You go through the effort of creating an email with a particular call to action. And maybe you want readers to click through to your website or social profile However, how will you measure which visitors to your website or social account came as a result of your email? Answer: the tracked link.
A tracked link is easy to create. It’s a string of code that tags the URL for the source of traffic with key identifiers.
URL strings
Imagine your company has the domain Football.com. You want to target new subscribers with a campaign called “Get Moving.” You’ll use the creative campaign term “Championship Game Banner” to promote sales to this segment. The CTA will drive traffic to your sales page.
Source: Google Analytics
To create the tracked link for your CTA button, you can use any one of a variety of analytic suites available. In this case, we’ll use the free Campaign URL Builder from Google Analytics. You’ll input a variety of parameters, including:
- Website URL: the domain and page where you’re sending the subscriber
- Campaign source: the market segment or referrer
- Campaign medium: the channel
- Campaign name: the product, promo code, or slogan
- Campaign term: any paid keywords
- Campaign content: something to help you differentiate ads
The Campaign URL Builder will generate a unique campaign URL. When you insert the tracked link on the CTA in your email, you’ll be able to track the effectiveness of your campaign.
UTM code is another name for each of the tracking parameters that make up your campaign URL.
The benefit of tracked links
The ROI for email marketing can reach $44 for every $1 invested. To get this kind of return, you need to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. Moreover, to do that, you need the information that’ll help you understand customer behavior.
There is every incentive to spend the extra few minutes it takes to generate a tracked link and insert it into the CTAs in your campaign. It’ll create the data you’ll need to optimize your email strategy.
How to measure clicked links
Once your campaign is underway, you can sort your tracked links using Google Analytics or any analytics tool that you prefer. You’ll be able to sort your results by the various tags that you’ve included in the URL string. Further, you can analyze how traffic to your online store generated by this email campaign compares to that produced by other channels.
You can also compare the results from your latest email to results from previous campaigns. It’s important to note that tracked links work in Campaign Monitor’s regular emails, as well as in automated journeys.
Does it really matter?
By tracking clicked links, you’ll get key insight into customer behavior. You’ll uncover reams of information about your subscribers’ demographics, geographical location, and journeys toward conversion. Then you’ll be able put this knowledge to work in your next campaign.
What now?
If you’re a Campaign Monitor customer and you’ve integrated your Google Analytics account, it’s time to set up Google Analytics Tracking. This will automatically generate tracking tags for your domains. Then you’ll be well on your way to collecting the data you need to optimize your email marketing results.