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.
Use Google Analytics to track the conversions from your campaign, see the path email recipients take through your site, and optimize your website content. It's a helpful 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 rates.
In this article, we'll discuss:
- How to set up the Google Analytics integration
- Campaign clicks vs. Google Analytics Sessions
- What can cause discrepancies between link clicks and Google Analytics sessions?
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 email message links.
Before you enable Google Analytics on your campaigns and automation emails, ensure 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.
On the Campaign Summary page, you'll see the option to enable Google Analytics:
Click the red toggle to enable it.
You'll be presented with a modal window asking you to specify the Google Analytics Campaign Name. Type the Google Analytics Campaign Name into the field provided, then click "Done."
This is the name that will appear in Google Analytics under the Campaign tab of the Acquisition category of reports:
eduConverse will insert this tracking URL into all links in your campaign. When an email recipient clicks a link in your campaign, Google Analytics is alerted that the recipient was referred by that specific email campaign.
In your Google Analytics reports:
- The utm_source is who sent the email.
- 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 recipient clicks a link in your one-off email 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 the recipient 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 (How does link tracking work?).
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 recipient 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 transfers data from the webserver to the recipient's browser.
- When the browser starts to download the landing page, there may be a request for several files simultaneously. This includes JavaScript, CSS, images, video, audio, and more. The requests for JavaScript include the Google Analytics tracking code.
- The recipient'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 recipient'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.
Several scenarios could cause this, including:
- A recipient 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. The recipient was 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 report two sessions.
- A recipient 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 before 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 recipients go to webpages that do not have Google Analytics installed. In this case, your campaign reports will show link clicks, and Google Analytics will not report 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 email link "clicks" and your reported Google Analytics "sessions," contact us. We can help 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.