Google URL Builder is a wonderful tool for tracking, analysing and finally improving the quality of website traffic. By adding a simple piece of string to any URL using this tool, Google Analytics can distinguish the particular link, highlight it as a traffic source and report on its quality in terms of bounce rate, user interaction and e-commerce transactions.
Here are some common and not so common ways to use Google URL Builder:
Tag Google base traffic – Google Base is a free Google service that helps store owners publish products (or services) on Google Base or other Google properties at no cost. Tag URLs before submitting them using Campaign Source: Google-Base Campaign Medium: Web and for Campaign Name: <feed-name>. Now under traffic sources in Google Analytics you’ll see ‘Google-Base’ traffic source, its bounce rate, conversion etc.
Tag email and newsletter traffic – Understand and analyse your click through rate, conversion rate and other user engagement issues using Google Analytics by tagging the links in the email using Campaign Source: newsletter Campaign Medium: email and for Campaign Name: <newsletter-name>
Tag social site traffic – Before shortening the URL using one of the many URL shortening services, tag the URL. For example, before adding the link to Twitter, tag the URL as Campaign Source: twitter.com Campaign Medium: social and for Campaign Name: <item-name> so www.conversioncounts.com/blog/optimization/5-search-engine-optimization-tips-for-quick-wins/ turns into www.conversioncounts.com/blog/optimization/5-search-engine-optimization-tips-for-quick-wins/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=widgets and finally becomes http://bit.ly/aXEW7
Tag external banner display campaigns – If you’re running any ad display not via one of the banner display networks, chances are you’ll need to tag the campaign to get a better picture on conversion and user interaction. Tag the campaign using Campaign Source: display Campaign Medium: cpm and for Campaign Name: <promo title>.
Tag away!
Ran,
I would NOT recommend tagging internal links. This can cause major issues in Google Analytics. GA gets confused when you update the campaign cookie during a visit. If you need to track internal campaigns you should use event tracking or virtual pageviews, but NOT campaign tracking.
Best,
Justin
Justin,
Thanks for sharing your insights on this. I’ll update the post.
Regards,
Ran
Hi Guys – what would you recommend for a campaign using an easy to remember URL in print
eg I might use http://www.mysite.com/offer and http://www.mysite.com/special and http://www.mysite.com/amazing with a redirect setup on the server to the actual landing page
– how about if I tag the redirect address in the webserver with analytics tags as above so I can see them all in Analystics Campaigns?
eg if http://www.mysite.com/offer is redirected to http://www.mysite.com/content/offerkeyword.html SHOULD I be redirecting it to http://www.mysite.com/content/offerkeyword.html?utm_source=OfflineAD&utm_medium=magazine&utm_campaign=widgets
Thanks for your feedback – Andrew
Hi Andrew,
If these urls are intended only for your off line campaigns, then surely anyone landing on these pages came from your off line activity and no further tagging is needed. So if a lead landed on your landing page, he or she could have only seen your off line ad and headed to the landing page directly. If on the other hand, you’re going to post these links on your site as well, event tracking will work better.
Other ways to track off line conversions (which can plug in to GA)
- Dedicated phone number for the campaign
- Redeem code designed only for the campaign
Hope this helps.
Justin makes a good point re GA and internal linking.
Another concern I would have in tagging text links is search bots might interpret the link as artificial and therefore ignore the link, therefore harming your site hierarchy and wasting an opportunity to consolidate the subject of a page via the anchor text.
Hi,
Where do I find the URL builder in Google Analytics?
The URL builder is available here. Once the new URL is tagged and used, the traffic source will appear in your Google Analytics under the traffic sources tab.
If I’m tracking 150 key words, and need to know what’s happening with each. Do i need to build 150 different Ads, and build a unique URL for each?
Thanks
This type of information is available within Google Analytics or AdWords. The URL builder is really used for tagging traffic channels where reporting otherwise is very difficult.
Ran,
I’m managing a large site with a lot of traffic. I followed your recommendations above for measuring Twitter bitly links back to the site. Where in Google Analytics specifically would I look/search for the results? You mentioned under the “traffic sources” tab, but where exactly?
Thanks!
A little more guidance:
Under your “tag social site” example, the final output is http://bit.ly/aXEW7. Where in GA would I find this pesky little link so I can report it as a metric?
Good post. Thanks for your help.
Hi Ronan,
It will take some time before the information appears in GA, maybe up to 24hrs depending on the level of traffic you’re getting. Go to all traffic sources and use the free text window under ‘Filter Source/Medium’ to type the source name. It should come up if traffic did originate from this source and the tagging worked. I hope this helps. Ran
“If these urls are intended only for your off line campaigns, then surely anyone landing on these pages came from your off line activity and no further tagging is needed. So if a lead landed on your landing page, he or she could have only seen your off line ad and headed to the landing page directly. If on the other hand, you’re going to post these links on your site as well, event tracking will work better. ”
I know I’m late on making this comment but, I don’t agree. As I understand it, the advantage of *consistently* using the URL Builder format is that it becomes easier to analyze pro-active incoming traffic because all those links tagged the same way. Something like that