How well do G.A. utm Campaigns play together?
-
Hello!
Here's my situation. In the coming days I will have two sources of Google Analytics utm Campaigns running:
- Source 1 is paid online advertising.
- Source 2 will be banner ads on our own website that encourage people to request an appointment with the dentist whose profile page they're viewing. (With close to 100 doctors, that's a LOT of Campaigns URLs, but I fell it will be worth it to know where appointment requests are coming from.)
So, the question... Let's say a site visitor arrives to our site via one of our paid ad's utm Campaigns URL. What happens if that visitor navigates to one of our dentist's profile page then clicks the banner ad that also contains a utm URL. Which Campaign gets the credit for the goal conversion? The most recent (the banner)? The original source (the paid ad)? Both?
Thanks in advance for any insight!
Erik
-
Thank you, everyone, for your response. Looks like I need to dig into Event Tracking!
Erik
-
I agree with Federico on this, always try to prevent using the UTM tags on your own site. It's the start of making your Analytics account unbearable after a while. The best alternative for this is to mark your banners with Event Tracking, by doing this you're able to segment them and use all the advantages of UTM tags without all the negative sides like messing up the conversion attribution.
-
I wouldn't use a utm_campaign within banners in my own site. Even with paid advertising, sometimes you don't need to use those variables as GA is intelligent enough to recognize the source as paid/organic.
Let's say you advertise on Twitter, AdWords and Bing. GA automatically recognizes AdWords traffic, no need of utm_campaign there; on the other hand you do need to set those variables to differentiate from paid/organic from twitter and bing.
Once you have a Goal created in GA, you can check the Goal Flow and see from where are they coming. You can even set steps inside GA and track the pages that the users browse before converting.
Also, if you send ecommerce data to GA, you will be able to track the sources that produce better income, etc., by using the ecommerce (as you book doctor appointments, you can look at the appointment requested as a "sale") and then take advantage of the all the ecommerce data.
-
Hi Erik,
I think the best solution for this is to create landing pages (incl. forms) whereby all traffic is directed to complete the lead (conversion). With this you just need to setup a landing page where the client can choose the doctor and fill in their personal details. The conversion comes after the details have been submitted (so the goal for this should be setup on GA). By doing this you can see your source and path of conversion on GA.
Also you will need to structure this right. For example:
-
Traffic coming from paid should go directly to the landing page thats content is relevant to the source. Example: An ad about free withdrawals from a specific bank (this content / copy targets a specific banking audience). The landing page content describes how and why these saving are possible (in bullet form / short sentences).
-
The banners on your own site will be easy to track because the url embedded inside them link through to the landing page (Source and Path will be shown in GA)
Regards,
Rickus
-
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google Analytics / Facebook UTM
Hello, I have a quick question. I am setting up conversion tracking for my Facebook ads, so I am giving each ad set a tracking URL (UTM) in order to see which ads are converting etc. Is it possible to see on analytics how much I am spending on these ads or a cost per conversion? Or does the tracking merely track general analytics data such as bounce rate, exit rate, revenue generated etc? Kind Regards, James
Reporting & Analytics | | SO_UK0 -
Redirecting one domain to another using utm tags
I have two live websites, which have both been live for over 10 years, so we have plenty of backlinks to both...domain1.com & domain2.com. Domain 1 and all urls is being merged into domain2.com. So 301 redirects will be setup for every page of the site....domain1.com/abc-1234/ to > domain2.com/abc-1234/ In Google analytics for domain2.com we want to be able to see which visits we have received as a result of a redirect from domain1.com. It is possible to see these visits that come in via organic, referrals and social etc, as those will come to us with the referral as domain1.com. However, with direct traffic, i.e. if someone types domain1.com into their search bar, these visits will be assigned as direct and we are not able to tell in GA if those users have typed in domain2.com, or domain1.com to get to our webpage. There are some suggestions in forums of adding utm_source tracking to all redirects (and add canonicals to those urls pointing to the non utm_source version), but my concern is that Google is going to have to go through one extra step to reach the page on the redirected domain. So without the utm source code Google will follow this route
Reporting & Analytics | | Sayers
domain1.com/123/ to domain2.com/123/ With the utm source code Google will follow this route
domain.com/123/ to domain2.com/123/?utm_source... then see's canonical, so moves to domain2.com/123/ So essentially I am giving Google one extra step to follow before it gets to the equivalent page on the new site. Is this an issue, and/or are there any other ways to track this redirection without adding extra parameters to the url?0 -
Google Analytics Campaign Tracking overriding each other
Howdy, fellow mozzers. So, here is the situation: Let's say someone comes to the website through Organic Google Search, and first thing they see is the banner on the website, on a click of which it takes you to a promotional landing page. I have this banner being tracked with GA campaigns. Now, here are my questions: If that user makes a purchase, which source / medium it will be assigned to? Organic/google or website/banner? (as far as i understand it assigns it to website/banner) If that's the case, is there way to find out afterwords where the website/banner sessions came initially from? If there is no such way, how shall i setup the tracking to be able to see wherre the initial visit to the website came from, yet also track how many people clicked on the banner and made a purchase? Thanks 🙂
Reporting & Analytics | | DmitriiK0 -
I am tracking my domain e.g www.xyz.com to an existing google analytics account . I want to track www.xyz.com/blog separately in the google analytics account. How can I do that?
I am tracking my domain e.g www.xyz.com to an existing google analytics account . I want to track www.xyz.com/blog separately in the google analytics account. How can I do that?
Reporting & Analytics | | Windlass0 -
Why am i still seeing very recent organic kw traffic being reported in Analytics if G is now fully encrypted ?
Why am i still seeing very recent organic kw traffic being reported in Analytics if G is now fully encrypted ? Should it not all be 'Not Provided' now ? When this fully roles out if not already wont it be impossible to distinguish between brand and non brand kw ? Cheers Dan
Reporting & Analytics | | Dan-Lawrence1 -
Newsletter Campaign Need HELP to Create a Custom Report in Google Analytics
I have this newsletter send using Mailchimp. This campaign is link to G.A. How can I create custom report for me online store about this campaign? For example: I have 2 Goals Completion Location setup in G.A. they are: /checkout.php and /finishorder.php Is there a way to find out how many visitors from my campaign reach the /finishorder.php vs. /checkout.php Reason, about 50% are reaching /finishorder.php Maybe I need to creat a "How to redeem you coupon code" video to included in the newsletter to HELP customers complet there order process. Thank you, BigBlaze
Reporting & Analytics | | BigBlaze2050 -
Can you link several sites together in Google Webmaster Tools?
I have a client saying that there is a way to link 3 separate websites (A website for each department of a company) in Google Webmaster tools to tell Google it's basically one site but really its 3. Or to tell Google it's the same company and all the sites are one. I have never heard of this & I don't see the point in making 3 separate small sites & "linking" them as one in Webmaster tools. Is there in fact a way? Am I out to lunch on what they might be referring to? I am recommending they create one larger authority site with a page on each department & earn links for each department page & provide informative unique content for each page. Thoughts? Thanks for the help!
Reporting & Analytics | | DCochrane0 -
Campaign shows no traffic from Analytics
My campaaigns are connected to GA but traffic is zero for all campaigns
Reporting & Analytics | | berndheyer0