Tracking

Forget about hope and guessing, [wlm_firstname]. Now You Can Know How Well Your Emails Are Really Working by Tracking Results Properly.

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84 thoughts on “Tracking”

  1. Etienne Juneau

    Hey Jason!

    I’m having a hard time setting up goal tracking in Clicky. Do you use their “static” or “dynamic” method? Do you insert code manually into all your thank-you pages, or do you use a plug-in?

    I’d like an overview of your set up. If you’ve covered this in a video, I’m sorry, I’ve missed it. Which is it, and at what minute?

    Thank you,

    Etienne

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    1. Big Rabbit Post author

      Hey Etienne. I use both, depending on the situation. Easiest way if you have a regular thank you page is to just use a dynamic goal.

      Right above the normal clicky code, you could use a dynamic goal like so.

      <script>
      var clicky_custom = {};
      clicky_custom.goal = { name: ‘Email Response Warrior’, revenue: ‘297’ };
      </script>

      This is from their website in relation to “Dynamic” Goals.

      Here’s an example of code you could put on your web site to define a goal at run time.

      <script>
      var clicky_custom = {};
      clicky_custom.goal = { name: ‘Signed up for newsletter’ };

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      1. Etienne Juneau

        Hey man!

        All right, I think I’ve got everything set up right. I clicked my own tracking link and I show up as 1 visitor in the “Campaigns” report (middle of nav bar top).

        I visited all my thank-you pages and no goal has tracked yet. You think that’s normal?

        One last question: which report do you check? On which window were the screenshots you show in your videos and PDF taken?

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        1. Big Rabbit Post author

          Hey Etienne. I would contact support about the no goals being tracked. They’re really good at responding.

          I check goals and campaigns.

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  2. Andy McDuff

    Hey Jason, Thanks for the videos – excellent info! Got a quick question though and I’m not really sure if it can be done. I want to track sales generated from EACH solo ad provider BUT the offer isn’t made until mail #4 in an autoresponder sequence. So I’m not sure how to track the solo-Ad provider from mail to mail. (I’m using iContact and also just got into the ListAnimal Beta).

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    1. Big Rabbit Post author

      hey andy. thanks. btw, one question at a time, por favor. =)

      you can use a seperate list each provider and customize utm code accordingly, or you can use a custom field to distinguish them. just use the token in the url for one of the utm variables.

      make sense?
      jas

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      1. Andy McDuff

        Thanks Jason. Yep, makes sense, at least I think so. I’m avoiding doing separate lists coz that would be a nightmare to manage so going with the custom fields option (I’m gonna use ListAnimal) but I’ve got a problem. Here’s the workflow so far: (1) I’ve built a custom URL so it looks like this:
        http://mysite.com/?utm_source=solo-john-doe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-130305 ….so far so good coz the data comes thru OK in G.Analytics but …the URL is kinda long and ugly & I don’t want users messing with it so…. (2) I’ve used a URL shortener / redirect (in my case Jason Fladlien’s Easy Redirect Script) so now the URL looks like: http://cool-InfoProducts.com/johndoerecommends …..G.Analytics tracks the source URL just fine even though the redirect is in place. But, here’s my problem…. I can’t get the actual data from UTM_Campaign, UTM_Source, and UTM_Medium into my autoresponder’s (ListAnimal) custom fields (LA accepts almost any name as a custom field except the standard ones). So I tried inserting PHP code into my landing (optin) page (the site is in WP); something like this:

        $utmsource = $_GET[“utm_source”];
        $utmmedium = $_GET[“utm_medium”];
        $utmcampaign = $_GET[“utm_campaign”];

        …..and then I simply have 3 input “hidden” fields which takes the value of the three variables and puts the data in my A/R email record. But that doesn’t work and probably even less so if you use a redirect. …looks like there’s a problem using $_GET in WP. So I was figuring on trying to store the three UTM vars into the browser session and then retrieve them before sending the data to the A/R.

        But that’s as far as I’ve got. I’m getting close but I’m starting to think that I’ll need to do some Javascript or more fancy PHP to do all this (and incorporate the PHP code into the WP theme). Am I on the right track or am I over-complicating things here?

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        1. Big Rabbit Post author

          hey andy,

          its not long and ugly if you use html. any particular reason you’re sending the emails in plain text only?

          that solves the problem right there. much easier. definitely looks like super over complicating things

          jason

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          1. Andy McDuff

            Hi Jason,

            Yeah, I see what you mean.

            What I *should* have mentioned is that the email going out to my optin page was coming from a solo ad provider. And sure, no probs….. in that email, the link will be in HTML so no problems with ‘long and ugly” coz I can make it pretty.

            The problem I was referring to is when the prospect actually reaches my landing page, the url will be “long and ugly”: In the address bar, it’ll show mysite.com/?utm_bla bla bla…. and i don’t want the prospect messing with it.

            So i wanted to get something nicer-looking hence the use of URL shortener (in my case, using Easy Redirect Script). So mysite.com/?utm_bla bla bla will be actually appear something like: mysite.com/johndoe-recommends in the address bar.

            I got all that working fine and in Google Analytics, it tracks the URL parameters perfectly (even with the shortener)..

            The next problem I had was getting those URL parameters into custom fields in the Autoresponder so I could segment later down the line if I wanted to. for example: send a broadcast only to buyers who came from John Doe’s Solo Ads.

            I might be barking up the wrong tree here but I’m trying to be proactive about segmentation and tracking.

            Anyway, I’ve been messing with PHP code on my WP site to get the data from the URL and put it into the custom fields in my A/R. Today I found the ‘bug’ (variable scope problem) so now I got it sorted (amazing what happens when you sleep – lol).

            Thanks for all your support – I appreciate it.

            Andy

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            1. Big Rabbit Post author

              No prob. I still think you’re greatly over complicating things.

              You’re “assuming” that the “ugly” (in your opinion) url in the browser is going to be an issue… possibly even imagining people messing with the url… (which isn’t a problem anyways since you would have already grabbed the data)

              Want to know who else uses “ugly”, google analytics urls on their landing pages? Obama….

              I believe the problem only exists in your mind. you could be worrying about a ton of more profitable things.

              Grabbing data from the url should be pretty easy. i’m going to do another tracking webinar. Feel free to pop on, and I’ll do a live demo of grabbing the data.

              If you’re still stuck on this “ugly” url thing, grab all the data in session variables or cookies and then refresh the screen. (at least that’s what I would do…)

              hth
              jason

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              1. Andy McDuff

                Cool, thanks Jason!

                Yeah, grabbing URL data was where I was getting stuck but I *think* I got it sorted with some PHP code (using the “PHP code in Posts” plugin for WP). I need to get the data into my custom fields.in my AR.

                Anyway, would love to see how you do that so looking forward to the next tracking webinar.

                Thanks again; really appreciate your help.

                Andy

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  3. Anthony Aires

    very interesting i had no idea – how about with just affiliate promotions how do you use that data to your advantage … sorry having a hard time seeing through the forest on this i got a wolf chasing my bunny tail

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  4. Joe Stauffacher

    When you use twitter or FB share buttons how do you add the tracking code? Referring to adding the tracking into optimize press for social share buttons. Is tracking needed? Is there a way to determine which email address made the referrals?

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    1. Big Rabbit Post author

      hey joe. track anything and everything when you can. especially important to know how valuable your social media marketing efforts are doing

      if the share links are not configurable, nothing to do about it except maybe get some custom coding done. if they allow you to modify the links, just add google analytics code just like anything else listed in the pdf.

      if you have a membership site and custom share links, you could enter the person’s email in the utm code i.e. &utm_source=Joe@joepig.com

      You would use the membership system (i.e. wishlist) email token (i.e. email)

      hth
      Jason

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      1. Joe Stauffacher

        What about optimizepress specifically since this website has optimizepress. How do you add google analytics to the social media share buttons? Can it be done?

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  5. Joe Stauffacher

    If I have Ultimate Google Analytics do should I change to the Joost plugin? Why use the plugin, if you need to add the .php code for e-commerce tracking and replace the current analytic code?

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    1. Big Rabbit Post author

      depends on the affiliate program. I cover in the manual how to do it with clickbank. reply with an example of an affiliate link and maybe I’ll know. But easier if you just ask the product owner or whoever provides the links and ask “Can I use subid tracking of any kind?”.

      jason

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      1. Mark Salmon

        It would be helpful to have a few more examples e.g. do tracking systems change significantly with the other affiliate programmes – JVZoo, Digiresults, Warrior Forum, Nanacast etc – a list of affiliate programmes and their tracking systems would be useful.

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  8. Sanjeev

    Hi Jason,

    Thanks for the videos – hope the rest are on the way soon!

    Quick question. When buying solo ads for building their lists, people generally use a paid click tracker like BudURL, AdWatcher, etc to track how many incoming clicks they get to their squeeze page.

    Do you recommend using the UTM_Source type link (with GA and/or Clicky) instead?

    Thanks!
    Sanjeev

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    1. Big Rabbit Post author

      i would definitely use the utm links instead. link shorteners are causing more and more problems for deliverability. Plus with utm, you get much more data. At the least, I would use both where the final url destination / redirect has the utm code

      jas

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      1. Sanjeev

        Hey Jason,

        Thanks for your clarification!

        I didn’t know about the deliverability issue with link shorteners.

        Your videos are very insightful and I certainly learnt stuff I never came across before.

        Look forward to more awesomeness from you! 🙂

        Thanks!
        Sanjeev

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    1. Big Rabbit Post author

      I’m going to be redoing it soon with updated info, so I’ll try and do a better job with the audio. But others say it is fine so you might want to check your sound. Sounds great to me but who cares about that.

      thanks for the feedback
      jason

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  11. Darryl Hudson

    Hey Jason,
    A walk through of how to set up the revenue metrics would be awesome addition, would you mind posting a tutorial of this process in the members area thanks in advamce!

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  12. George Kedourie

    Thanks for that.
    Have used /?id= for tracking ads of all sorts.
    Never realised could be done in mails… So that is very cool indeed.
    Definitely would like the walk through video for GA setup on Thank You pages!!

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  13. LaTonya Johnson

    Okay Jason,

    I love the video. It was a bit difficult to understand at times because you started talking really really fast, but that’s what rewind is for;-).

    A walk through of how to set up the revenue metrics would be good, yet it seems like something I’d have to play with until I figure it out.

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  14. Demian Strassen

    Hi Jason, I get that it is important to know which of the sales messages convert in which not. Thanks for all the advice on how to messure this. Right now I am actually not yet selling so much stuff mainly trying to get people involved sharing valuable oontent for free and bulding a following. I have some burning questions about that. Very basic like: Is it better to have messages whitout any headers and background color etc. because they are more personal if they don´t look to professional or is it better because of branding to use the colored templates that the autoresponder provides. Will there be stuff about that too? Would like to have access about that stuff as soon as possible. Thanks, Demian

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  15. Bruce Eichelberger

    I’ve used tid codes for CB products in the past. It was incredibly helpful to know where the sales were coming from. Now I need to know how to do this for my own products.

    Do we set tracking URLs for every link? Or do we only do so on sales-related links? I might guess that every link would be better since it could give market research info based on interests. But if so, how do you manage all those links?

    Bruce

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    1. Big Rabbit Post author

      hey bruce. if the link can lead to a sale directly or via a banner to your own product on the page, then it should be tracked. managing is not that hard. they all show up in GA in a neat and orderly fashion.

      but even if no sale is directly made on that page, might be good to know the unique clicks on that email if your esp doesn’t provide that. i.e. counts multiple clicks from individual user as multiple clicks vs one

      jas

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      1. Bruce Eichelberger

        Thanks Jason, that clarifies it for me.

        I’m going to link everything. It should be huge market research when I send a link-rich newsletter with multiple topics.

        Exciting!

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  16. Carole Lawrence

    Just watched the video and was trying to write everything down. Then I noticed the pdf and looked at it. It’s the same thing I was writing down. Wow, that’s a big help!

    I’m so pleased to learn about these links. It’s hard to believe you can say put much information into a link.

    I’m looking forward to the upcoming videos which show how or where to put these links.

    Thanks,
    Carole

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  17. Ehud Kafri

    Hi Jason, great advice on the Tracking.
    (I’m new so bare with my stupid question 😉 ) I was wondering How do you know if the email was converted to a sale or optin, I understand the click in the email is tracked but How can you know if the same person has also did the action?
    Thanks
    Ehud

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    1. Big Rabbit Post author

      hey ehud. That is where I talk about the revenue tracking code. I will be providing a video walk through of how to do that

      jason

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  18. Anfernee Chansamooth

    Nice start. Pretty straightforward and easy enough to understand for a newbie like me. Thanks for the intro to getclicky also. Looking forward to the walk-throughs. Have you had any negative reaction to using long URLs in your emails? What about URL shorteners like bit.ly, worth using or would that just add another unnecessary step?

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    1. Big Rabbit Post author

      hey anfernee.

      no negative reaction at all. actually, using url shorteners like bit.ly can cause massive problems.

      i would not use them at all. reason being what are you hiding in there? spammers like to use them so good guys are being targeted. In analysis of my spam folder, I’ve also seen this pattern as well that the only thing that “seems” to be the common factor is bit.ly

      hth
      jas

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      1. David Newby

        Hey Jason. GREAT info on expanding the use of GA! I do alot of direct mail to clients- do you think bit.ly links are fine for those as people have to type in the whole address manually? I’m thinking the risk of losing a little tracking on a bitly link is lower than the risk of them mis-typing a long URL and getting frustrated. I’m going old-school like Carlton and Halbert/Kennedy and doing more and more direct mail, so I will love your input!

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  19. Dominique Degottex

    wow, that is great information.
    it truethat not easy to find on google analystic. So, as probaly a lot of people I would like to seea video that show how to do it.
    that would be cool
    Domi

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  20. John Spark

    Hi Big Jason…For your info my sons name is Jason so thats cool we have some else in common LOL
    Now for business…do you recommend Clicky over GA? Secondly should we track all emails from optin onwards…I am planning on including video in my optins so I am guessing its a good way to test if people watch it right?
    Cheers
    John

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    1. Big Rabbit Post author

      hey john. great name for your son. now he just needs to eat his wheaties 😉

      I personally love Clicky, but I can’t say it is the best for everyone.
      http://emaildominion.com/clicky

      you should be tracking all emails that can lead to a sale either directly or through a banner if it is your own product. You could also do it for affiliate products advertised on the page with content but that is more advanced.

      say I’m just linking to some content for email response warrior, but I have a banner for Email Inbox Warrior. I would still use the tracking to see how many sales were generated from that email.

      hth
      jas

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  21. Patti Lowe

    So far so great! Please do a tracking video for those of us somewhat technically challenged. This information has widened my understanding of how to make better decisions.

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  22. Anton Nadilo

    Jason,

    Can I upload a photo to my profile? I have tried using the “Edit Profile” function and there is nowhere I can see where I can upload a photo…

    cheers

    Anton

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  23. Anton Nadilo

    Hi Big Jason,

    Just started diving into Email Domination. Where do I find the “Email Metrics” PDF you refer to and recommend reading in the video?

    cheers

    Anton

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    1. Big Rabbit Post author

      I may inadvertently referenced the metrics pdf vs the video. It was faster to do the video, but I will be going back and creating a pdf AND a much better video.

      jason

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  24. Brigitte Iten

    Hi Jason, as Don and Sanjiv already stated…I sure get the importance of tracking, but unfortunately without at least be shown one example of how to set it up from A-Z I don’t stand a chance to use it. Just pointing me in the direction of Google Analytics without the “how to” will leave me more frustrated than before!
    Thanks in advance of showing the process of how to set it up! Brigitte

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    1. Big Rabbit Post author

      sure thing Brigitte. Are you referring to the revenue tracking code on your thank you page? or using the links themselves?

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      1. Tim Nesbitt

        Hey Jason I got an email where you talked about PDF’s to download so far I hadn’t seen any am I missing something? I haven’t looked through the whole site since I got the email but up until today I hadn’t noticed any PDF’s

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        1. Big Rabbit Post author

          hey tim. it’s right below the video. I actually just made the link have an underline. damn designers with their pretty (no underline) links!!! Let me know if you still can’t see it

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          1. George Kedourie

            I have had that battle too, with site owners and their designers.
            Keep’em blue, underlined and bolded too in most cases.

            Do as much as possible to eliminate any hint of confusion or departure from what they already know!

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      3. Brigitte Iten

        Please just show us live on screen what data is needed from every email series you set up and how you set it up to get this data! Thanks again! Brigitte

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  25. Sanjiv Gurram

    Hey Big Jason,

    Awesome start with tracking man.

    I think you’re already planning it, but a walk through of how to do this would be awesome!

    Thanks, Sanjiv

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    1. Big Rabbit Post author

      hey sanjiv. appreciate it.

      I will be doing some walk throughs for sure. anything in particular you wanted to see?

      big jason

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      1. Sanjiv Gurram

        Hey Big Jason,

        Like Brigitte mentioned below,

        I’d love to see a walk through of how to do it all from start to finish in GA and clicky of possible.

        That would enable us to go through it with you step by step, and implement it for our own tracking.

        Thanks!

        Sanjiv

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  26. Don Roberts

    I would like to take you up on your first offer in the Tracking video for you to make a brief video on setting up email tracking with Google Analytics. Thank you.

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    1. Big Rabbit Post author

      hey don. was it just the setting up of links in the emails or the google revenue code on your thank you page? or both?

      jason

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