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Trace a perpetrator for dynamic query string parameters

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Hello,

I would appreciate some technical help ideas in tracing a rather specific tracking issue. Adobe Customer Service request is also sent.

Our email marketing campaigns are distributed through an email marketing platform that supports dynamic query-string parameters, kind of to Google ValueTrack parameters.

As Analyst I wanted to track traffic from individual email send-outs without requiring stakeholders or the publishing team to manually add campaign names. The tracking therefore is configured within the email platform and the dynamic parameter supposed to work as placeholder - once email is sent theh the relevant campaign name is set.

Shortly, https:\\example.com?cmp=em_{dynamic_campaign_parameter}

The issue: In AA I occasionally see the literal unresolved placeholder appearing as the tracking code, literally em_{dynamic_campaign_parameter}

The tracking code instance is positive - which means this literal code appeared on hit.

I assessed following directions:

Email platform: their team checked the configuration and confirmed that the dynamic parameter is supported and should be replaced with the campaign name when an email is sent.
Campaign stakeholders: I wondered whether somebody might have received a URL containing the placeholder and subsequently redistributed it through Teams, email, etc. The stakeholders I identified with landing page confirmed (swore on their hearts) that they provide only clean URLs to the publishing team.
Publishing team: I also checked whether URLs containing the placeholder might have been copied, modified, or distributed manually. Same - reported that they copy past only bare URLs

I tried to go with referrer, but also nothing - referrer is direct/none.

Any idea on what could help identify where these literal requests are originating from?

Analytics

R

Rajeshwari

Community Advisor

This seems an tracking code implementation issue. Please validate what tracking code parameters are used in implementation? for e.g. CMP= EM or CID = EM etc. Also check the tracking code report and see what all values are flowing to the report.

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Sergei_KalinichenkoAuthor

Level 3

Hi @Rajeshwari

I’m sorry, I did not get the point. Can you elaborate please?

Marketing channel is defined by Tracking Code, and Tracking in Launch is literally query string parameter = cmp.

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Rajeshwari

Community Advisor

Okay. First, validate which query string parameter is configured as the campaign tracking parameter in Adobe Analytics (for example, cmp, cid, campaign, utm_campaign, etc.).

Review the implementation and confirm:

Which URL parameter is mapped to the Campaign/Tracking Code variable.
Whether multiple campaign parameters are being captured through Processing Rules, Launch, Web SDK, or custom JavaScript.
Whether any fallback logic exists that could populate the tracking code with unresolved placeholder values.

First, validate which query string parameter is configured as the campaign tracking parameter in Adobe Analytics (for example, cmp, cid, campaign, utm_campaign, etc.).

Review the implementation and confirm:

Which URL parameter is mapped to the Campaign/Tracking Code variable.
Whether multiple campaign parameters are being captured through Processing Rules, Launch, Web SDK, or custom JavaScript.
Whether any fallback logic exists that could populate the tracking code with unresolved placeholder values.

Next, review the Tracking Code report and identify all values being collected for the same parameter : like below -

em_campaignA

em_campaignB

em_campaignC

em_{dynamic_campaign_parameter}

Check whether the unresolved placeholder appears alongside valid email campaign values, and determine:

Is it isolated to a specific campaign?
Is it associated with a specific landing page?
Does it occur only for a particular tracking parameter (CMP, CID, etc.)?
Are there any other malformed tracking code values being captured?

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Sergei_KalinichenkoAuthor

Level 3

Excuse me Rajeshwari, I find your comment really surface: I already mentioned that Tracking Code/Campaign Code is query string parameter ?cmp; also my comment literally contains all answers.

Thank you.

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Jennifer_Dungan

Adobe Champion, Community Advisor, UG Leader

I can’t be sure, but I checked the above answer against a “is it written by AI” check, and it came back with 99.7% chance that it was written by AI… 🙁

That probably explains why it looks like surface level answers, and ignores the information you provided…

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Sergei_KalinichenkoAuthor

Level 3

Unfortunately 😞

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Jennifer_Dungan

Adobe Champion, Community Advisor, UG Leader

Hmm that can be a tough one… How many visits / page views are impacted?

In our system, dynamic values from testing emails usually just pass a null value, so I know that I can ignore anything that has “staticvalue_” and is missing the dynamic parameter….

When I do see the actual token not being replaced, it usually means that there is a code issue in our email templates… one missing value that enables the token replacement…

You did say occasionally which makes me feel this is either one email that is coded incorrectly, or it’s an older email that was coded incorrectly and still has users accessing it and following links….

This can be really hard to track down depending on how many email templates you have.…

There are two possible options:

Look at what pages people are landing on with the problem links, try to figure out a pattern based on the pages, and try to figure out the likely emails that would be sending people there
If you email system has internal tracking (for send rate, click rate, etc.).. you might be able to get someone to look at the click data for the literal tokens and figure out which templates are the problem.

Good Luck!

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Jennifer_Dungan

Adobe Champion, Community Advisor, UG Leader

Depending on how many emails you have, you could also sign up for all mailing lists, and check the results (every link, in every template… is it fast… no…. but hopefully you will find the offending link or template eventually….)

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