You may receive an error during a bulk edit operation or revenue upload regarding a Duplicate tracking value. This warning happens when two objects have the same tracking ID within the URL, so the system doesn't know which object to edit/assign data.

The error will appear in a bulk edit when:

1. Autocorrect is turned ON or set to WARN.
2. You are attempting to edit a keyword or ad that contains a duplicate tracking ID (same tracking ID also exists on another keyword/ad).

The error will appear in a revenue upload when:

1. Conversion and/or revenue is uploaded for a tracking ID assigned to two or more keywords in the account and/or in the same ad group.
2. The platform is unable to identify a unique keyword or ad based on additional parameters, such as {keyword}, {MatchType} or {Creative ID} 

Revenue will fail to attribute since the system does not know which Active/Paused object to assign the conversion to.

Notes

This warning happens when two objects have the same tracking ID seen in the URL, and so the system does not know which object to edit/assign data. If the duplicate tracking is associated with 1 object that is active/paused and 1 object that is also active/paused, conversions will not attribute at all in the account. Revenue will fail to attribute since the system does not know which active/paused object to assign the conversion to.

If the duplicate tracking is associated with 1 object that is deleted and 1 object that is active/paused, conversions will know to attribute to the active/paused object. The deleted object will not get assigned any conversions since the system will give precedence to the active/paused object. Even though revenue may still attribute, you will continue to get a warning that there is a “duplicate tracking value” when attempting to edit the duplicated object. This can be a problem if this prevents the edits from being posted to the publisher. It is therefore best practice to not have any duplicate tracking IDs in the account, and to remove them once these errors appear.

What Causes The Issue?

1. This warning commonly occurs when copying Destination URL’s over from one object to another (tracking IDs included), or when editing creatives and not including the Creative ID column in the bulk sheet. It is important when using URL Builder, to allow it to build the tracking parameters automatically according its settings.
2. Another reason why you would see this warning is if the Destination URL in question contains the same tracking ID twice. This commonly occurs when using ifmobile/ifnotmobile parameters and having the same tracking parameters for each URL. In this instance, it can be left alone or you can edit the URL to have only one set of tracking parameters set outside the ifmobile/ifnotmobile brackets. More information on setup can be found here.

How To Fix The Issue

There are several ways to resolve this and will depend on how Auto Correct is being used under the URL Builder settings. 

Note: The system generates a unique tracking ID for each object. Therefore if tracking were ever stripped from the object, the system will know to re-tag it with the same tracking ID. This means that when fixing duplicates, you must make sure you are re-syncing/updating all duplicated objects -- what will happen is that the system will 1) provide the same tracking ID to the original object and 2) give the second object a brand new, unique tracking ID.

Here is how duplicate tracking ID's are handled under all options:

Autocorrect Is Turned On

• With existing objects, perform a manual sync either through the Linking Wizard (to sync the entire publisher account) or on the Groups tab (to just sync specific groups). Please see this article for steps on how to perform a manual sync. After synchronization is complete, you will see an item in Activity Log with “URL AutoCorrect: X Google Keywords.” No other action required.
• With new creations, Auto Correct will be automatically fix duplicate tracking ID's when creating new objects and this warning can be ignored.
• For Google keywords with duplicate tracking IDs, export the appropriate keywords to Excel by creating a report with the Account, Campaign, Group, Keyword, Match Type, and Custom Parameterscolumns. Once your report has been imported into Excel, delete the contents of the Custom Parameters column while keeping the column header. You can then bulk upload the file back into Marin. 
• If the duplicate tracking IDs are shared between Google and Microsoft keywords, export the appropriate keywords to Excel by creating a report with the Account, Campaign, Group, Keyword, Match Type, and Custom Parameterscolumns. Once your report has been imported into Excel, delete the contents of the Custom Parameters column and update them to contain mkwid=[uniq_id]. You can then bulk upload the file back into Marin. 
• (Note: The following only applies if you have not migrated to Microsoft's Upgraded URLs. If you've already migrated, you can use the same columns as Google above). For Microsoft keywords with duplicate tracking IDs, export the appropriate keywords to Excel by creating a report with the Account, Campaign, Group, Match Type, andDestination URLcolumns (or Click Through URL if using redirects). You can then bulk upload the file back into Marin.

Autocorrect Is Set To "Warn Only"

• With existing objects, perform a manual sync from the publisher account settings page. After synchronization is complete, you will see an item in Activity Log with “URL Issues (x of x Keywords, x URL Corrections) - File (with URL Corrections).” This file will contain a modified tracking ID. Open this file, remove the Uploaded Destination URL and Results columns and re-upload.
• With new creations, Auto Correct will automatically create a similar file in the Activity Log as above. Open this file, remove the Uploaded Destination URL and Results columns and re-upload.

Autocorrect Is Set To “Off”

• Autocorrect will not work and duplicate tracking ID's will need to be manually changed. To do so, please follow the steps outlined below:
  1. Download a report containing the affected URLs.
  2. Look through the URLs and replace the duplicated alphanumeric value with the string [uniq_id].
  3. Re-upload the URLs to the platform. This will force the platform to generate a new numeric ID, provided the Unique ID column is blank in the interface.

Additional Information

Regarding Creatives

• If all keywords in a group HAVE Destination URL’s, then Autocorrect will ignore creative duplicate tracking ID’s since editing creatives affects quality score and revenue will still attribute at the keyword level. However, if all keywords in a group DO NOT have URL’s, then duplicate creative tracking ID’s will either warn or fix automatically depending on your setting.
• Autocorrect will need to be turned ON for creatives in order to fix duplicates. This can be found in the URL Builder page under the Advanced Options drop-down.

For Facebook Creatives

To prevent that tracking in Facebook fails because of duplicate tracking ID in the account (creative level), please try these:

1. Keep watching the new uploads. In the Creatives tab, filter for creative in Editing or Sync Error status, select the failed rows and click the Resume button ('play' icon) to repost them.
2. Try your best not to adjust any creative directly in Facebook once you create them (for example Page Post link Ads). Do a manual sync as soon as you finish editing, so the platform catches up the change in time.
3. Perform a manual sync regularly (for example per week) across all campaigns. If the URL Auto-Correct is on, you get a warning when there is duplicate tracking ID in the account.

If needed, a member from our Customer Support team may create a report containing all duplicate keyword and creative tracking ID’s in the account. Please file a ticket if you would like this report send to you.

Duplicate Tracking Warning Related To Deleted Objects

A duplicate tracking value warning can result from a deleted object with the same value as an active/paused object. Marin is able to handle the deleted object for the duplicate value for revenue upload and bulk edits, but there are few items to be aware of.

• Revenue Upload 
  If a conversion is uploaded for a tracking ID related to a deleted object and a Active/Paused object, then Marin will assign the conversion to the Active/Paused object. Even if the conversion should attribute to the deleted object, the active/paused object receives the conversion. It is important to prevent or remove duplicate tracking values in your account, because this can cause confusion in your Marin reporting.
• Bulk Edit
  If you are editing an Active/Paused object with the same value as a deleted object, then the activity for the edit returns a duplicate tracking value warning. When the warning is related to a deleted object, then verify the edit was completed successfully and ignore the warning.