DV360 Click‑Through Tracking: A Creative’s Checklist Before You Traffic

DV360 click-through tracking is the backbone of understanding your campaign results. If you’re a creative or production lead at an agency, you know that a single missed macro or an incorrect landing page can silently tank performance data, break attribution, or leave you answering tough questions late at night. From our years producing and scaling multi-size display ads for digital networks, here’s how we approach bulletproofing DV360 click-through logic—before assets ever leave the design studio.

Why Creatives Need a Proactive DV360 Click-Through Checklist

Leaving click-through tracking to trafficking is risky. At this point, we’ve all seen campaigns where the wrong landing URL, inconsistent parameters, or flawed macro logic means a banner looks perfect but delivers zero actionable data. Multiply this risk by 12, 15, or 20 creative sizes per campaign, and it quickly spirals into costly QA loops. The good news: owning a clear pre-traffic checklist flips the process from reactive patchwork to predictable execution.

The Fundamentals: How DV360 Interprets Click-Through Tracking

• DV360 auto-wraps supported third-party tags with impression and click macros. This happens at upload—but it expects the correct macro placement or HTML exit logic from your files.
• You must provide a full landing URL per creative or specify a dynamic placeholder that DV360 will populate. A broken or missing macro kills click tracking, even if users are being redirected normally.
• CM360 and other third-party click trackers add potential for duplication or missed signals. Track the entire attribution stack up front to avoid issues later.

Step-by-Step: The Ultimate DV360 Click-Through Preflight Checklist for Creatives

1. Confirm the Attribution Stack Before Design

Start by confirming with your trafficker exactly how clicks will be attributed. Will reporting trust only DV360 data? Or will you wrap with CM360 click trackers? Is there a third-party analytics tag in the mix for app installs or deep links? Lock down—on paper—which system is the reporting source of truth. Capture the actual landing URL for every variation and determine if UTMs or additional parameters are required. Here’s a sample you can share directly with your production or trafficking team:

https://clientsite.com/holiday-sale?utm_source=dv360&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=2025_q4_launch

Reference 2025 display ad sizes and file limits by network if you are building a cross-platform set—tracking logic varies by network.

2. Define Click Area and User Interaction Logic

Never assume the click area will be interpreted as you intend. Decide up front:

• Should the entire ad be clickable, or just certain CTAs?
• If you have multiple CTAs but only one landing URL is allowed, confirm with trafficking how multiple elements should behave.
• For standard banners, a single, top-level div with an onclick handler is safest, especially for 300×250, 728×90, or 160×600 formats.

With responsive ad frameworks like SizeIM, you define the click layer once, and it gets propagated to every generated size. This avoids accidents where one variant ends up with a opaque overlay that accidentally blocks clicks.

3. Set Up the Click URL—Macros vs. Hardcoding

If using a click macro, clarify which format is needed ({CLICK_URL}, %%CLICK_URL_UNESC%%, etc). When in doubt, ask your trafficking contact and always document the decision. This keeps troubleshooting simple if clicks aren’t recording as expected later.

4. Engineer Reliable Click Handling in HTML5

In HTML5 banners, use a single global click handler (like exitClick()) bound to your banner’s primary container. Avoid stacking overlapping elements that intercept pointer events. If your exit parameters are dynamic, reference the required macro or placeholder exactly as specified. SizeIM helps by letting you centralize this code before exporting dozens of creative sizes—so no one has to fix broken JavaScript or nested ONCLICK functions file by file.

5. Rigorously Test and Document All Landing URLs

• Every destination URL must use HTTPS.
• Check for encoding errors; use “&” instead of “&” in HTML where needed.
• Add UTM parameters consistently for analytics alignment.
• Paste the final URL in an incognito browser tab to verify: no security warnings, no unexpected redirects, analytics fires correctly.

Document and store each final landing URL so campaigns are always aligned. If your team uses SizeIM’s Brand Kit, save the canonical URLs in the kit for re-use and to prevent variable naming mistakes. Organized URL lists also accelerate troubleshooting and post-campaign auditing.

6. Prepare Your Final DV360 Output—Tags, Trackers, and Bundles

• If exporting third-party tags: Macro must be intact and in the right place for DV360’s auto-wrapping.
• If using CM360 click trackers: Maintain strict version control on static vs. dynamic logic. Know who has permission to edit destination URLs and whether it can be changed without re-trafficking.
• For HTML5 bundles: Your output should be ready-to-upload, with click logic matching the campaign plan and correct manifest files per size.

Create or update a manifest listing each size, the corresponding landing URL, and technology or macro notes. You’ll want this handy for creative approvals and if anything ever breaks after launch.

7. Align CM360 Click Tracker Versioning Where Needed

If your setup involves CM360 click trackers inside DV360 line items, clarify:

• Which creatives use static vs. dynamic click trackers.
• How click de-duplication will be handled in post-campaign reports.
• Which status (Active, Unarchived, etc) will trigger click logging.

This prevents last-minute panic if someone archives a tracker or a campaign gets shut off and stops recording clicks, especially important when you manage large, multi-brand portfolios or global rollouts.

8. Make DV360’s “Test Tag” Feature Your Gatekeeper

1. After upload, use DV360’s Test tag flow for every creative or tag.
2. Verify the UI confirms “Click tracking received” after test-clicking.
3. Save a screenshot of this confirmation in your project documentation (we organize by campaign and creative set, so every stakeholder can quickly check status).

With manually resized ads, you may need to repeat this for each size. When you use SizeIM and generate from a central responsive file, validation is much faster—test a few sizes to confirm and trust the automation for the rest.

9. Systemize Multi-Size Production and QA

DV360 campaigns often call for 10 to 20 display ad sizes per concept. Manually producing, coding, and QA-ing click behavior across every variant is a recipe for mistakes and burnout. Here’s our approach:

1. Design once, establishing click logic on your base creative in SizeIM.
2. Leverage the responsive engine to generate all size variants automatically—no layered errors or mismatches.
3. Export, document, and batch test with a representative sampling.

For perspective, a mid-sized launch with four creative treatments and 12 sizes each means supervising 48 unique files. With legacy tools, this is a 10-16 hour block. Centralizing click logic and responsive resizing as we do with SizeIM regularly reduces production time to as little as 2-4 hours, without trading off tracking reliability. For more on scaling creative without increasing headcount, see our tips here: practical ways to scale ad creative.

10. Version and Archive Tracking Decisions for Every Campaign

• Create a 1-page doc for every campaign, recording:
• All final landing URLs and UTM schemes
• Which team or platform owns final click tracking
• Static vs. dynamic tracker status and change controls
• Special requirements (deep links, app install tags, etc)
• Save this with your exported ad sets and documentation for quick reference.
• This shortcut will minimize downtime when someone needs to troubleshoot (especially useful for distributed agency and enterprise teams).

Quick-Reference: Our Complete DV360 Click-Through Preflight List

• Get tracking stack and destinations in writing before design work begins.
• Decide on click areas and user flows, centralizing logic where possible.
• Use macros or dynamic exits unless static URLs are explicitly needed.
• Test and validate every landing URL for security, redirects, and analytics coverage.
• Export and prep files specifically for DV360 tags or HTML5 bundles, per network requirements.
• If using CM360 click trackers, specify static vs. dynamic and confirm hand-off.
• Require a “Test tag” pass with screenshot confirmation for every new variant or campaign.
• Automate multi-size production and QA with responsive tools to reduce risk.
• Archive tracking logic and handoff docs for future audits or debugging.

Final Thoughts: Scaling DV360 Campaigns Without Reinventing the Wheel

At SizeIM, we believe that time should be spent on creative strategy, not hunting for macro mismatches in zip files. By integrating a click-through checklist directly into your workflow and using a responsive ad platform, you can scale your campaigns across every DV360 placement—without multiplying opportunities for error. This discipline doesn’t just protect reporting and ROI. It also brings creative and ad-ops teams onto the same page and carves out more room for concepting and performance optimization.

Want to see how seamless multi-size, click-consistent creative production can feel? Check out what you can do with SizeIM.