This is the second installment in my new "Monday Q&A" series. The first Monday Q&A addressed getting the hostname (or domain) to appear in your Content reports within Google Analytics. This edition visits Campaign Tracking - something that probably isn't a new topic if you've been using GA for a while, but perhaps you're not a pro at this, or perhaps you're completely unfamiliar. Regardless, this article will enlighten you to the basics for campaign tracking. And bonus: get a free tool for quickly building dozens or hundreds of properly tracked campign URL's!
I’m actually not familiar with GA tagging methods. I worked for an ad network several years ago, so understand the basics, but Google Analytics was just taking off at that time, so the specifics of tracking ads with Google Analytics is a bit new to me. And truthfully, I could use a refresher!
Google Analytics campaign tagging is pretty simple, in concept. It's all based on appending tracking parameters to your existing links from emails, ads, social media, etc...
For example, a link un-tagged in an email might go to http://www.analyticspros.com/blog.html. That link, untagged and clicked on, would be reported in Google Analytics as a visit from "direct/none" or "referral/gmail" (if it was sent to an @gmail.com user).
Adding the Google Analytics tag would make the link that you put in the email or ad look like this:
http://www.analyticspros.com/blog.html?utm_source=members-list&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=monday-QnA&utm_link=main-promo-link
Those appended parameter=value tags are the campaign codes GA needs. Google Analytics can record up to 4 dimensions (5 for search-based ads) of information for each visitor. They are:
When creating campaign tags, the above mediums have specific parameters that need to be used:
You may have tried using the "official" Google Analytics URL Builder. And if you have you've probably wanted to smash your mouse and copy/paste keys after a few minutes. That's because the mind-numbing one-at-a-time entry method is, well, mind-numbing.
Enter the Analytics Pros Campaign URL Builder for Google Analytics. This is a tool I created years ago and have evolved over time. It makes creating tags painless and fast, even for dozens or hundreds of links!
>>Get the Analytics Pros Campaign URL Builder for Google Analytics here!