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February 18 by Malinda Terreri -

How to Track Email Campaigns with Google Analytics

Many people don’t realize that there is a lot more to Google Analytics than just tracking your website activity… it’s also a great way to provide you with insights into your email campaigns.

Advanced Segments are GA’s way of dividing up all your visitors into associated groups. You can acquire details telling when visitors were there; what operating system they use on their computer, and so on… You can find the referring URL (what site they came from) or how many times they have visited. However you can do so much better with your data-mining.

GA includes one Advanced Segment (of many) that sorts by referrers or Traffic Sources. This is much more important because these can include Social Media Sites, Direct Traffic, Search Engines (Paid leads, Non-paid Leads, SEO, etc.), as well as email newsletters and email campaigns.

In this instance, the last two are the important ones to us. If you tag an email for a campaign (or within a newsletter), and clients click on links to your site within them, Google Analytics provides you with lots of data. What you need to do is build the URLs that will allow you to code your links with data GA can interpret. It might be complex, but there are automated tools…

There is a Campaign URL builder here that will take you through the whole process in six fairly easy steps so that you can have information laden URLs, for Google Analytics, that identify your newsletter or email campaign specifically. You input the data required (your website URL, campaign source, medium, term, content and Campaign Name) and it will return the URL you can use on that particular email/newsletter. As a sample I created an URL with this data:

http://www.sample.net(your website URL), google.com(campaign source), email(campaign medium), Science Fiction(Campaign Term), Writing for Dummies(campaign content), Profit Making(Campaign Name).

It generated this URL:
http://www.sample.net/utm_source=google.com
&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Science%20Fiction&utm_content=Writing
%20for%20Dummies&utm_campaign=Profit%20Making

You include it in a hyperlink like this that doesn’t reveal its complexity (hover over it to see it is the same as the link above). Now the client clicking that URL is traceable when they get to your website. GA “knows” what the source of their visit was; where they spent their time; and what they read, purchased, or downloaded can be tracked to show you the success of that particular campaign or newsletter.

Google makes it easy with handy videos explaining strategies and methods. Have a look at this video to see how marketing goals are important waypoints on your road to success.

Yes, it’s a bit time-consuming, and it takes some effort, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be generating useful data filled with sales insights in no time.

Will you try this? Do you do this already? What kind of stats are you seeing?

Categories: Best Practices, Email, Latest News & Trends

About the Author

Malinda Terreri

Malinda Terreri

Take one part geek, add a healthy dose of creativity, top it off with an obsession for marketing and you have… Malinda Terreri. Her marketing talents started at a young age when she secured the world record for the most Girl Scout cookies ever sold.* Malinda is President of 1to1 News. which specializes in online newsletters for dealerships.

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    I’m the founder of DealerRefresh. I got my start in the dealer business when I was 18. From there I've worked throughout several departments within fixed to variable ops. Whether it’s managing the desk, perfecting sales process or studying online marketing and media trends, I absolutely love this business and the challenges it brings. On top of keeping up with DealerRefresh, I consult with dealerships and key industry businesses. My passion has been and continues to be helping dealers leverage new media to sell and improve customer service.
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    2019 marks Alex's 30th year in the car business. In that time he has had a front-row seat for the rise of the Internet and has been working to bring the online and offline dealership experience closer. Whether you knew him from his life at Checkered Flag or his years with Dealer.com/DealerTrack/Cox Alex has remained an opinionated DealerRefresh contributor who enjoys nothing more than to poke at the unsaid truths in our industry. He also helped found FRIKINtech.

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