What is Floodlight Tag? A Step By Step Guide To The Media Campaign Analysis Tool

There are many analytics systems and auditors for media advertising: Gemius, Kochava, Kantar CMeter, Singular. This article will focus on Floodlight, the most popular tool for analyzing media campaigns.

We don’t live by clicking alone. So what lies beneath the 0.05% CTR in advertising? In the new article, we tell you about the most common mistakes in analyzing media flights and how to avoid them.

What is floodlight tag?

Floodlight is an integral part of the Google Marketing Platform which serves as a robust conversion tracking system. Utilizing tags in the form of iframes or image tags strategically placed on advertiser's site conversion pages, Floodlight tracks user activity and sends crucial conversion data to Search Ads 360 and Campaign Manager 360. The system employs cookies to recognize repeat visits, ensuring precise attribution. This piece of code, generated in Campaign Manager, is embedded on individual website pages, allowing marketers to comprehensively monitor and analyze user behavior. Floodlight's sophisticated approach provides actionable insights, empowering marketers to refine and optimize digital campaigns for enhanced performance based on a nuanced understanding of user interactions and conversions.

Answering the question What is Google floodlight? in short, floodlight is a conversion counter. You can read about it in detail in Google help. In simple terms, Floodlight tags record the conversions on the site under the influence of media campaigns. You can also create audiences based on this counter.

Working with this tool is similar to working with goals in Google Analytics.

To create a goal in Google Analytics, you first need to create a “Goal” in the interface and then code directly or through Google Tag Manager to install it on the site.

How to create a Floodlight using the same chain:

1. Create a Floodlight in the CM360 or DV360 system.
2. Get installation instructions.
3. Put it on the site and track the event (conversion).

How to install floodlight tag?

Below, we offer several answers on How to implement floodlight tags based on the type of floodlight tag manager.

In Campaign Manager 360

To install floodlight tags, open Campaign Manager 360 and go to your advertiser.

Go to the “Action Groups” tab.

Give the action group a convenient name and select the type “Sales” or “Counter.” Everything is logical here: if you want to track transactions or revenue — choose “Sales.” If you’re going to track how many forms were filled in — choose “Counter.” You can learn more about action groups in Google Help in the Floodlight Conversion Counting Methods section.

Go back to the “Actions” tab and click “Create”.

Fill in all the required fields and save.

If you have an app, it is better to link CM360 to the developer’s Google Play account to track installations influenced by media advertising.

In Display&Video 360

Let's figure out what is floodlight in DV360. To install floodlight tags, open your DV360 account and go to the “Resources” tab. Click on “NEW FLOODLIGHT ACTIVITY” and select “Web”.

Fill in the required fields and save.

After saving, you will see a field with installation instructions, just like in CM360.

To the website

You can install the Floodlight tag in two ways:

1. Directly to the website via code.
2. Using Google Tag Manager.

To install the Floodlight tag using Google Tag Manager:

Open GTM and select “Create Tag,” then “Floodlight Counter.” Give it a convenient name and fill in all the necessary fields for the successful transfer of the event to SM360:

• take the fields from SM360 on the “Actions” tab;

• fill in all the data inside the Floodlight tag, save it, and publish it.

You can also pass custom variables into Floodlight and get additional information for analysis. But this is a topic for another article.

What value does floodlight tag provide?

Analysis of conversions by impressions in a media campaign. Offloading campaign reports to DV360 or CM360 allows you to analyze conversions by impressions and clicks within 0-30 days of user contact with the ad.

Ability to focus on more converting audiences. By analyzing targeting metrics for conversion by impressions, you can target and prioritize your more converting audiences.

Ability to create audiences based on Floodlight. Once audiences are created, they can be transferred within the GMP tools; for example, create an audience in the CM360 and use it in ads in DV360.

Additional conversion data. Custom variables allow you to pass additional data: transaction ID, product name, and other variables.

If you want to set up and analyze the results of your media campaigns correctly, contact our team. We will share our experience and expertise.

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