Google AdWords Team Reminds Advertisers to Upgrade their URLs by July 1st, 2015

On February 9th, 2015, the Google AdWords team introduced Upgraded URLs, with the aim of providing advertisers a simpler and faster way to manage and track vital information about each click on their AdWords ads.

Upgraded URLs are designed to offer several benefits—among them, lessening the time advertisers spend managing URL tracking updates, reducing crawl and load times on websites, as well as giving advertisers additional insights about their ads via the new ValueTrack parameters. While Upgraded URLs were initially rolled out following their announcement in February, the AdWords team encouraged all advertisers who use tracking in their URLs to upgrade to the new system by July 1st, 2015.

On June 16th, 2015, the AdWords team posted a reminder on the Inside AdWords blog, reminding advertisers to upgrade their URLs by the aforementioned deadline. “With Upgraded URLs, you’ll be able to manage your landing page and tracking information separately using the new final URL and tracking template fields,” stated Leo Sei, Product Manager for Google AdWords, in the blog post.

The following video provides more information about the benefits of Upgraded URLs:

Starting on July 1st, Destination URLs Can No Longer Be Created or Edited

Starting on July 1st, 2015, Google AdWords advertisers were advised to prepare for the following changes:

Destination URLs can no longer be edited or created; moving forward, any new URLs will have to be created using the new Upgraded URL fields.
Destination URLs will automatically be moved to the new final URL field for any ad groups in the account that do not contain cross-domain redirect URLs. Advertisers will receive an alert in their AdWords account informing them of any remaining ad groups that have not been upgraded.
Any ads with destination URLs that haven’t been updated will stop serving in a few months. AdWords will send a notification thirty days before the ads stop serving via email and alerts in the advertisers’ accounts.

Advertisers Who Don’t Use URL Tracking Don’t Need to Upgrade

Advertisers who aren’t using URL tracking or are only using auto-tagging can wait for the auto-upgrade beginning on July 1st. “Our system will automatically move your destination URLs into the new final URL fields, and your reporting columns will update to reflect these changes.” During the auto-upgrade, ad performance statistics will not be reset, and ads will not be required to undergo a policy review.

For more information, check out the Google AdWords upgrade guide.

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