Summary

You can automatically add tracking code to your campaigns' link URLs. For example, if you want to track where your traffic comes from, and your website has that
capability, then you can automatically have our system add a query string to links such as  ?Ref=email

Link tracking can be custom tracking code (as above), or it can be  Google Analytics tracking code , or you can  edit and customize Google Analytics tracking values.

Tracking code allows you to gather valuable information on how your links are being used and how effective they are. Any Google Analytics data can also be pulled through into the application's reporting area.

All in all, adding tracking code to your links provides you with better site analytics. 

Adding generic link tracking code

To access  Site analytics , select  Campaigns  >  Advanced Features  and then select the  Site analytics  tab.

To add a single generic query string to your outbound links (using analytics other than Google), click  Add new  under link tracking. The 'Link Tracking' window will open, enabling you to enter the link tracking field and the value you require.

For example, setting the field as 'Ref' and the value as 'email' will generate the following:

   http://www.example.com/Ref=email

Adding personalization to tracking code values

You also have the ability to add contact data field personalization to values, by clicking on the personalization icon . This means a contact-specific value can be added into the link tracking code.

For example, if you set the field as 'country' and select the contact data field 'COUNTRY' from the personalization dropdown, you will generate the following:

   http://www.example.com/country=@COUNTRY@

Thus, if ' 'United States' is stored against the contact's 'COUNTRY' data field, United States will be added to the tracking code in place of @COUNTRY@ .

Once happy with your new string, click on  Save .

It will then appear under 'Link tracking', which is where all of your link tracking query strings will be listed. 

From here you can delete and edit your link tracking query strings at any time.

Please note : When adding, removing or updating link tracking query strings and their values, changes will  only  take effect for existing campaigns once the campaigns are modified and re-saved. New campaigns that are subsequently created will have these values automatically applied, however. You will also be reminded of this within the application after having made the change.

Adding Google Analytics tracking code

To enable Google-friendly links, click the  Google Analytics Tracking  button positioned to the right. A window will appear to confirm the field and values you're adding:

Clicking  Continue  will add these under 'Link Tracking'. By doing this, you will have automatically added the following to your links:

• utm_campaign= Your campaign name  - noting which campaign it was that referred the user to the site
• utm_medium= email  - noting the medium by which someone arrived on the site
• utm_source= Your company name  - noting the name of the company referring the visitor to the site; this is the company name set under the 'My details' section in your 'Account settings' 

As with generic link tracking code, you can also delete and edit (see below) Google Analytics tracking code.

Again, remember to modify and re-save any existing campaigns for any changes to take effect.

Customizing Google Analytics tracking values

If you don't want to use our default values for Google Anaytics tracking, you have the ability to customize them by clicking on  Edit  alongside the value you want to change.

For instance, you might want to customize a couple of the values as follows:

• utm_medium=MyEmailMarketingProvider  - the name of your email marketing provider/medium, so that will be us!
• utm_source=email marketing

Clicking on  Edit  will open the 'Link Tracking' window, allowing you to enter your own value in the 'Value' field. Again, you can use the personalization function for contact-specific values.

Click  Save  to confirm any changes made and, once again, remember to modify and re-save any existing campaigns for any changes to take effect.

Viewing Google Analytics reporting within the application

When checking your campaign reports in the application, you'll also want to see your Google Analytics data in there too, rather than having to also have Google Analytics open alongside your reporting. For your convenience, we've ensured that you can do this too.

To allow us to pull your Google Analytics data into reporting, you'll need to authorize the connection to Google Analytics.

Simply click the  Authorize connection  button. If you're logged into your Google account already, a box will pop up asking you to accept the connection request; if not, you'll need to enter your username and password before being asked to accept the connection request.

Now, when you go to reporting, you'll see a Google Analytics report option in the  More reports...  menu.

When you first open it we'll ask you which Google Analytics profile the campaign was for, and we'll remember this for next time. But you can always change it, this is handy for campaigns that may affect more than one of your profiles.

It's worth waiting at least 48 hours before checking your statistics because as well as waiting for users to receive your email, you may need to wait for Google Analytics to process any visiting activity.

Note: this feature is not available on all accounts. If you would like to upgrade to enable this feature, please speak to your account manager.