Move every ad and keyword to upgraded URLs before Wednesday, with the landing page in the final URL and any tracking in a tracking template. Then check that clicks still land and record where they came from.

Wednesday's deadline

Every AdWords account has until Wednesday, July 1 to move its ads and keywords from the old destination URL to what Google calls upgraded URLs.

After that, Google upgrades whatever is left itself. For a plain page address that is harmless. For an address carrying tracking codes, the automatic version may not do what your tracking needs.

Wednesday is also Canada Day, when most offices are closed. In practice the time to do this is today and tomorrow.

Most small accounts need an hour or less. A few need more, and those are the accounts where something breaks quietly if nobody looks.

What upgraded URLs change

Under the old system each ad had one destination URL. It held the page the visitor should land on and any tracking added to the end of it, in a single string.

Changing the tracking meant editing that address on every ad, which sent each ad back through Google's review.

Upgraded URLs split the job in two. The final URL is the page where the visitor lands. A tracking template holds the tracking and wraps it around the final URL, and one template can serve many ads.

Custom parameters let you add values of your own, and changing an account or campaign template does not send the ads back for review.

Accounts with something to check

The fourth needs the most care. The final URL must be the page the visitor actually reaches, on the same domain as the address shown in the ad, so the redirect belongs in the tracking template.

Accounts that can relax

An account whose destination URLs are plain page addresses, with auto-tagging switched on, has little at stake.

Auto-tagging adds its own click identifier to each visit, separately from the destination URL, so a linked Analytics account can still tell an AdWords visit from any other.

The AdWords conversion code on a thank-you page keeps working too, because it relies on the click itself rather than on anything in the ad's address.

Upgrade these accounts anyway, before Wednesday, so the result is something you chose rather than something applied to you.

How tracking breaks

When tracking codes are lost or mangled in the move, the clicks keep arriving and the enquiries keep coming. What changes is where they are credited.

A booking that used to show as AdWords shows as a direct visit. A call from an ad rings the main number rather than the tracking number. A goal in Analytics lands under the wrong source.

Nothing looks broken. The reports simply show the ads producing less, and eventually someone pauses a campaign that was working.

That is the real cost of a missed deadline here. Not lost conversions, but conversions counted in the wrong place, and decisions made on them.

A worked example

A standup paddle school on a lake beach runs lessons, rentals and evening tours from May to September, and takes most bookings through an online booking system.

Its ads pointed at the lessons page with a short code on the end of each address. The booking system read that code and recorded AdWords as the source, and a call tracking script showed ad visitors a separate number.

The person who had set this up had moved on, and the school heard about the deadline only last week, with the busy season already under way.

The fix took an afternoon. Each ad's final URL became the plain page address, and one tracking template at account level added the code after it, so every ad inherited it.

Two keywords had their own addresses pointing at the rentals page, and those became keyword final URLs.

The owner opened the address a click would produce, made a test booking that the system credited to AdWords, and checked that the tracking number appeared.

Set the template as high as it will go

A tracking template can be set for the whole account, a campaign, an ad group, an ad or a keyword. The most specific one wins.

For most small accounts, one template at account level covers everything. It uses a placeholder for the final URL, so each ad's own page goes in the right place.

Set lower-level templates only where a campaign genuinely needs different tracking, and write down where they are. A forgotten ad-level template overrides the account one without any warning.

Test before Wednesday

Do not test by searching for your ad and clicking it. That costs a click and adds noise to the figures.

AdWords can show the address a click on an ad will produce. Open that address in a browser and check that the right page loads, with the code intact.

Then complete whatever the tracking is meant to record, whether a test booking, a test enquiry or a look at which phone number appears, and check that the record arrives where it should.

The counter-case

A small account with plain addresses, auto-tagging and conversion code on a thank-you page loses little if Google does the upgrade for it.

An account that is paused, or due to be rebuilt this summer, can be left to the automatic upgrade and checked when it restarts.

If someone else manages your account, this is their job, but ask them today whether it is done and what they changed. The answer should take one sentence.

For everyone with tracking in their addresses, the next two days are the time to move it: the page in the final URL, the tracking in a template, and a test.

Today and tomorrow

  1. List every destination URL with a code attached.
  2. Note what reads each code: analytics, calls, bookings.
  3. Set final URLs to the plain page addresses.
  4. Write one tracking template at account level.
  5. Move keyword and sitelink addresses too.
  6. Test the address a click will produce.
  7. Complete a test booking or enquiry.

Step two is the one that prevents the damage. Nobody can preserve a code without knowing what depends on it, and the answer is usually something set up years ago by someone else.

Keeping the tracking scripts on the site itself in one place you control is covered in tracking codes pasted in by five different people.

Frequently asked questions

What is the deadline for upgraded URLs?

Wednesday, July 1. After that, Google upgrades whatever ads and keywords are left itself, which is harmless for plain addresses and risky for addresses carrying tracking codes.

What is the difference between the two fields?

The final URL is the page the visitor lands on. The tracking template holds the tracking and wraps it around the final URL, and one template can serve many ads.

Will my conversion tracking stop working?

The AdWords conversion code on a thank-you page keeps working. What can break is tracking that reads codes in the address, such as call tracking or a booking system's source.

Does auto-tagging need any changes?

No. Keep it switched on. It adds its own click identifier separately from the destination URL, so the move does not affect it.

How do I test without clicking my own ad?

Open the address AdWords says a click will produce, check the right page loads with the code intact, then make a test booking or enquiry and see where it is recorded.

What if someone else runs my account?

Ask them today whether the upgrade is done and what they changed. It is their job, and the answer should take one sentence.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Tracking codes in your ad addresses?

Send us your account's destination URLs today. We will tell you what reads each code and move it before Wednesday.

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