Tracking registration revenue in Google Analytics when the registration happens via 3rd party platform

Question

We are working with an events management & registration vendor that handles all events related items for a big conference (20k attendees).

The actual registration process, including the payment, happens on their domain instead of our conference website. We do a lot of email, remarketing and social media marketing for the event and what I really want to do is measure those efforts based on how much revenue each channel brings in GA.

What would be the best way to get all transaction data into GA?

Option #1 - We might be able to add GA tracking to the 3rd party platform confirmation page and then setup a separate GA property to gather the data.

Option #2 - We might be able to redirect to the conference website for the confirmation page and add the transaction data to that domain's GA property.

Are there other options or which would be better?

I am also concerned with attribution since visitors will bounce back and forth from domain (conference site) to domain (3rd party reg site) before purchasing the registration.

Answer 1

@dasickle

Option #1 - We might be able to add GA tracking to the 3rd party platform confirmation page and then setup a separate GA property to gather the data.

If you can do this (3rd party gives this possibility), this is a good solution. Just bear in mind you need to set-up cross-domain tracking properly.

Option #2 - We might be able to redirect to the conference website for the confirmation page and add the transaction data to that domain's GA property.

This is not the best option. It is less precise as it adds a reason for conversion tag not to fire (not always redirect will work out well for different reasons, meaning that user won't reach your page thus conversion won't fire).

Are there other options or which would be better?

Another option is engaging Google Analytics Measurement protocol. It will be feasible if you can send a small piece of information (a string like "2099071361.1426752574") to the database where you store your orders and then can access it programatically through API. This is a bit more complicated in terms of development and if you option #1 is feasible I would recommend latter.

I am also concerned with attribution since visitors will bounce back and forth from domain (conference site) to domain (3rd party reg site) before purchasing the registration.

As I mentioned above, if you set-up cross-domain tracking correctly, nothing to worry about.

Since depending on whether you are using Google Analytics installed directly or through Google Tag Manager, instructions how to do this will differ, so to provide you with instructions on this I will need to know which option your are using.