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Our Google Analytics integration makes it easy to insert tracking links into your campaigns so that you can see what visitors do on your website after they click through a campaign you've sent. You can use Google Analytics to track the conversions from your campaign, see the path visitors take through your site, and optimize your website content. It's a useful tool and we recommend using it so that you have a way to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns, in addition, to open and click-through rate.
How to set up the Google Analytics integration
Google Analytics is enabled on a per campaign basis. When you enable Google Analytics on your campaigns and automation emails, we'll automatically add Google Analytics utm URL parameters to your links.
Before you enable Google Analytics on your campaigns and automation emails, make sure that you have the Google Analytics tracking code installed on your website. For more information on how to set this up, see Google's documentation.
To turn on Google Analytics for a campaign:
- Click "Campaigns" and locate the campaign you wish to update.
- Navigate to the campaign's Campaign Summary page.
- Click the Google Analytics toggle to set it to the "On" position.
- A modal window will appear. Type the Google Analytics Campaign Name into the field provided.
- Click "Done."
This is the name that will appear in Google Analytics under the Campaign tab of the Acquisition category of reports.
ActiveCampaign will insert this tracking URL into all links in your campaign so that when a contact clicks a link in your campaign, Google Analytics is informed they were referred by that specific email campaign.
In your Google Analytics reports:
- The utm_source is who sent the email. If you have branding turned on, it will show "ActiveCampaign." If you have branding turned off, it will show "Newsletter" instead. For information about turning branding on and off, see this article.
- The utm_medium is the marketing channel/tactic being used. In this case, it will be “email.”
- The utm_campaign is the name of the campaign you specified when you enabled Google Analytics on the Campaign Summary page for your email.
- The utm_content will be the subject line of your email.
Note that it can take over 24 hours for Google Analytics data to update so if you send a campaign you won't see that data reflected in your reports immediately.
Campaign clicks vs. Google Analytics Sessions
Google Analytics sessions and clicks in your campaigns are tracked differently from one another.
How campaign and automation email link clicks are tracked:
When a contact clicks a link in your campaign or automation email, we instantly redirect those contacts to one of our link tracking domains then immediately send them to the intended URL. When a contact is redirected to one of those link tracking domains, it's logged in our system as a link click. Link click metrics for each campaign and automation email are made available to you in your campaign reports. Read more about link tracking in this help article.
How Google Analytics sessions are tracked:
Google Analytics logs JavaScript enabled pageviews that result from campaign link clicks. A session in Google Analytics is a group of interactions (page views, events, social interactions, and a transaction) that take place on your website within a given time frame. A single contact can have multiple sessions and a session can expire after 30 minutes of inactivity.
In Google Analytics, several things happen before a session is finally loaded:
- When a click in the campaign takes place, the browser is pointed to your landing page.
- Your website then responds to this request and starts to transfer data from the web server to the contact's browser.
- When the browser starts to download the landing page, there may be a request for several files at the same time. This includes JavaScript, CSS, images, video, audio, and more. The requests for JavaScript include the Google Analytics tracking code.
- The contact's browser and security settings must support cookies, JavaScript, and images. If any of these are disabled, Google Analytics may not be able to record a session.
- The contact's browser then sends a separate request to the Google Analytics servers.
- The session is then recorded.
What can cause discrepancies between link clicks and Google Analytics sessions?
Discrepancies between link clicks in campaign reports and Google Analytics sessions are common; link clicks and sessions will rarely ever match. There are several scenarios that could cause this. We have listed some of them below:
- A contact clicked a link in your email multiple times during the same Google Analytics session. Your campaign report would show multiple link clicks and Google Analytics would show one session.
- A contact clicked a link in your email one time and was redirected to your website. They were then inactive on your site for more than 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, the contact comes back and interacts with your website. Your campaign report would show one link click and Google Analytics would show two sessions.
- A user clicked a link in your email once and closed their browser before the page and Google Analytics had a chance to load. Your campaign report would show one link click and Google Analytics would not track a session.
- You tested the URL/email link prior to sending the email to your contacts. Google Analytics will include these tests in their sessions. In this case, the numbers in Google Analytics may be higher than what you see for clicks in your campaign report.
- Google Analytics tracking code was not correctly added to your site, or contacts are going to pages that do not have Google Analytics installed. In this case, your campaign reports will show link clicks and Google Analytics will not show sessions.
Discrepancies between link clicks and Users or Visitors in Google Analytics are also common for the same reasons listed above.
What to do when there is a large discrepancy between link clicks and Google Analytics sessions
If you experience a large discrepancy between link clicks and your Google Analytics sessions, our support team can help you troubleshoot whether or not Google Analytics utm URL parameters are being added to your campaign links. However, you may need to contact Google Analytics to resolve the issue.
For more detailed information about tracking campaigns with Google Analytics, see Google's documentation on that topic.