google analytics campaign tracking fundamentals

CAMPAIGN TRACKING FUNDAMENTALS

MARCH 8TH & 9TH, 2012SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Kayden KellyFounder, Managing Directorwww.blastam.com

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1) Tagging Overview

2) Tag Specifications3) Troubleshooting

OBJECTIVESOBJECTIVES

+Bonus Analysis Tips

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1) Tagging Overview 2) Tag Specifications3) Troubleshooting

OBJECTIVESOBJECTIVES

BENEFITS of Campaign Tracking

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Without tagging, all visitors appear to come through as “organic,” “referral,” or “direct”

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Direct, Referral, Email, CPC, & other campaigns mix together

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$ Direct

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DirectInflated

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$ Direct$

Email

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Optimal accountability is achieved when see each marketing campaign separately

How does Campaign Tracking work?

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Campaign measurement is performed by adding tags to your destination URLshttp://www.medicare.gov?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=bing&utm_campaign=brand-branded_keywords&utm_content=are_you_eligible_for_medicare&utm_term=medicare_eligibility

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http://www.medicare.gov?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=bing&utm_campaign=brand-branded_keywords&utm_content=are_you_eligible_for_medicare&utm_term=medicare_eligibility

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See all post-click performance in one place

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ONLY Adwords CPC “pre-click” data available in GA

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All campaigns need to be taggedin order to be tracked in Google Analytics

Campaign Tagging STANDARDS

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Be consistent (standardized tag names will make future analysis easier and more effective)

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Always use lowercase (Note: we always added a custom profile filter in Google Analytics to enforce lowercase)

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Spaces can be tricky due to necessary URL encoding

utm_campaign=open%20enrollment

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Use underscores in place of spaces

utm_campaign=open_enrollment

UNDERSCORES

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Use dashes to separate values in a tag

utm_campaign=open_enrollment-blog_post

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Don’t use punctuation like commas, question marks, periods, colons, semicolons, etc in campaign tags (unless it is for a site URL)

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Don’t use anything but keywords in the keyword field

Keywords = KEYWORDS

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Don’t use agency names as campaign namesUse true campaign names for effective multi-directional analysis.

If necessary, add agency name after campaign name (e.g. utm_campaign=campaign_name-agency_name).

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If you link to a micro-site or external site that is under your control make sure cross domain tracking is in place.

Be careful about 301, 302, ad serving and meta refresh redirects that will lose campaign tracking.

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Campaign Tagging TOOLS

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Google URL Builder: http://blast.am/urlbuilder

Campaign tagging spreadsheet to simplify tagging especially for paid search

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Campaign Tagging Requirements

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Source is where the visitor was sent from.Examples: google, nytimes.com, facebook.comMedium is the channel through which the visitor arrived at your site.Examples: cpc, display, social, organicCampaign should either indicate the overarching name for the marketing effort or just the specific ad campaign in which the ad lives.

Required Tags

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Optional Tags

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Keyword is the search term that you bid on (search engines only)Ad Content should indicate the ad name, copy, or other helpful information to identify the type of ad that was clicked.

Tagging Overview

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Any Questions?

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1) Tagging Overview

2) Tag Specifications3) Troubleshooting

OBJECTIVESOBJECTIVES

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Email Campaign Tag Specs

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Example Email Campaign Tagged Linkhttp://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter-creativeprolist&utm_campaign=salesandpromo-make_it_surprising-hurry&utm_content=09am-08_20_11-creativepro-body

Example Email Reminder Tagged Linkhttp://www.domain.com/my/book/widgets?utm_medium=email&utm_source=reminder-2&utm_campaign=your_book_is_ready_to_order&utm_content=body

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Header Navigation LinksSpecify header navigation in “Ad Content” tag.

http://www.domain.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter-

creativeprolist&utm_campaign=salesandpromo-make_it_surprising-

hurry&utm_content=09am-08_20_11-header

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Content LinkSpecify content area in “Ad Content” tag.

http://www.domain.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter-

creativeprolist&utm_campaign=salesandpromo-make_it_surprising-

hurry&utm_content=09am-08_20_11-body

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Standard Footer LinksSpecify footer in “Ad Content” tag.

http://www.domain.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter-

creativeprolist&utm_campaign=salesandpromo-make_it_surprising-

hurry&utm_content=09am-08_20_11-creativepro-footer

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Paid Search Campaign Tag Specs

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Example Paid Search Campaign Tagged Linkhttp://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=bing&utm_campaign=us_wedding_album&utm_term=wedding_album&utm_content=make_your_own_photo_book

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Site Placements Campaign Tag Specs

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Site Exampleshttp://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=display&utm_source=youtube.com-photography&utm_campaign=us_photo_books&utm_content=make_it_surprising-save_25_percent-300x250

Facebook Site Examplehttp://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=display&utm_source=facebook-55_70_demo&utm_campaign=us_photo_books&utm_content=make_it_surprising-save_25_percent-300x250

Ad Network Examplehttp://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=display&utm_source=doubleclick&utm_campaign=us_photo_books&utm_content=make_it_surprising-save_25_percent-300x250

Category Content Targeting Examplehttp://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=display&utm_source=category-photography&utm_campaign=us_photo_books&utm_content=make_it_surprising-save_25_percent-300x250

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Social Campaign Tag Specs

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Social Campaign Tag Specs

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Example Social Campaign Tagged Links

Facebook Examplehttp://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=awareness-photo_book

Twitter Examplehttp://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=awareness-photo_book

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Affiliate Campaign Tag Specs

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Example Affiliates Campaign Tagged Linkhttp://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=shareasale.com&utm_campaign=us_wedding_album&utm_content=232342

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Feed Campaign Tag Specs

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Feed Campaign Tag Specs

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Example Feed Campaign Tagged Linkhttp://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner&utm_campaign=feeds.feedburner.com/domainblog-domainerati&utm_content=google_reader

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Product Feed/Search Campaign Tag Specs

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Example Product Feed/Search Campaign Tagged Linkhttp://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=google_product_search&utm_campaign=salesandpromo-summer_discounts

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Application Campaign Tag Specs

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Example Applications Campaign Tagged Linkhttp://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=app&utm_source=booksmart&utm_campaign=booksmart-in_app_link&utm_content=pc-v3.2.10.6

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Mobile (App) Campaign Tag Specs

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Example Applications Campaign Tagged Linkhttp://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=app&utm_source=domainmobile&utm_campaign=domainmobile-in_app_link&utm_content=c102-plus

http://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=app&utm_source=domainmobile&utm_campaign=domainmobile-mobile_share&utm_content=c102-plus

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Press Release Campaign Tag Specs

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Example PR Campaign Tagged Linkhttp://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=pr&utm_source=prweb.com&utm_campaign=awareness-event&utm_content=palm_springs_photo_festival

Note: Page/Folder redirects, Vanity Campaign URL or URL shortener recommended to avoid complex URLs/links in PR so that you can cleanly include campaign tracking tags in PR.

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Offline Campaign Tag Specs

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Offline Campaign Tag Specs

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Example Offline Campaign Tagged Linkhttp://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=offline&utm_source=outdoor&utm_campaign=us_wedding_album&utm_content=make_photo_book-005021-14x48

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QR Campaign Tag Specs

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QR Campaign Tag Specs

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Example QR Campaign Tagged Linkhttp://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=qr&utm_source=vehicle&utm_campaign=awareness-photo_book&utm_content=vehicle123123

Helpful Info: Google URL shortener http://goo.gl can be used to create QR codes.

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TV Campaign Tag Specs

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TV Campaign Tag Specs

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Example TV Campaign Tagged Linkhttp://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=tv&utm_source=nbc-bravo-dish&utm_campaign=awareness-photo_book&utm_content=weekday-prime_time-print_your_story-30_seconds

Note: Page/Folder redirects, Vanity Campaign URL or URL shortener recommended to avoid complex URLs/links in TV commercials/etc so that you can cleanly include campaign tracking tags in TV medium.

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Radio Campaign Tag Specs

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Radio Campaign Tag Specs

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Example Radio Campaign Tagged Linkhttp://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=radio&utm_source=clearchannel-k101&utm_campaign=awareness-photo_book&utm_content=weekend-morning_drive-make_facebook_book

Note: Page/Folder redirects, Vanity Campaign URL or URL shortener recommended to avoid complex URLs/links in Radio commercials/etc so that you can cleanly include campaign tracking tags in Radio medium.

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Campaign MEDIUMS REFERENCE

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•cpc•display / cpm / content-text•social•affiliate•feed•badge / widget•app

•pr•offline•qr•tv•radio•email

Do not create mediums other than those listed unless carefully thought through and shared with other team members.

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It is very important that mediums are kept to a small set for optimal analysis.

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Tag Specifications

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Any Questions?

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1) Tagging Overview2) Tag Specifications

3) Troubleshooting

OBJECTIVESOBJECTIVES

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Troubleshooting

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Live campaigns are not showing up in Campaign reports• Does the landing page have working Google Analytics

page tags? • Is there a re-direct that is stripping the campaign tags

from the URL?• Has it been at least 24 hours? (possibly a time lag in

reporting)

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Troubleshooting

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Campaigns aren’t reporting conversions, but I know they have some• Do you have goals set up in Google Analytics?• Do all conversions appear to be attributed to your own

domain name? If so, there may be a key page missing Google Analytics page tags.

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Troubleshooting

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Parts of my campaign tag (term, ad content, etc) aren’t appearing• Are all campaign tags present in the destination URL

within your ad serving tool?

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Troubleshooting

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Inconsistent capitalization is making analysis difficult• Consider ‘custom profile filters’.

• Choose “lowercase” • and then apply it to:

• ‘campaign medium’,• ‘campaign term’, • etc to force them all to lowercase

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Technical Testing via Tracking Pixel

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Tool Recommendation:  You can use any of the recommended tools described here: http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/gaTrackingTroubleshooting.html#debuggingTools.  

Easiest to use GA tracking code debugger for Chrome

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Technical Testing via Tracking Pixel

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Looking at utmcc parameter on __utm.gif tracking pixel request...

You can analyze __utmz value within this parameter same way as described when looking at cookie values.

GA Debugger for Chrome however, renames to friendly parameter names.

Example of GA Debugger for Chrome tool output:

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Technical Testing via Cookies

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Tool Recommendation:  Use a browser plugin for Firefox called 'Web Developer Toolbar'.

After installed, it has a toolbar option called 'Cookies' where you can 'View Cookie Information' for the current page.  You can also delete all of your cookies relative to a domain/page with this tool, which is very handy when testing.

Note: Each time your campaign tracking parameters change, the values in the __utmz will change.  This is starting a new session in GA.

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Technical Testing via Cookies

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After you load your UTM tagged URL, take a look at your browser cookies relative to the domain you are on and look for the __utmz cookie.  After a string of numbers in the front, you'll see a utmcsr, utmccn, utmcmd, and possibly a few others.  The full list is below with a description for each.

utmctr - Termutmcct - Content

utmcsr - Sourceutmccn - Campaign Nameutmcmd - Medium

Troubleshooting

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Any Questions?

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Quick Tips to Analyze Email Campaigns

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Where to find Campaign Data

In the ‘new interface’ of Google Analytics, go to the ‘Standard Reporting’ tab and drill-in to the Campaigns Report by following this path:

Traffic Sources > Sources > Campaigns

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Analyze by Campaign Medium

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Email DataThis view of email

campaign data would not be available without

campaign tracking

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Analyze by Campaign Source

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Analyze by Campaign & Ad Content

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Thank you!