URL tracking parameters have powered web marketing for two decades. But traditional UTM parameters like utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign were designed for Google Analytics in 2005. They are rigid, verbose, and frequently stripped away by modern privacy browsers.

Pingbird takes a completely different approach with Custom Field Tracking. You define the exact query parameters you care about, and our edge servers extract and log them on every file download or link redirect.

What Are Custom Tracking Fields?

When you create a file or link monitor in Pingbird, you can declare up to 10 custom parameter names. For example, you might declare:

userId -- An internal account or tester identifier
campaign -- Promotional initiative name
version -- The client app version requesting the asset
variant -- Creative or copy variation (e.g. hero_a vs hero_b)
channel -- Community channel (e.g. reddit, twitter, newsletter)

When an incoming request hits your monitor with these parameters attached, Pingbird automatically extracts their values and saves them into the event record:

https://www.pingbird.org/~/your-prefix/spring-sale?campaign=newsletter&channel=email&variant=b

Three Powerful Real-World Use Cases

1. Granular Newsletter & Campaign Attribution

Suppose you are running a product launch across multiple channels. Instead of creating ten different link monitors, you can use a single monitor and append custom query parameters for each distribution channel:

/~/your-prefix/launch?channel=twitter&format=thread
/~/your-prefix/launch?channel=linkedin&format=post
/~/your-prefix/launch?channel=newsletter&format=button

In your analytics request log, you can filter and compare each channel's performance directly.

2. Desktop & CLI Software Telemetry

Distributing a desktop app or CLI binary? When your app queries your update endpoint or downloads a patch, you can pass diagnostic flags without invading user privacy:

https://www.pingbird.org/f/your-prefix/update.tar.gz?arch=arm64&os=darwin&prev_v=1.3.2

This allows maintainers to see the exact breakdown of architectures (x86_64 vs arm64) and operating systems downloading updates without requiring complex telemetry servers.

3. Simple A/B Landing Page Testing

If you are split-testing two landing pages, route traffic through a Pingbird link monitor that appends custom experiment parameters. You can track exactly which variation drives downstream downloads and engagement.

How to Set Up Custom Fields in Pingbird

Navigate to Create Monitor.
Expand the Custom Tracking Fields section.
Type the parameter names you want to monitor (up to 10 keys).
Save your monitor.
Append those parameters to your public URL whenever you share or call the link.

Viewing Custom Fields in the Request Log

Inside the Monitor Analytics View, every request in the paginated log displays your custom parameters as styled tag chips. You can see at a glance which campaigns, variants, and versions are active in real time.

Get started with custom tracking today on the Create Monitor page or explore our plan tiers for advanced monitoring capacity.