Tracking setup

How to set up your tracking in Simplified view mode

How to set up a click tracker in SAM using XML mode

What is a click tracker?

A click tracker allows you to measure user engagement (clicks, redirects, conversions) using your own analytics platform - independently of Skyscanner’s reporting.

How does a click tracker work?

A click tracker is a third-party URL that logs when a user clicks your ad:

The user is first redirected through a third party server (such as Doubleclick, Flashtalking).
After the click is recorded, the user is sent to the final landing page.
Skyscanner automatically appends the deeplink from your metasearch API response (if meta integration is available) — so you don’t need to include it in your click tracker.
You can still include custom tracking GET parameters (e.g. utm_campaign, utm_source and other utm parameters or any other custom parameters like CID) for further analytics.

Static vs Dynamic click trackers

Click trackers are often classified as either static or dynamic, based on how they handle destination URLs.

Static Click Trackers

Definition: The redirect URL (destination) is hardcoded by advertiser.
Behaviour: Always redirects to the same landing page.

Dynamic Click Trackers

Definition: Use a placeholder or macro (like [DEEPLINK]) that gets dynamically replaced at runtime.
Behaviour: Redirect URL can change depending on the ad, user, or context.
Use Case: When Skyscanner (or another platform) automatically appends the final URL (e.g. http://flights.com/from/to/123).

For priced ads on Skyscanner domains, a static click tracker is enough. Dynamic click trackers also work, but the URL is the metasearch deeplink which Skyscanner appends. So maintenance of a URL in an ad-server is unnecessary.

What is an impression pixel?

An impression pixel is a tiny, invisible image (usually 1x1 pixel) embedded in a webpage or ad. It tracks when the page or ad is viewed (an impression) by sending a signal back to a server, helping measure visibility and performance.

How is an impression pixel implemented in Skyscanner Ad Manager (SAM)?

A pixel is usually exported from an ad server (such as DCM) in HTML wrapping. We do not accept this wrapping, instead we accept the pixel URL itself. So if your pixel arrives as:

<img src="https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/trackimp/N123.456789COMPANY/B12345678.123456789;dc_trk_aid=123456789;dc_trk_cid=987654321;ord=[timestamp]?" width="1" height="1" style="display:none;" alt="">

You would implement:

https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/trackimp/N123.456789COMPANY/B12345678.123456789;dc_trk_aid=123456789;dc_trk_cid=987654321;ord=[timestamp]?

Within the pixel you’ll notice [timestamp]. This will usually be included in the pixel URL when exported (if it is not you will need to consult your ad tech provider). This is a placeholder for a random number macro, to ensure your pixel is not cached by browsers and so it always appears as unique. In SAM you will replace [timestamp] with [TIMESTAMP].

If your pixel includes GDPR macros (these are Google specific macros for Google platforms) then these should be removed before deploying the pixel in SAM to avoid error messages.

Verifying a pixel is active

Paste the pixel URL into your browser and hit return. If you see a screen like in the above video where the tab shows the name including ‘1x1’ then the pixel is functioning. If nothing happens when you hit return this means the pixel is likely inactive in the ad server it was exported from and will not track impressions until is activated.

If you’re not satisfied by the above method and wish to make sure, you can push a preview of your line item to the Skyscanner site. From here, find your ad and right click then select ‘inspect’. Within the developer tools select ‘Network’ and type in something relative to your pixel (doubleclick for example). Here you will see the requests and the ‘Status Code’ which verifies if the pixel worked correctly: