How to get Facebook tracking url parameters through API - facebook

Question

When I edit an ad on business.facebook.com, I can see a "Tracking" section where there is a field called "URL Parameters".
I am trying to get the value of that field using the (Graph or Marketing) API, but after reading a lot I can't find a way of achieve that.
Does somebody know if that is even possible?

Answer 1

See the "Ad Creative" object, "URL Tags" field.
More info here: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/reference/ad-creative
Whoops, that seems to be for writing only. It seems like that field is always empty when reading objects. :(

Answer 2

You can find this information under "url_tags" on the Ad Creative level through Graph API.
Official Documentation: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/reference/ad-creative/#fields

Answer 3

Disclaimer: I'm still pretty new to intermediate graph API usage, but this is what I figured out so far.
The python page seems to give all the fields in a nice long list, so I copy and pasted those into the API URL:
actor_id, actor_image_hash, actor_name, adlabels, applink_treatment,
body, call_to_action_type, dynamic_ad_voice, filename,
follow_redirect, id, image_crops, image_file, image_hash, image_url,
instagram_actor_id, instagram_permalink_url, link_deep_link_url,
link_url, name, object_id, object_store_url, object_story_id,
object_story_spec, object_type, object_url, place_page_set_id,
preview_url, product_set_id, template_url, thumbnail_url, title,
url_tag
So something like this (spaces are ok):
/v2.12/act_XXXXXXX/adcreatives/?fields=actor_id, actor_image_hash,
actor_name, adlabels, applink_treatment, body, call_to_action_type,
dynamic_ad_voice, filename, follow_redirect, id, image_crops,
image_file, image_hash, image_url, instagram_actor_id,
instagram_permalink_url, link_deep_link_url, link_url, name,
object_id, object_store_url, object_story_id, object_story_spec,
object_type, object_url, place_page_set_id, preview_url,
product_set_id, template_url, thumbnail_url, title,
url_tag&limit=100&effective_status=["ACTIVE"]
This gives me the full tree:
{
"data": [
{
"body": "XXXXXXX",
"call_to_action_type": "LEARN_MORE",
"id": "XXXXXXX",
"image_hash": "XXXXXXX",
"image_url": "XXXXXXX",
"instagram_actor_id": "XXXXXXX",
"instagram_permalink_url": "XXXXXXX",
"name": "#‏XXXXXXX",
"object_story_spec": {
"page_id": "XXXXXXX",
"instagram_actor_id": "XXXXXXX",
"video_data": {
"video_id": "XXXXXXX",
"title": "XXXXXXX",
"message": "XXXXXXX",
"link_description": "XXXXXXX",
"call_to_action": {
"type": "LEARN_MORE",
"value": {
"link_caption": "EXAMPLE.COM",
"link": "https://example.com/your-page",
"link_format": "VIDEO_LPP"
}
},
"image_hash": "XXXXXXX"
}
},
"object_type": "VIDEO",
"thumbnail_url": "XXXXXXX",
"title": "XXXXXXX"
},
So now I know it CAN be returned and most definitely is not write-only.
After playing some more I found that it's the SINGLE field object_story_spec that returns ALL this:
"data": [
{
"object_story_spec": {
"page_id": "XXXXXXX",
"instagram_actor_id": "XXXXXXX",
"video_data": {
"video_id": "XXXXXXX",
"title": "XXXXXXX!",
"message": "XXXXXXX",
"link_description": "XXXXXXX",
"call_to_action": {
"type": "LEARN_MORE",
"value": {
"link_caption": "EXAMPLE.COM",
"link": "https://EXAMPLE.COM/YOUR-WEBSITE-LINK",
"link_format": "VIDEO_LPP"
}
},
"image_hash": "XXXXXXX"
}
},
"id": "XXXXXXX"
},
So perhaps fields like link and object_id aren't for the type of ad I am using (mostly video with link to website) - or perhaps they are just for creating an ad - but I don't really care because now I have the data I need.
I'm using https://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer for this