Preferred Path

Preferred Path is a tool in Backpack that dynamically assigns destination URLs to your ads, ensuring they lead to the correct landing pages. You can set preferred paths at both the ad group and creative levels.

For Example

Imagine you want all destination URLs in a specific ad group to go to a general information page, like www.accountdomain.com/info. Backpack checks if the page exists. If it does, it will be used for all ads in that ad group. If not, Backpack will use the domain listed for the account.

In This Article:

Adding a Preferred Path for an Ad Group or Creative

Advanced Customization

Using Tags for Multiple URL Paths

Using Inventory Tags

Setting Preferred Path as "Auto"

Adding a Preferred Path for an Ad Group or Creative

Go to Blueprints in the top menu in Backpack.
Select a Blueprint from the list on the left and then a campaign and ad group. (Optional) Select a creative if you want to set a preferred path at the creative level instead of at the ad group level.
Under the Basic dropdown, enter a destination URL in the Preferred Path field (e.g., "/info," "/review," etc.).
Click Save Changes.

Advanced Customization

You can customize an ad group or creative's preferred path beyond simply entering a destination URL. Expand the rows below for guides to the following:

Using Tags for Multiple URL Paths

If your client's website has multiple URL paths, you can enter them as tags. For example:

[/info]
[/information]

Backpack will check both paths and use the one that's live. If both pages work, it will randomly choose one. If you prefer that one page is checked first, you can format it in a particular order. For example:

1##/info
2##/information

You can also use nested tags like this:

[Website_[Website::Fluency]_USED]

Using Inventory Tags

Most inventory pages are set up with a specific URL structure that can be used to address and reference inventory dynamically. For example, if you have a boat inventory page and want to reference URLs for specific makes and models that are either new or used, use tags in the URL and the system will build the correct URLs and test them.

Original: /inventory?NewUsed=New&Make=MasterCraft
With tags: /inventory?NewUsed=[inventory.Model]&Make=[inventory.Make]

If the system detects an invalid URL, you can still force it to go to that URL instead of the account's domain. Use force pinning by adding -> before the preferred path.

-> [preferred path tag]

Note: If your business directs traffic to many different website providers, we can set up dynamic website provider detection. Contact your Advertising Engineer to learn more.

Setting Preferred Path as "Auto"

If you enter Auto in the preferred path field, Backpack will use keywords and negative keywords associated with the ad group to score webpages on the account's domain. The highest-scoring page will be chosen as the URL for ads. Be sure to review the URL in Launch Review and make any necessary adjustments after the account launches.

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