1

Good day,

Background: We have a single web application that multiple external websites link to; users visit www.aaa.com or www.bbb.com and can then click through to our web site at www.example.com.

When we send email comms, the users are directed to their respective client URL.

We require a method of tracking these users from email comms using Google Analytics so that we can see their activity in the Campaigns section.

Issue: The problem is that whilst we have Google Analytics enabled on www.example.com, we are not able to install analytics on client URLs. This means that if we affix the Google tags after the URL in emails, these are stripped out when a user then navigates around a client URL before visiting ours. This then means they do not appear in the 'Campaigns' tab of GA. That is:

trackable --> www.example.com?utm_source=offeremail&utm_campaign=testcampaign&utm_medium=email

not trackable -- > www.aaa.com?utm_source=offeremail&utm_campaign=testcampaign&utm_medium=email

Question: Are we able to start the tracking once a user clicks a link in an email but then accesses our site from another site and then show the results in the campaign tab?

Improve this question
3
  • How is the redirect performed from the client url -> app url? If there's a server in the middle, you could rewrite to preserve the tracking url and check the referrer to determine the domain of origin.
    – L Martin
    Feb 28, 2017 at 12:14
  • There is no server in between unfortunately, it goes straight from the client site to our site. The user journey is: access client url, navigate to a page on the client site with our information on, click through to our site using SSO.
    – Tom Jones
    Feb 28, 2017 at 12:32
  • Who is serving the interstitial page? You could perform cross-domain tracking from that, especially if there's an extra click action required.
    – L Martin
    Feb 28, 2017 at 12:36

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

Since you have no control over your client sites, and the URL campaign parameters are not preserved, I'd say it is not possible if you link to the client sites first.

On the other hand, if you are able to track on example.com, send the visitor there first and redirect to the client site. You'd need to give the javascript a chance to trigger and run on the browser before redirecting -- alternatively, set up Google Measurement Protocol. Once they navigate back to example.com from the client site, tracking will resume, and since they have a cookie set from visiting example.com first, tracking will resume using the same session.

Improve this answer
1
  • Thank you, I think using Google Measurement Protocol and a cookie will be the best method to achieve this.
    – Tom Jones
    Mar 1, 2017 at 11:07

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.