If you see an error saying your URL is “partially encoded,” it means some special characters in your link need to be fixed to work properly in your ad. This article explains what that means and how to correct it quickly.
Partially encoded URLs
When you add a link to your ad, our system checks if it’s formatted correctly. URLs often contain special characters like {, }, $, or &. These need to be converted into a web-safe format called URL encoding (e.g., a space becomes %20). It’s like translating symbols into a language the web understands.
Issues with partially encoded URLs occur when some special characters in the URL are encoded and others are left unencoded. Mixing encoded and unencoded characters can confuse the system, causing it to misinterpret the link structure.
For example:
- Invalid URL: https://linkedin.com?abc=%23{abc}
- %23 (encoded #) is fine, but { and } need encoding too.
- Fixed URL: https://linkedin.com?abc=%23%7Babc%7D
- All special characters are properly encoded.
How to fix a partially encoded URL
Follow these steps to correct a partically encoded URL:
-
Check your URL - Look for special characters like {, }, $, &, or spaces in the error message or your ad’s link.
-
Encode special characters - Replace each special character with its encoded version (see tables below for common ones).
-
Test your URL - Paste the updated URL into your ad and save. If you still get an error, double-check for other unencoded characters or use an online URL encoder tool (search for "URL encoder" online, if allowed by the settings of your ad set).
Important to know
If your URL has no encoded reserved characters (e.g., %23, %3B), our system will encode it automatically, and you may not need to make changes.
Common characters to encode
The following table shows some of the most common special characters that need to be encoded, as well as the corresponding encoded value.
| Special character | Encoded version | Example |
| { | %7B | Replace { with %7B |
| } | %7D | Replace } with %7D |
| $ | %24 | Replace $ with %24 |
| & | %26 | Replace & with %26 |
| Space | %20 | Replace a space with %20 |
| “ (quotation marks) | %22 | Replace “ with %22 |
Additional reserved characters
If your URL contains these reserved characters in their encoded form (e.g., %23 for #), our system assumes you’ve fully encoded the URL. Any other special characters must also be encoded.
| Special character | Encoded characters |
| ; | %3B |
| / | %2F |
| ? | %3F |
| : | %3A |
| @ | %40 |
| = | %3D |
| + | %2B |
| , | %2C |
| # | %23 |
| | | %7C |
| ~ | %7E4 |
Examples of valid and invalid URLs
The following table shows examples of valid and invalid URLs.
| URL | Valid? | Notes |
| https://linkedin.com?abc=%23{abc} | No | The URL contains a URL-encoded reserved character (%23) and plain special characters {“ and “} that need to be encoded (e.g., as %7B and %7D.
Replacing {“ and “} with their URL-encoded equivalents makes the URL valid https://linkedin.com?abc=%23%7Babc%7D. |
| https://linkedin.com?abc=%23abc() | Yes | The URL contains a URL-encoded reserved character and only un-encoded unreserved characters. |
| https://linkedin.com?abc=%23%7Babc%7D | Yes | The URL contains a URL-encoded reserved character, but the remaining characters are properly escaped. |
| https://linkedin.com?abc=%20{} | Yes | The URL is partially encoded, but it does not contain any URL-encoded reserved characters, so it will be encoded automatically. |