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Management Summary
Performance Max groups advertising materials around themes such as running shoes or hiking boots. New Google Ads settings allow each group to carry its own labels in website links. This helps reports show which theme led to a visit and whether the landing page matches the advertised product. Clear, stable labels make mismatches easier to find. They identify the group, not the exact image shown, and more purchases under one label do not by themselves prove that the advertising caused the increase.
Contents
Google Ads API v25.2, released on 23 September 2026, adds URL options directly to Performance Max asset groups. An asset group brings together the creative material and destinations used for a particular theme. Its tracking template, custom parameters and final URL suffix can now be configured through the API. The change creates a more precise place to maintain tracking labels; it does not introduce a new attribution model. [1, 2]
Three fields with different jobs
The final URL is the destination, such as a category page for running shoes. A final URL suffix contains parameters appended to the landing-page address. A tracking template describes a tracking URL and can involve a separate measurement provider. Custom parameters supply named values used inside those settings. Treating these as interchangeable creates links that look plausible but deliver different information.
| Field | Purpose |
|---|---|
tracking_url_template |
A template for the tracking URL. |
url_custom_parameters |
Values substituted into supported URL fields. |
final_url_suffix |
Parameters attached to the landing-page URL. |
The distinction matters with parallel tracking: the visitor reaches the final destination while the tracking request can run in the background. A parameter intended for the website belongs in the landing-page configuration; its presence in a third-party tracking request alone is not evidence that the website receives it. [3]
A shop with two product themes
A fictional campaign contains a running-shoes group and a hiking-boots group. Both promote the same shop, but the reporting needs to retain which theme led to a visit. A simple naming scheme uses stable, lowercase values such as running_shoes and hiking_boots. Those are editorial choices for this example, not required Google names.
Final URL:
https://example.com/shoes?collection=autumn
Final URL suffix:
utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=autumn_pmax&utm_content=running_shoes
Expected landing URL in this static example:
https://example.com/shoes?collection=autumn&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=autumn_pmax&utm_content=running_shoesThe suffix contains neither the domain nor a leading question mark. The existing collection filter remains in place. The second asset group can use a different content label without requiring a different campaign name. A fixed label describes the group; it does not identify which individual image, headline or combination was actually shown.
This is a static URL example. Performance Max can choose other destinations through final URL expansion, which is enabled by default unless opted out. The configured category URL alone therefore does not prove the actual landing page. [2]
What becomes easier to investigate
Separate labels make it possible to investigate whether visits associated with one product theme reach an appropriate category page, continue to product detail and complete a purchase. A report can place the label alongside the landing page and the relevant website events. This is useful for finding mismatches: hiking creative arriving on a generic shoe page, for example, or one group sending traffic through an unnecessary redirect.
The report needs a clear counting rule. Session acquisition describes where a visit began. An event parameter labels an action, such as a purchase. An attributed conversion is a result credited to an advertising interaction under a chosen attribution model. These three numbers can differ even when the same group label appears in each.
What the label does not prove
A manually assigned content value is not an experiment. More purchases after visits carrying one label do not show how many purchases the advertising caused. Different products, prices, audiences and stock levels can all affect the result. Nor does adding UTM parameters automatically produce cost data at the same level in every analytics report.
Auto-tagging and manual labels also need a deliberate relationship. Existing click identifiers should not be removed to make a URL look tidier. A tagging change is best evaluated as a change to the measurement configuration, with its date recorded, rather than as a promise that all Google Ads and analytics totals will reconcile.
A short validation sequence
First comes an inventory of the effective destination and URL settings. A blank field in an export is not sufficient evidence that no higher-level setting influences the request. Next comes a test with a destination that already has a query string, followed by one with a fragment such as #details, which points to a section within the page. Duplicate keys such as two different utm_campaign values deserve attention because downstream parsers may resolve them differently.
The Google Ads URL test and an actual controlled visit then check different things: the platform validates the configuration, while the browser and the receiving analytics setup show what arrives. A local preview can expose malformed parameters, but cannot reproduce the auction, redirects or every ValueTrack substitution. Google documents both the URL insertion placeholders and their escaping rules. [4]
Keeping the change maintainable
A small dictionary of asset-group identifiers is easier to maintain than labels copied from long display names. Its owner, meaning and effective date should remain available beside the campaign configuration. Renaming an asset group need not rewrite the historical meaning of its tracking label.
The linked UTM tool provides a place to inspect the static URL components. Its result is a configuration aid, not a certificate that a campaign measures correctly. The decisive check remains the address and data observed after the visit.
Related tool
UTM Campaign Link Builder & Strict Linter
Questions and answers
Which suffix takes effect when both the campaign and the asset group carry their own final URL suffix?
Google documents a hierarchy for URL options: a more specific suffix is selected instead of joining every suffix together. However, the hierarchy shown in that guide does not explicitly include the new AssetGroup fields. The general ad-group example alone therefore does not prove every Performance Max inheritance case. [5]
A complete group suffix, containing source, medium, campaign and content as above, avoids relying on an assumed combination of partial suffixes. The campaign and group settings need to be reviewed together, followed by the Google Ads URL test and a controlled visit. A single exported field cannot show all effective settings.
What happens to the suffix when the landing page redirects?
That depends on the redirect. If the server rebuilds the address, for example when switching to https or appending a trailing slash, and drops the query string in the process, the UTM values are gone before any tag can read them. A controlled visit shows this in the address that finally appears in the browser.
Do the additional parameters put a strain on the page cache?
A cache stores a page under an identifying key. If that key includes the full query string, different UTM values create separate variants. A unique click identifier can then prevent reuse between clicks. This depends on the cache configuration and whether the page is cacheable; it is not an unavoidable effect of every advertising click. [6]
Marketing parameters may be excluded from the cache key only when the page content does not depend on those values. A filter such as collection=autumn can change the products shown and must remain relevant to the key. Ignoring a parameter in the key does not require removing it from the browser address. A page served directly by a CDN leaves no corresponding page request in the origin server log; CDN logs or a separate analytics request can still record the visit.
Sources
- Google Ads API release notes: v25.2
- AssetGroup reference
- Final URL suffix
- ValueTrack parameters
- URL option hierarchy
- Cache keys
Sources checked: 26 October 2026. The feature was introduced in v25.2; this article does not claim that v25.2 is the newest API version.
Checking a complete dataset
The existing UTM linter now also checks a whole campaign list from a CSV column named url. The batch report highlights missing source, medium or campaign parameters, repeated UTM keys, spaces in UTM values and campaign names that differ only in case. These are naming checks; no landing pages or redirects are fetched.
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