Analytics Tracker Update
On May 3rd we will update how we support third party analytics trackers to help publishers better understand their Instant Articles traffic.
Publishers have asked for a better way to track traffic from individual links. Previously, our system did not pass query parameters through, nor did it fully resolve shortened links to the full URL. Based on this feedback, we will begin supporting both of these for publishers using embedded trackers starting May 3rd.
The update impacts traffic data collected from the latest versions of Facebook on iOS and Android (iOS v52 and Android v72) moving forward. As a result of this change, your data may look different than it does today. Here are the specs for what's changing:
Query parameters are respected – Currently, we only track the canonical URL of your articles. Starting May 3rd, all query parameters for an article will be preserved.
Example: An Instant Article is shared to Facebook as http://www.mypublisher.com/article?src=fb.
Today: Article traffic is always reported as http://www.mypublisher.com/article.
Starting May 3rd: Article traffic will be reported as http://www.mypublisher.com/article?src=fb.
Shortened links are resolved – If your articles are shared to Facebook as a shortened URL, we currently only report the shortened URL as the source of the traffic. Starting May 3rd, we will fully resolve the shortened link to the full URL.
Example: You shared the Bitly link http://bit.ly/article of your Instant Article http://www.mypublisher.com/article?src=fb.
Today: Article traffic is reported as http://bit.ly/article.
Starting May 3rd: Article traffic will be reported as http://www.mypublisher.com/article?src=fb.
If you have built a workaround, we recommend updating your analytics and data management tools in preparation for this change on May 3rd. Note that trackers on older versions of Facebook for iOS and Android will continue to report traffic as they have been. New tracker support will gradually apply to all Instant Articles as users upgrade to newer versions of the app.
To learn more, read about the analytics tools available for Instant Articles.
Note: This is only supported for embedded trackers, (referred to in our documentation as “Embed full source”) and not URL trackers (referred to as “URL to source”). Learn more about the two ways of adding analytics code in our developer documentation).
