Campaign Tracking
Campaign tracking is a feature that allows you to record marketing campaign details when you click a link to your online website. This can help you track the exact impact of your marketing campaigns. He reveals things like how much traffic they are bringing in, how engaged those visitors are, and whether the campaign is resulting in sales or not.
The Value of Campaign Tracking
If you're new to analytics, you might wonder why you need campaign tracking links. After all, the MVMCloud Analytics already tracks the websites and search engines that drive traffic to your website. However, this standard type of Referral tracking doesn't work for all types of traffic. Emails are a common example where it is not You can automatically know where a visitor came from and the visit will be displayed as a “Direct Entry”. In cases like this, setting up email campaign tracking URLs ensures you know how visitors come to your website when needed.
Another benefit of campaign tracking URLs is that you can set them to tell you exactly which email, button or link came a user. You can set different campaign names for each email and each link to differentiate them.
Of course, email marketing is just one situation where you can use campaign tracking. Tracking URLs are commonly used to obtain enhanced tracking data from the following sources:
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ads – What campaigns and keywords are generating revenue?
- Display and Banner Ads – What specific platforms and banners are driving traffic?
- Third-Party Marketplaces – Which external listings send people back to your site?
- Social Media – Which social media posts are getting the most traction?
- Email Newslatters – Which newsletter campaigns are driving traffic and sales?
- Third-party blog posts – What external content attracts the most website visitors?
- And many more!
With campaign tracking, each different traffic source or link on the same page can have its own values exclusive tracking features. The more specific you are with your use of campaign tracking links, the better it will be the quality data you receive. By reviewing your campaign reports in MVMCloud Analytics, you can compare the statistics for each campaign and focus your marketing efforts on the campaigns that are working well.
The Anatomy of a Campaign Tracking URL
As mentioned earlier, campaign data is tracked through the use of URL parameters. In the example below, you can see a default URL and a campaign tracking URL with a campaign tracking parameter attached:
- Default URL:
https://example.com/
*Campaign tracking URL:
https://example.com/?mtm_campaign=newsletter_black_friday
The final part of the second URL is an example of the mtm_campaign campaign tracking parameter in use. Both links above lead to the same web page; however, the second link tells the site which campaign it came from. In this case, the value is set for the newsletter_black_friday campaign.
URL Parameters for Campaigns
Although there is only one campaign parameter in the example above, it is worth noting that there are a total of 8 available parameters available in MVMCloud Analytics and that Google Analytics parameters are also supported. Therefore, you do not need to modify the URL parameters d your ongoing campaigns, so they can be tracked by MVMCloud Analytics. The available parameters are:
mtm_campaign - Defines the campaign name
mtm_source - Defines the campaign source (Like Google or Facebook)
mtm_medium - Defines the medium used in the campaign (such as email or cpc)
mtm_kwd - Sets the campaign keyword
mtm_content - Defines the campaign content
mtm_cid - Defines the campaign identifier (ID Code)
mtm_group - Defines the target audience for the campaign
mtm_placement - Defines the campaign placement
If you are already using URLs with Google Analytics parameters they
are also supported:
utm_campaign
utm_source
utm_medium
utm_term
utm_content
utm_id
The full set of eight campaign tracking parameters allows you to add even more context to your your links and is recommended. Below you will find a list of the full set of tracking parameters. campaign, along with a brief description of the values you would attach to each.
Default campaign tracking values
-
Campaign (required): mtm_campaign A descriptive name for the campaign, for example, a blog post title or email campaign name.
-
Keyword (recommended): mtm_kwd The specific keyword someone searched for or category of interest.
Additional campaign tracking values
-
Source (recommended): mtm_source The actual source of traffic, e.g. newsletter, twitter, ebay, google, facebook, instagram, tiktok, etc.
-
Medium (recommended): mtm_medium The type of marketing channel, e.g. email, social, paid, etc.
-
Content (Optional): mtm_content This is a specific link or content that someone clicked on. e.g. banner, big green button
-
ID (optional): mtm_cid A unique identifier for your ad. This parameter is often used with numeric IDs automatically generated by advertising platforms.
-
Group (optional): mtm_group The target audience for your campaign, e.g. customers, retargeting, etc.
-
Placement (optional): mtm_placement Positioning in an advertising network, e.g. news feed, sidebar, home banner, etc.
Another Option is a Tracking Pixel
By the way, if all you want to do is detect when a recipient opens your HTML-formatted newsletter, There is no need to create a campaign link URL. Instead, you can place a non-visible image in the newsletter and track the image loading event. See more here to find out How to Track a Pixel.