Facebook acquisition tracking with query parameters

[ClementB]

Hello,

I have a problem to track the clicks on the sponsored posts that we make on Facebook.

Here is a bit of context:

• We use Tealium iQ
• We use AT Internet
• We use either Facebook Manager or Social moov to sponsorise our posts on Facebook

First of all, I would like to disclose that we have several website that are not using Tealium iQ yet, and that the tracking of clicks on sponsored post does work.

The problem is the following : 

We add an "extra url parameter" to follow the clicks of the sponsored post/link on Facebook which looks like #xtor=SEC-101 that does appear in the querystring. It does something like https://url.com/webpage#xtor=SEC-101.

This extra url parameter should be sent to AT Internet with Tealium iQ but it is not.

This parameter is working with other acquisition solutions as Google Adwords or in direct link. It adds a qp.xtor in the datalayer and the info is sent to AT Internet.

We looked at the problem with an AT Internet consultant but did not find anything, our configuration is good and working with other acquisition methods than Facebook. And tracking for Facebook ads campaign does work with website that do not have the TMS.

Does someone have any knowledge about loosing a querystring parameter between Facebook/Tealium/AT Internet?

Thanks,

Clément

[AndreScholten]

What is the exact URL where people land after clicking on the Facebook ad? Do you still see the xtor parameter after the #? I don't think so, because if it was there the campaign should be tracked like all the others that do work.

If you do see the # in de landingpage URL you should check which datalayer field is used in the AT tracking. The "dom.pathname" field doesn't contain the # part. You should add "dom.hash" to get that.

[ClementB]

Thanks for your anwser. 

The trick is we can't see what URL people land after clicking on the Facebook post since the URL is specific to sponsored posts. That's why we are struggeling to find where we loose our xtor parameter.

For the DataLayer, we already have the dom.hash but it displays "xtor=SEC-101" so it is not usable. The qp.xtor in the DataLayer do the work by just displaying the SEC-101 value for other websites than Facebook.

[ClementB · Accepted solution]

We finaly found the origin of the problem:

Facebook automatically adds a "?" parameter when you add complementary querystring parameters. Since the user added a "#xtor", the DataLayer took the qp as qp.#xtor instead of qp.xtor.

This problem of double querystring parameters indicator seems to be automaticaly handled by AT Internet, but not by the DataLayer.

The solution is to put only "xtor" for the complementary parameter on facebook instead of "#xtor".

[kathleen_jo]

Great job figuring that out @ClementB! You must have been so frustrated! I know I would have been.