Tracking Online and Offline Marketing Efforts: Setting Your

Integrated Tracking Management Plan

Presented by: Colleen Clark, Marketing Analyst

Overview

Importance of TrackingWhat Can We Track?Campaign Tagging– When should we use Campaign Tags?– Overview– Example

Event Tracking– When should we use Event Tracking?– Overview– Example

MetricsBest PracticesGetting Everyone On Board

“The online channel often, though not always, can be a lower cost channel.

Showing exactly how to use it (which campaigns, mediums, products) and for

whom (visitor personas, geographies) and why will ensure your job security and the

channel's security as well.”

~Avinash Kaushik

Why is Tracking the Details Important?

Automatically Tracked

Referrals

Social Media

Direct Traffic

Campaigns

Search

Not Automatically Tracked

Flash Interactions

Downloads

Paid Search

Digital Media

Form Choices

External Links

Print

Campaign Tagging If you’re running an

external marketing campaign, you need to add special tagging to the URL in order to track campaign performance of visitor engagement.

When Do We Use Campaign Tracking?

How is Campaign Tracking Used?

In order to track campaign performance, you will need to tag your URLs with a string of parameters:

http://www.ithaca.edu/?utm_medium=print&utm_source=nyt&utm_campaign=ready-fall-2012&utm_content=brand-full-page

Campaign Tagging Overview

Medium Source Campaign Content(optional)

Term(optional)

cpc google business degree business degree

social-media twitter social - -

banner adroll ready ad1-350x500 -

email fire-engine-red

welcome-new-student

- -

newspaper nyt ready ad1-full-page -

Campaign Tracking Example

A. Traffic Sources > CampaignsB. Choose Source / Medium (or Other)C. Add additional layer such as “Ad Content”

A

B

C

Event Tracking

If you are unable to view certain website interactions, you may want to opt for event tracking.

When Do We Use Event Tracking?

Event Tracking Values

• Web objects that cannot be tracked traditionally.• Example: button, email, pdf, Video, External LinkCategories

• The visitors interaction with an object (category)• Example: click, play, download, pause, stopActions

• Provides descriptive/name information about the event (optional)

• Example: common app, recommendation formLabels

• numerical, typically used to represent monetary value (optional)

• Example: 1, 20, 100Value

Event Tracking Example

A. Events > Top EventsB. Choose Action / Label / CategoryC. Add Additional Event Layer

A

CB

So many metrics!!!

Questions to Ask: Campaign Metrics

Before you look at your Metrics:– Do I want to know how a certain vendor is performing or

compares within a certain medium?– What is the most engaging medium (paid search, email,

etc) and who/what is driving it?– How is the campaign performing, overall?– Does Ad#1 send more traffic or perform better than

Ad#2?– Are my landing pages engaging enough?– How do visitors react by landing on page A versus B?

Combining Campaign & Event Tracking

Engagement metrics will never mean anything unless you ask “WHY?”

? ? ? ? ?

Combining Campaign & Event Tracking

Add Event Tracking as a Segment to increase analysis:

Tracking Gone

Wrong?!!

Tagging Best Practices

• Avoid Post-Redirects• Maintain Clean URLs• Consistent Naming• Special Characters• Never Tag Your Own Links

Getting Everyone On Board

Have the Conversation with:

Your Agency• Communicate how imperative it is to tag all online and offline marketing

campaigns before it goes live. Share best practices.

Your Computer Programmer• Your tech team will be able to assist you with internal tagging such as events and

custom variables. Come up with a tagging nomenclature so they don’t have to do the guess-work.

Your Marketing Managers• Make sure they include you within conversations around partnerships, press releases,

online publications, digital marketing campaigns, and vanity URLs.

Admissions• Once a prospective student begins the inquiry process, admissions marketing takes

over. Initiate conversations with your recruitment director to ensure all offline and online interactions are properly tagged.

Review / Takeaways

Be proactive. Analyze all marketing campaigns and on-page objects for tracking opportunitiesCampaign tracking = External dataEvent tracking = Internal dataAlways refer to best practices when creating new tagsEstablish trust within your Admissions, Tech, Agency, and Marketing teams.

Thank You

Follow Me: @Colleen_ClarkEmail: cclark@ithaca.edu

Appendix

Campaign Tracking Tools: URL Builder

http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1033867