Why am I missing tracking pixels?

Corina Alonso Updated by Corina Alonso

There can be different reasons why a tracking pixel is missing from a campaign. 

One of the most common causes of this issue is that the creator of a campaign/pixels closes the browser without pressing the "Save" button in the top-right corner in AudienceReport. Then the tracking pixels will be created without being pinned to the campaign. 

Another common cause of a missing tracking pixel is if a campaign has been automatically created through an adserver. Then the automatically created campaign will always overwrite any manual changes made in AudienceReport, such as the creation of pixels. 

Depending on your set-up, a campaign often has a different name in AudienceReport than in the adserver when automatically created through an integration. This means that the campaign you are looking for might have a slightly different name from when you created it in your adserver. 

If none of the above are the causes of the tracking pixel being lost, please feel free to contact our client service team at support@audiencereport.com to find the cause and ensure that the issue does not reoccur. 

How to retrieve lost tracking pixels?

As long as the tracking pixel has been created in AudienceReport, it should be possible to retrieve and reattach it to a campaign. If you lost not only pixel(s) and a campaign as well please re-create a campaign first to be able to retrieve pixels there.

When adding an already created tracking pixel, you will need to know the pixel code. This appears in the tracking pixel after "t=", and often has the following format (though this may vary): XXX12345678

The tracking pixel looks like this: http://visitanalystics.userreport.com/hit.gif?t=XXX12345678"> 

Go into the campaign where you want to add the tracking pixel. Press "Actions" in the top-right corner, and then "Edit campaign".

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Now press the "Tracking points" tab on the left-hand side, and then press the green "+" button in the top-right corner. Now you will need to enter the tracking pixel in the following format: tracking pixel name; pixel code (first, insert the name of the tracking pixel, then a semicolon, and at the end, the pixel code).

Example: My tracking pixel; XXX12345678

where "My tracking pixel" is the name, and "XXX12345678" is the pixel code.

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The tracking pixel name can be anything you chose. It does not have to match the original tracking pixel. The pixel code, on the other hand, has to appear exactly as in the original tracking pixel. This will allow you to retrieve any potential data that the tracking pixel might already have tracked. 

After that hit Enter and if the tracking pixel is successful, a green checkmark will appear next to it. Then click on 'Add to Campaign':

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If the tracking pixel is not successful - a red "i" will appear. If you click this you can read about why this did not work. 

You can add a list of several missing / already existing tracking pixels by pasting them in, in a row, in the correct format. 

Example: 

Tracking pixel 1;XXX12121212Tracking pixel 2;XXX34343434Tracking pixel 3;XXX56565656Tracking pixel 4;XXX78787878

When you have added all the tracking pixels you need, press "Add to campaign", and at the very end, press "save" to ensure that the pixels will be added to your campaign. 

How to retrieve lost tracking pixels created through an adserver?

First, if the campaign is automatically created through an adserver, you will need to duplicate the campaign and add the tracking pixels in the duplicated version (the same steps as in the section "How to retrieve lost tracking pixels?")

The pixels that are automatically created through an adserver are made up of 4 components: 

  • The AudienceReport CID - a code made up of 3 letters. This is the same for all campaigns in one account and appears when logged in to AudienceReport in the top right corner between the company name and your name.
  • The adserver prefix: "adf2" for Adform and "dcm" for Campaign Manager
  • the adserver campaign ID
  • the adserver line-item ID

Here is it important to point out that the adserver campaign ID is different from your adserver account ID. While the account ID often has the following format: XXX-XX-1234, it is the campaign ID (made up of 7 or 10 numbers) the tracking pixel contains. 

Below we are demonstrating what tracking pixels created through Adform and Campaign Manager look like.

Automatically created pixels through Adform have the following format: [CID]adf2-[adserver campaign ID]-[adserver line-item ID]. Example: XXXadf2-1234567-7654321

Automatically created pixels through Campaign Manager have this format: [CID]dcm-c[adserver campaign ID]-p[adserver line-item ID]. Example: XXXdcm-c1234567890-p0987654321

Note that for Campaign Manager before [adserver campaign ID] stands the letter c and before [adserver line-item ID] stands p.

Please feel free to contact us at support@audiencereport.com if you have any questions.

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