of work for your traffickers and helps avoid trafficking errors.

If your ad server doesn't have a UI for trafficking third-party tracking URLs, you should still be able to include them at the creative level. Some ad servers offer creative templates that include options for third-party trackers. With other ad servers you might have to change the creative type to one that lets you enter or edit the HTML code for the creative.

For the Click Tracker, you can always include the Audience Studio Click Tracker in the Click-through URL field directly by prepending the Audience Studio Click Tracker to the beginning of the Click-through URL. However, when doing this, it's often a good idea to URL encode the Click-through URL since this is a step often handled by an ad server. For example, if the Click-through URL was http://www.example.com, and you were using ad server macros for the values, then the URL with the Audience Studio Click Tracker included might look like:

CLICK TO SCROLL and view entire tag

https://apiservices.krxd.net/click_tracker/track?kxconfid=Config123&kxbrand=Brand&kxadvertiserid=%%ADVERTISER%%&kxcampaignid=%%CAMPAIGN%%&kxplacementid=%%PID%%&kxadid=%%ADID%%&kxcreativeid=%%CREATIVE%%&kxsiteid=%%SITEID%%&clk=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com

A valid version of the Click Tracker would have the correct Audience Studio Configuration ID and the available ad server macros (where possible) - or the actual values for the advertiser, brand, campaign, site, placement, ad, creative, and click-through URL.

For help finding the Audience Studio Configuration ID in the console, please see the instructions in the JavaScript-based Impression Tracker section.

Trafficking the Tags in DCM

Audience Studio Impression and Click Tracking tags should be trafficked as DCM Event tags. You should traffic the Event Tags at the advertiser level, if possible, to save you from having to do more trafficking work. However, if you need to include brand information in the tags, then you'll likely need to traffic the tags at the campaign level instead. You should traffic one Event Tag for the Click Tracker, and then you could also traffic both versions of the Impression Tracker if you'd like as Event tags as well - or just one Impression Tracker if you want to use it universally. If you traffic both Impression Trackers, though, then you will need to allowlist/blocklist sites appropriately to make sure only one of the Impression Trackers fires when an ad is delivered.

DCM Sample JavaScript-based Impression Tracker:

CLICK TO SCROLL and view entire tag

https://cdn.krxd.net/controltag/Config123.js#kxbrand=brand&advertiserid=%eadv!&campaignid=%ebuy!&placement=%epid!&adid=%eaid!&creativeid=%ecid!&siteid=%esid!

DCM Sample Pixel-based Impression Tracker:

CLICK TO SCROLL and view entire tag

https://beacon.krxd.net/ad_impression.gif?confid=Config123&kxbrand=Brand&advertiserid=%eadv!&campaignid=%ebuy!&placementid=%epid!&adid=%adid!&creativeid=%ecid!&siteid=%esid!

DCM Sample Click Tracker:

CLICK TO SCROLL and view entire tag

https://apiservices.krxd.net/click_tracker/track?kxconfid=Config123&kxbrand=Brand&kxadvertiserid=%eadv!&kxcampaignid=%ebuy!&kxplacementid=%epid!&kxadid=%adid!&kxcreativeid=%ecid!&kxsiteid=%esid!&clk=%u

DCM Impression Event Tag

To traffic the impression and click trackers as Event tags at the Advertiser level, log in to DCM. Click on the Advertiser tab, and then click on the name of the Advertiser you want to add the Event Tags to. This will open the Advertiser properties screen.

Scroll down the page, and open the Event tags section. Look under the Impression event tags heading, and click on the Advertisers tags tab. To add the Audience Studio Impression Tracker, click on the New impression event tag button.

Use the following values for the properties for a JavaScript-based Impression Tracker:

Name: Audience Studio Display Impression Tracker (JS)
Application: Apply Automatically
Remove for Ad Exchange: On
Enabled: Yes
Tag Type: Script
Tag URL: Paste in the appropriate JavaScript-based Impression Tracker Tag URL
SSL: Compliant
Site Filter: If you want to use both versions of the Impression Tracker, then you should select which sites to allowlist/blocklist.

For a Pixel-based Impression Tracker, use the following values for the properties:

Name: Audience Studio Display Impression Tracker (Pixel)
Application: Apply Automatically
Remove for Ad Exchange: On
Enabled: Yes
Tag Type: Image
Tag URL: Paste in the appropriate Pixel-based Impression Tracker Tag URL
SSL: Compliant
Site Filter: If you want to use both versions of the Impression Tracker, then you should select which sites to allowlist/blocklist

When you're done filling out the form, click Save and that Audience Studio Impression Tracker will be trafficked in DCM for all of that Advertiser's ad campaigns.

Note: See the Salesforce Audience Studio Impression Pixel As A Redirect For Site Served Media In DCM article for how to redirect the Audience Studio impression tracker on DCM's Standard impression tracker to eliminate the need for Publisher ad-ops to traffic the Audience Studio impression tracker separately.

DCM Click Event Tag

From the Advertisers properties page, scroll down until you see the Click event tags heading. (If it's closed, click on the Event tags section heading to see the listings).

Click on the Advertisers tags tab under the Click event tags heading. To add the Audience Studio Click Tracker click on New click event tag button.

Use the following values for these properties:

Name: Audience Studio Display Click Tracker
Enabled: Yes
Escaping: None
Site filter: No filter
Tag URL: paste in the appropriate Audience Studio Click Tracker Tag URL.

Click the Save button, and your Audience Studio Click Tracker will be trafficked in DCM for all of that Advertiser's ad campaigns.

It's also possible to traffic the Audience Studio Impression and Click Trackers as Event Tags at the Campaign level.

Trafficking the Tags in Sizmek

Sizmek recommends that in-banner and out-of-banner ads use the JavaScript-based Impression Tracker.

! IMPORTANT: Be sure to set the tag type to "On Ad Download (JavaScript)" for the JavaScript-based Impression Tracker.

For all other ad types, including placements and in-stream ads, you should use the Pixel-based Impression Tracker and fill-in the values manually. The Click Tracker can be applied to all ad types. Sizmek also doesn't support tags with hash signs (#) in them, so you should only use the format that uses ampersands (&) as the field delimiters.

Sizmek Sample JavaScript-based Impression Tracker:

CLICK TO SCROLL and view entire tag

https://cdn.krxd.net/controltag/Config123.js#kxbrand=Brand&advertiserid=[%tp_AdvertiserID%]&campaignid=[%tp_CampaignID%]&placementid=[%tp_PlacementID%]&adid=[%tp_AdID%]&siteid=[%tp_SiteID%]

Sizmek Sample Pixel-based Impression Tracker:

CLICK TO SCROLL and view entire tag

https://beacon.krxd.net/ad_impression.gif?confid=Config123&brand=Brand&advertiserid=[%tp_AdvertiserID%]&campaignid=[%tp_CampaignID%]&placementid=[%tp_PlacementID%]&adid=[%tp_AdID%]&siteid=[%tp_SiteID%]

Sizmek Sample Click Tracker:

CLICK TO SCROLL and view entire tag

https://apiservices.krxd.net/click_tracker/track?kxconfid=config123&kxbrand=Brabd&kxadvertiserid=[%tp_AdvertiserID%]&kxcampaignid=[%tp_CampaignID%]&kxplacementid=[%tp_PlacementID%]&kxadid=[%tp_AdID%]&kxsiteid=[%tp_SiteID%]&clk=http://www.example.com

Note: Sizmek does not have a Creative ID ad server macro. Should you be using multiple ad servers, to ensure data consistency across ad servers, collect the Ad ID value twice for Sizmek implementations, once in the Ad ID parameter and again in the Creative ID parameter.

When implementing the Impression Trackers in Sizmek, please follow the settings below. Either a JavaScript-based or a Pixel-based impression trackers should be used for any placement. Do not use both.

Script-based Impression Tracker

Tag Type: Audience Studio Marketer "Control Tag"
Tag Format: JavaScript
Change Sizmek URL Settings To: "On Ad Download"
Use for: Placements only where JavaScript is accepted

Pixel-based Impression Tracker

Tag Type: Audience Studio Impression Tracker
Tag Format: Pixel
Change Sizmek URL Settings To: Impression Tracking
Use for: Placements where Javascript is not accepted

Click Tracker

When implementing the Click Tracker in Sizmek, please follow the settings below. Please ensure to modify the Click Tracker to contain the line-item appropriate destination/click-through URL.

Tag Type: Audience Studio Click Tracker
Change Sizmek URL Settings To: Click Tracking
Use for: All Placements

What to Send with Site Served Placements

There are two considerations to be made when sending the Audience Studio tags to be trafficked in a site served placement. Do you know the ad server that the site uses, and do you want the values in the tag to be for their ad server or your own? If you know the ad server they use, you can send them tags with their ad server's macros included in the tags already. 

However, if you use the site's ad server macros, then the values included in the tag will be for the site's ad server. So if you have five different sites serving five different site served placements, then you would see five different campaigns in the Audience Studio Platform, even if you consider them all part of the same campaign. If you prefer, you could send the Audience Studio Tags with values from your own ad server already hard-coded in to them. In this case, those five different site served placements would appear as one campaign that was being served from your own ad server. Whether or not you want to use the site's ad server macros or your own hard-coded values simply depends on how you'd like to see the data represented in the Audience Studio Platform. 

If you don't know the ad server that the site is using - and you don't want to hard-code your own values into the tags - then you will need to send the tags with placeholder strings. You need to then tell the site that they will have to replace the placeholder strings with either the appropriate macros or values. You should also send them all three versions of the Audience Studio Trackers, but ask them to only implement a single Impression Tracker. Which Impression Tracker they implement should depend on which type of tag they accept.

Site Served Sample JavaScript-based Impression Tracker:

CLICK TO SCROLL and view entire tag

https://cdn.krxd.net/controltag/Config123.js#kxbrand=Brand&advertiserid=Advertiser&campaignid=Campaign&placementid=Placement&adid=Ad&creativeid=Creative&siteid=Site&ksgs=KruxSegList

Please note the named values in thee above sample tracker would need to be replace by you with the appropriate values.  Fields that are identified as IDs require integer values.

Site Served Sample Pixel-based Impression Tracker:

CLICK TO SCROLL and view entire tag

https://beacon.krxd.net/ad_impression.gif?confid=Config123&brand=Brand&advertiserid=Advertiser&campaignid=Campaign&placementid=Placement&adid=Ad&creativeid=Creative&siteid=Site

Once again the named values in the above sample tracker would need to be replaced by you with the appropriate values.  Fields that are identified as IDs require integer values.

Site Served Sample Click Tracker:

CLICK TO SCROLL and view entire tag

https://apiservices.krxd.net/click_tracker/track?kxconfid=Config123&kxbrand=Brand&kxadvertiserid=Advertiser&kxcampaignid=Campaign&kxplacementid=Placement&kxadid=Ad&kxcreativeid=Creative&kxsiteid=Site&clk=http://www.example.com

Please note that the named values and http://www.example.com values in the above sample tracker would need to be replaced by you with the appropriate values.  Fields that are identified as IDs require integer values.

Certain publishers that site serve placements will place limitations on the number of trackers allowed. If there is a publisher with a limitation on the number of trackers, please have them send an email to the Salesforce Audience Studio Solutions team at [e-mail] and report the following information in an easy-to-read format:

• The ad server they are using
• Any ad server limitations for including the Audience Studio Trackers
• Any publisher or site specific limitations
• The number of other trackers that may already be implemented with the campaign, and what those trackers are
• The type of creative being trafficked
• And if only one of the Audience Studio Trackers that is at issue, whether it's the Audience Studio Click Tracker or the Audience Studio Impression Tracker

Validating Your Implementation

For more details on validating Audience Studio with your Display Campaigns, see our Media Tag Validation article.

Media Attribute Mapping Import

For more details on updating IDs into human readable names, see our Human Readable Names (Import / Export) Tool. 

Need Help?

If you need help with implementing Audience Studio with display campaigns, don't hesitate to contact the Salesforce Audience Studio Solutions team at [e-mail].