How to create a Custom Parameter?

Sometimes you need to track additional information that may not belong to any of the UTM parameters. Such information can be captured in Google Analytics (and other analytics tools) using Custom Dimensions.

That often means adding one or more custom parameters to your tracking URLs. You may choose to add these custom parameters in addition to (or instead of) the normal UTM parameters.

You can define custom parameters in Terminus by following these steps:

1. Go to the Custom Parameters page

While in your project, navigate to Parameters > Custom

2. Click Create a new Custom Parameter

3. Define your custom parameter

1. Enter a name for your custom parameter. This will be added to your tracking URL
2. Specify if this is required for each tracking URL
3. Write some notes that help you remember what this parameter is about
4. Click Save.

After you click save, your custom parameter is ready to be used in the URL builder. The following steps are optional that help you define values for your custom parameter in advance.

3.1 Auto-generated custom parameter (Optional)

If you need a custom parameter that has its value generated automatically, e.g. cid (campaign id), it’s possible to define it like this:

1. Define your parameters as per the steps in Section 3 (above), but don’t click Save just yet.
2. Select the Auto-generated checkbox (verify if your plan supports this feature)
3. Define any Prefix value if needed.
4. Click Save.

Any URLs created from now on will have an auto-generated cid custom parameter added and it will look like this.

www.example.com?cid=cid_1234567890&utm_campaign=summer_sale&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

The value of cid cannot be manually specified. It’s also unique per URL. So it’s best to create only one auto-generated custom parameter per project.

4. Add a value for your custom parameter (optional)

Once you create your (not auto-generated) custom parameter, you can define some values. This is a good practice if you want you or your team to select from already defined values.

Click Add a new value.

5. Define values for your custom parameter (optional)

1. Specify the value of your customer parameter
2. Write some notes. These are useful when selecting it in URL builder.

6. Add Custom Parameters to your tracking URLs

After you create your custom parameter, coupon, in this case, will be visible in the URL builder as another parameter.

You can either select an existing value or enter a new value. After you finish building the URL, it may look something like this.

www.example.com?coupon=earlybird&utm_campaign=summer_sale&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

NOTE: It’s possible for you to restrict members of your team to only be able to use existing values and not be able to create a new one.