How do I fix tracking template errors?

What “tracking template errors” usually mean in Google Ads (and why they matter)

A tracking template error is almost never “just a tracking issue.” In practice, it’s a URL assembly problem: Google Ads tries to combine your Final URL (your landing page) with your Tracking template (your click tracker and/or parameters) and sometimes your Final URL suffix (extra parameters added to the landing page). If the resulting Expanded URL can’t be built correctly, can’t be crawled reliably, or doesn’t lead to the same destination/content, you’ll see warnings, failed URL tests, or policy-related disapprovals.

The most common places you’ll notice this are (1) a failed Test result next to a tracking template, (2) “destination” policy issues like destination mismatch / destination not working, or (3) strange click behavior where users land on the wrong page (or tracking doesn’t fire even though clicks are coming in).

One important nuance: Google Ads can apply tracking templates at multiple levels (keyword, ad, ad group, campaign, account). The most specific level wins. That means you can “fix” the account-level template and still have errors because one keyword-level template is broken—or vice versa.

Know the three URL fields you’re actually managing

Tracking template is primarily for third-party click measurement/redirect logic. If you’re using a tracking service, this is where its URL usually lives.

Final URL suffix is where you should put parameters that must arrive on your landing page (for example, UTMs or ValueTrack parameters you want your site analytics to receive). Keeping landing-page parameters in the suffix is cleaner and reduces breakage.

Final URL should be the real landing page users should reach, without relying on trackers to “fix” it at click time.

A proven workflow to diagnose tracking template errors fast (without guessing)

When you troubleshoot tracking templates, you want to avoid random edits. The fastest path is: identify where the template is coming from, test the assembled URL, then fix the exact failure mode (missing landing page macro, bad escaping, redirects, protocol issues, or domain/content mismatch).

Critical diagnostic checklist (do these in order)

• Find the active template source. Add the “Tracking template” and “Tracking template source” columns in the relevant view (keywords, ads, assets, ad groups, campaigns). Confirm which level is actually in force.
• Run the built-in Test. Use the “Test” button next to the tracking template (or in URL options for ads/assets). Don’t rely on eyeballing the string—testing reveals redirect chain and crawl outcomes.
• Compare Expanded URL vs Final URL behavior. If the expanded URL resolves to a different domain, different content, or fails to load for crawlers, you’re looking at a destination issue, not “just tracking.”
• Validate HTTPS + server-side redirects. Every URL in the tracking chain should be HTTPS, and redirects must be server-side (not JavaScript/HTML meta refresh).
• Check macro placement and encoding. Incorrect use of {lpurl} / {unescapedlpurl} (or double-escaping) is one of the most common causes of “works in my browser, fails in Ads.”

How to interpret the most common Test results

If the test says the landing page wasn’t found, treat it like a crawler/URL build failure: the final URL could be wrong, the tracking template could be assembling an invalid URL, or your site may be blocking the Ads crawler.

If the test indicates the final URL doesn’t match, it usually means the redirect chain starts somewhere other than your declared final URL, or redirects cross domains, or the expanded URL isn’t ending on the same domain/content as the final URL.

If the test flags HTTP redirects or JavaScript redirects in the tracking chain, you’re in “parallel tracking compatibility” territory: tracking might partially fire in the background, but anything that requires non-HTTPS hops or on-page redirects can break measurement and/or trigger destination problems.

How to fix tracking template errors (by root cause)

1) Fix the #1 issue: missing {lpurl} (or using it in a way that breaks URL assembly)

If your tracking template doesn’t include a landing page macro, Google Ads can’t reliably connect the click path to the final landing page. In most cases, a proper tracking template includes {lpurl} (or another supported landing page parameter), because that’s how the final URL gets inserted into your tracker.

A safe, standard pattern when you’re mainly appending parameters to the landing page (not using a third-party redirect) is to keep the tracking template minimal (or empty) and put parameters into the final URL suffix instead. This reduces complexity and dramatically lowers error rates.

When you do use {lpurl}, placement matters. If you want the final URL to remain cleanly usable as a base and avoid odd escaping issues, put {lpurl} at the beginning of the tracking template when you’re appending parameters directly to it, like:

{lpurl}?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&campaign_id={campaignid}

If you’re sending the landing page as a parameter inside a tracking URL, you’ll typically use something like {unescapedlpurl} depending on what your tracker expects. The key is consistency: the tracker must receive a correctly formatted URL, and the user must still land on the same destination/content as your final URL.

2) Fix “tracking template doesn’t redirect through to final URL” (destination mismatch behavior)

This is the classic scenario where the tracking chain resolves, but it resolves “wrong.” The expanded URL may lead to a different domain, a different subdomain, or materially different content than the final URL. Even if users seem to land “somewhere OK,” crawlers and policy checks are strict about consistency.

Start by ensuring your tracking template and any intermediate redirects ultimately resolve to the same final destination and content as your declared final URL. If your tracker is appending a dynamic ID or extra parameters in the final URL itself (not the template/suffix), it can sometimes cause mismatch behavior. A common fix is to treat those as tracking-only parameters and isolate them properly so they don’t change the interpreted destination.

If the issue is tied to policy review, remember the operational detail: edits at more granular levels (like ad, keyword, or certain asset-level URL options) often re-review automatically, but changes at broad scopes (ad group, campaign, account) may require you to request a new review after you correct the template. Plan for that so you’re not waiting and wondering why nothing reactivates.

3) Fix invalid ValueTrack parameters and “broken” expanded URLs (escaping and separators)

Tracking templates fail constantly due to tiny syntax issues: two question marks, missing ampersands, unescaped spaces, or macros inserted into the middle of a parameter value where they don’t belong.

Use this mental model: your URL must remain a valid URL after substitution. If the landing page already contains a ?, you must append new parameters with &, not another ?. If you’re uncertain whether the landing page might already include parameters, that’s another reason to favor final URL suffix (Google Ads handles concatenation more predictably).

If your tracker uses multiple redirects (or you have a long redirect chain), you may need a differently escaped landing page macro (for example, a version escaped multiple times). The symptom here is usually: the tracker receives the landing page, but it’s truncated, double-encoded, or the redirect chain drops parameters.

4) Fix parallel tracking incompatibilities (HTTP links, on-page redirects, and “tracking chain ends”)

Parallel tracking is mandatory for most campaign types, which means Google Ads sends the user directly to the final URL while running the tracking calls in the background. That’s great for speed, but it’s unforgiving technically.

To make tracking templates work reliably with parallel tracking, every URL in the tracking redirect chain should be HTTPS, and redirects must be server-side. If your tracker or an intermediate hop relies on JavaScript redirects, HTML meta refresh, or any HTTP step, you’ll see failed tests, partial tracking, or “tracking chain ends” messages. The fix is usually on the tracking vendor side: update the click measurement endpoints to HTTPS and replace on-page redirects with server-side 301/302 behavior.

5) Fix errors caused by anchors (#) and AJAX fragments (tagger) in the Final URL

Anchors and AJAX fragments are a silent killer because anything after # isn’t typically sent to the server in the same way, and appending tracking parameters after an anchor often doesn’t behave as advertisers expect.

If your final URL contains # or #! and your tracking setup appends parameters to the end of the URL, you should restructure so the tracking parameters are placed into the final URL itself (not appended after the fragment). In these cases, an ignore marker can be used to clearly separate tracking-only parameters from the “true” destination portion of the URL so crawlers interpret the destination correctly.

6) Fix breakage introduced by automated URL expansion (when using AI-driven landing page selection)

Modern Search setups can use automated systems that select or expand landing pages to better match intent. When that’s enabled, your tracking template must be compatible with dynamic landing pages; otherwise, you’ll see scenarios where the “expanded” landing page works without tracking, but breaks once the tracking template is applied (often presenting as 404 errors).

The practical fix is to ensure your tracking template uses a landing page macro in a standard, full-token way (not as a substring inside another parameter value), and to avoid hard-coding static landing page URLs inside the tracking template. If you want automation to choose the best landing page, the template must allow the chosen landing page to pass through cleanly.

7) Fix shopping/feed-related tracking conflicts (when multiple systems add parameters)

If you run Shopping or feed-based campaigns, you can end up with tracking parameters coming from more than one place (for example, product URLs, feed settings, or account-level tracking). The result is duplicated UTMs, conflicting parameters, or final URLs that look different depending on click surface—all of which can trigger errors or muddy attribution.

The best practice is to avoid hard-coding channel-specific tracking parameters into product URLs that are reused across campaign types, and instead centralize campaign differentiation in Google Ads using tracking templates and/or the final URL suffix at the appropriate level. After changes, allow time for propagation—URL and tracking template updates can take 24–48 hours to fully reflect in serving and reporting—then re-test using the built-in landing page test.

8) Make your fix “stick”: adopt a stable tracking template pattern

Once you’ve corrected the immediate error, lock in a structure that won’t break the next time you add a campaign or turn on a new feature.

My go-to approach for long-term stability is: keep the tracking template focused on third-party click measurement (or leave it empty if you don’t need redirects), put landing-page parameters in the final URL suffix, keep everything HTTPS end-to-end, and always test at the level where the template is actually applied (because the most specific template wins).

If you do only one thing after reading this, do this: standardize to one clean template format, document which macros you use and why, and require a “Test passed” result before pushing changes account-wide. That single discipline prevents most tracking template errors before they cost you spend, data quality, or approvals.

If you’re dealing with Google Ads tracking template errors, it often helps to treat them as URL construction issues first: confirm which template level is actually applied, use Google Ads’ built-in Test to inspect the full expanded URL and redirect chain, and then simplify by keeping click-measurement logic in the tracking template (with a correct {lpurl}/{unescapedlpurl} macro) while moving UTMs and ValueTrack into the Final URL suffix, ensuring everything stays HTTPS and resolves to the same destination as your Final URL. If you want a lighter way to stay on top of these kinds of account-wide inconsistencies as campaigns evolve, Blobr connects to your Google Ads and runs specialized AI agents that continuously review setup patterns and landing-page alignment, helping you spot where tracking and destination issues are likely to appear before they turn into widespread errors.