GA not tracking QR code redirect from our website to our Facebook page

Question

We have couple of marketing collateral (cards, envelope, flyer) on which we would like to put a QR code that will direct to our Facebook page.

To be able to have accurate tracking, I would like to use Google Analytics (GA) and tried to link the QR code to a page of our webpage (www.example.com/facebook), and redirect that page (301 redirect) to our www.facebook.com/ourwebsite. That way I thought I could get the analytics while still doing something useful with the QR code (send to our Facebook page in case the user is in a mood for a "like").

But it seems like GA discards pages that are redirected? I read that if the redirect doesn't happen on the same domain, GA won't count it (but I would think that maybe a 301 redirect wouldn't be seen the same way?).

Is there a way to have GA while linking to a Facebook page if my solution is not the proper way to have GA capture data?

I read elsewhere something similar for emails and it said that in emails, redirects outside of the domain would be viewed as spam by the spam filter. But we use QR code, so it really is a matter of scanning it with a phone.

Answer 1

I suggest two solution for you. First one is best, second one is good.

1. Use Google Tag manager : With Google event tracking, you will be able to track that kind of data easily. If you did not know anything about Google tag manager, so here is good channel, that I found in YouTube.

2. Use meta refresh tag: Normally GA track visitors data, once browser load any webpage, so here you can use meta refresh tag and set refresh time as 3 or 5 seconds, so within that time, you will be able to track visitor data. It look's like this. Visitor visit your page -> Analytics code run in your webpage(www.example.com/facebook/) -> after 5 seconds, it will be redirect to your facebook page.