Docs

Dynamic campaign links

Use case

In some situations generating campaign links via the Steam Data Suite campaign dashboard is not desirable, for example in case of programmatic advertising. In those cases you want the campaign to be created and selected automatically, and not rely on the campaign link builder. To this end, we provide a secondary URL system, different from the short links. The URL will hold all campaign variables as parameters. These can be fixed or variable options. When processed, a new campaign is created when needed, the campaign activity is registered and if applicable the user will be redirected to the store page.

Building a dynamic campaign link

URL structure

The URL contains the base URL, game specific key, fixed and variable parameters. Only valid URLs will be processed successfully. Depending on the configuration of parameters used the URL can either redirect a user to the Steam store page for the game, or return a HTTP Status code. The latter is used when the URL is used to register a non-click event, see Advanced: Attribution via landing page.

In practice, some of these parameters will have a fixed value for an entire campaign, or even group of campaigns. Others may be dynamically assigned based on campaign values or by programmatic ad automation.

				
					https://steam.gs/e/{game key}?a={action}&t={type}&c={channel}&n={name}(&v={variant})

These are the available parameters to use in a dynamic URL.

Parameter	Name	Mandatory	Reference
a	Action	Yes	Allowed values and more info
t	Type	Yes	Allowed values and more info
c	Channel	Yes	Allowed values and more info
n	Name	Yes	Requirements and more info
v	Variatiant	No	Requirements and more info

Game key

The url contains a game specific key, so we know what game the request should be processed for.

Action (a=value)

The type of action that is represented by loading the URL. This determines how the request is answered.

Value	Name	Description
1	Click	Redirects to the Steam storepage for the game
2	Pageview	Returns HTTP Code 200

Type (t=value)

The Goal for the campaign

Value	Name	Description
1	Sales / Installs	Generate game sales or installs.
3	Awareness / Branding	Get as many people to know about your game.
5	Wishlists	For pre-released games, generate and convert traffic towards wishlists additions.
7	Other	Track any other type of event.

Channel (c=value)

The media channel used

Value	Type	Name	Description
1	Paid media	Google Ads	Use Google’s wide range of advertisement options to drive traffic to your Steam page.
2	Paid media	Facebook Ads	Create an advertisement to drive traffic to your Steam page.
3	Paid media	Twitter Ads	Create Tweets or advertisements to drive traffic to your Steam page.
4	Paid media	Reddit Ads	Create posts or advertisements to drive traffic to your Steam page.
5	Paid media	Ads Other	Use any other advertisement platform.
10	Paid media	Twitch Ads	Advertise on Twitch to drive users to your Steam page.
14	Paid media	YouTube (Via Google Ads)	Videos on YouTube have multiple ways to send traffic to your game.
22	Paid media	Influencer	Generate sales from YouTubers, Twitch, Mixer, and more.
6	Own media	Email	Using email (newsletters) to direct people to your Steam page.
7	Own media	In-game	Cross promote your game inside another game.
9	Own media	Other own channel	Create a URL to track any other type of campaigns
12	Own media	Chat or forum	Send community users towards your Steam page.
13	Own media	Website / Landing page	Use your own website to track conversion of users.
16	Own media	Twitter Tweet	Create a Tweet to drive traffic to your Steam page.
17	Own media	Facebook Post	Create a post to drive traffic to your Steam page.
19	Own media	Own Twitch Channel	Linked from your own Twitch channel
21	Own media	Own Reddit	Link from your own Reddit
8	Free exposure	Influencer	Generate sales from YouTubers, Twitch, Mixer, and more
11	Free exposure	PR	Work with the press to drive traffic to your Steam page.
15	Free exposure	Reddit Post	Create a post on the Reddit platform
18	Free exposure	Other free channel	Create a URL to track any other type of campaigns

Name (n=value)

Descriptive name for the campaign.

URL Encoded
Max 100 characters

Variant (v=value)

Use to differentiate different audiences, creatives, etc. within a campaign.

Optional
URL Encoded
Max 100 characters

Redirect and response

Redirect

Links with action Click (a=1) can be used as direct links, returning a redirect to the steam store page of the corresponding game.

This store.steampowered.com/app/… URL will be appended with utm_ tags translated from the campaign parameters. This allows you to see the source of the traffic in Google Analytics under Source/Medium (not referrals).

utm_ tag	Value	Note
utm_source	‘External’	Always fixed value
utm_medium	Channel name	Urlencoded name corresponding to the id given with parameter c
utm_campaign	Campaign name	Tracking parameter n
utm_content	Tracking parameter v	Optional

Success HTTP Response

For links with action Pageview (a=2) HTTP Code 200 is returned after a successful call.

Fail HTTP Response

Code	Reason text	Details
400	Unknown game	Game key provided does not match any active game.
400	Invalid value for Action, Type or Channel	One or multiple ids provided for parameters a,t and c are not allowed. Please remember to pass ids corresponding to the desired value from the tables above (not strings).
400	Value for Action, Type, Channel or Name is missing	One of the required parameters a,t,c or n is missing from the URL. We need all of those to process the URL, only parameter v is optional.
404		Misconfigured configuration of the URL (wrong domain?), or downtime of the endpoint. Either case, please contact support.
500		Uncaught error in the endpoint. Please revert to the last working configuration and contact support.