Understanding how a campaign is performing saves marketers time, money, and probably a ton of coffee.
An efficient and accurate campaign tracker is a vital analytics tool we use that allows for optimization of a campaign and keeps your content efforts on a straight and safe path toward your objectives. Running a campaign without link tracking is like driving through a mountain pass … while looking through the back window.
End of the day, it answers a vital question: Is any of this working?
Campaign tracking 101
Campaign tracking shows the performance of links that point to a website. Links a marketer has identified as important to track could go to a direct purchase, newsletter sign-up, or more information on a product.
With each link in a campaign, parameters associated with a link are set, such as:
• Source: Website or other referrer where the click originated.
• Medium: The type of clicked link (organic, email, social).
• Term: Keywords a user entered in a search.
• Content: Type of ad (display, Facebook).
• Campaign: The name of your campaign.
How did a visitor get to my website?
What prevented a visitor from reaching my product page?
How many visitors clicked on a link?
Answers to these questions wipe a picture clean to see a campaign’s performance associated with your business objectives.
Consistency is key
Organization and communication regarding the use of campaign parameters can make or break a campaign.
Be sure your team enters exact names used in these parameters so that data is organized and effective.
Take the following example of Google Analytics Campaign URL Builder:
With each link that is built — in this example “Resolve to Renew” campaign — the campaign source, medium, name and content fields must be consistent with spelling, including underscores.
For example, people might use different variations of the campaign medium. One team member errantly builds a link with the medium “Twitter” and others correctly enter “social” (to track all social mediums). One result is that clicks from these links will show up as having separate referral sources in analytics reports.
Consistent communication across team members as to the exact use of terms when building campaigns will allow for accurate aggregating of campaign data.
Making sense of campaign data: a simple spreadsheet
Marketers could use Google Docs or Excel to manage parameters used campaign tracked URLs, but across an entire organization that is not always a viable option. Try one of the spreadsheet program available.
Get started building your campaign links today and see how tracking your URLs saves time, money and yes — coffee.