Integrating X with Campaign Manager 360 (CM360)

 

Overview

Click tracking is a common reporting metric for measuring the performance of campaigns. At times, advertisers prefer leveraging third-party tracking (such as Google’s CM360 product) versus using X first-party data and will leverage a Click Tag to understand the volume of clicks and conversions that their campaigns received.

  • Campaign Objectives Covered:
    • Website traffic, Conversions, Video views, and Pre-roll views.
  • Reporting Compatibility: 
    • CM360’s Offline Reporting (Standard report) allows advertisers to review conversions on a Campaign, Ad Group, and Ad level. This includes the last click (ie: same device conversion).
 

Setup instructions

In order to get started, you must first have a Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) account.

Take the following steps to connect a X campaign to Campaign Manager 360 (CM360):

1. Ensure your Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) account is enabled for X

Work with your Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) Account Manager to ensure that your Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) account is configured for use with X.

2. Create a new placement for your X campaign

Please refer to the Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) Help Center article to learn how to create a X campaign tag.

3. Input the Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) tracking tag URL into a X campaign

To insert a Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) tag into a campaign, first create a new X campaign on ads.X.com. Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) Impression tags will work for all campaign objectives. Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) Click tags will work for Website traffic, Video views, and Pre-roll views. 

Under “Ad group details” > “Delivery”, click on “Measurement options” to expand additional fields. Here, you’ll see fields for “Google Campaign Manager impression tag” and “Google Campaign Manager click tag”. Insert the appropriate tags to enable CM360 measurement for the Ad group.  

This tracking tag URL should only be the raw tracking URL. The tracking tag URL should not include any containers or wrappers like <img> or <script> tags. Here's an example of a correctly formatted tracking code (excluding the specific IDs to your account, which are replaced with hashtags in this example):

Please note you need to follow these steps for every Ad group.

Finish completing your campaign setup and save the campaign. Inserting the tag will connect this X campaign (and the creatives added to the campaign) to Campaign Manager 360 (CM360). Do not apply individual click trackers on your posts.

 

Common tag implementation mistakes

Including the <img> tag

Your tracking tag should not be placed with the <img> tag:

Not selecting “X-Official - 2061500” when generating a tag

Be sure to select X-Official - 2061500 when creating a new tracking tag URL. Failing to select X-Official - 2061500 will cause errors with your campaign integration.

 

Measuring performance

Once you’ve properly input Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) tags into your Campaign’s Ad groups, you’ll begin receiving campaign data in your Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) reporting. Please note that due to the nature of the separate reporting pipelines, there will always be some expected discrepancies between Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) reporting and the reporting available in the X campaign dashboard.  

Here are how events should map between the two platforms:

*Please note that the Click Tag only shares “Link Clicks” data. 

DoubleClick metric

Twitter metric

DoubleClick metric

Impressions    

Twitter metric

Impressions

DoubleClick metric

Likes

Twitter metric

Likes

DoubleClick metric

Replies

Twitter metric

Replies

DoubleClick metric

Reposts

Twitter metric

Reposts

DoubleClick metric

X URL clicks

Twitter metric

Link clicks

DoubleClick metric

X App Install clicks

Twitter metric

App clicks

DoubleClick metric

Clicks

Twitter metric

Link clicks + app clicks

DoubleClick metric

Other X engagements

Twitter metric

Clicks + media engagements

DoubleClick metric

Total social engagements

Twitter metric

Engagements

DoubleClick metric

Click-through conversions

Twitter metric

Engage-through conversions

DoubleClick metric

View-through conversions

Twitter metric

View-through conversions

DoubleClick metric

Video plays

Twitter metric

Video starts

DoubleClick metric

Video first-quartile completions

Twitter metric

Video played 25%

DoubleClick metric

Video midpoints

Twitter metric

Video played 50%

DoubleClick metric

Video third-quartile completions    

Twitter metric

Video played 75%

DoubleClick metric

Video completions

Twitter metric

Video completions

DoubleClick metric

X: Video 50% in view for 2 seconds

Twitter metric

Video views

DoubleClick metric

X: Video 100% in view for 3 seconds

Twitter metric

3s/100% video views

DoubleClick metric

X creative ID

Twitter metric

Status ID

DoubleClick metric

X campaign ID

Twitter metric

Campaign ID

DoubleClick metric

X creative ID

Twitter metric

Status ID

 

Frequently asked questions

No, the Click Tag only supports link clicks.

It’s expected that Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) and X data do not match perfectly.  Each system uses a different data pipeline which results in differences in data. If you see larger than 15% differences, please reach out to your X Account Manager.

No, other tags should not be included when using the CM360 click tag. This includes other 3P tags or inserting tags into the post URL.

Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) Impression tags will work for all campaign objectives. Campaign Manager 360 (CM360 Click tags will work for Website traffic, Video views, and Pre-roll views. 

It’s expected that in some cases conversions will not match between Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) and X. If you're tracking other channels in Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) at the same time as X, your conversions will be de-duplicated. Make sure you’re comparing conversion data from Floodlight Activities that have a direct match to your X conversion events.

File a X Ads support ticket or work directly with your Account Manager.

We wrap all URLs present inside the destination URL of an ad or its content with a click tag. We ignore the URL provided on CM360-side during tag creation and tell the tags where to redirect dynamically.

For example: Let’s say you have two ads with different URLs inside two different posts under one Ad Group.

URL 1: x.com/helpcenter

URL 2: x.com/adsmanager

Click Tag added on Ad Group level: https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/trackclk/N7480.3703766XDCMS2S/B22235515.259854822;dc_trk_aid=435778851;dc_trk_cid=111445022;ltd=0?

Here is how that dynamic tag configuration works (this is all handled automatically by our integration, so this is just a demo):

Wrapped URL 1:

https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/trackclk/N7480.3703766XDCMS2S/B22235515.259854822;dc_trk_aid=435778851;dc_trk_cid=111445022;ltd=0?https://x.com/helpcenter

Wrapped URL 2:

https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/trackclk/N7480.3703766XDCMS2S/B22235515.259854822[...]_aid=435778851;dc_trk_cid=111445022;ltd=0?https://x.com/adsmanager

Placing the DCM Click Tag on the “creative-level” (ad level) of your campaigns alongside the ad group level tag will disrupt attribution tracking and negatively impact performance.

Example of a wrong setup:

*Click Tag is appended on the creative level under the Website URL field.

Example of a correct setup:

*Click Tag is appended on the ad group level under the measurement tab.

Ready to get started?