{"id":24797,"date":"2019-12-18T12:02:08","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T19:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/?p=24797"},"modified":"2022-01-17T09:06:53","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T16:06:53","slug":"campaign-url-builder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/campaign-url-builder\/","title":{"rendered":"The Campaign URL Builder: The Growth Hacker&#8217;s Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>You can\u2019t growth hack if you can\u2019t track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Campaigns cost time and money, and ineffective campaigns are a waste of both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Building a campaign URL to track engagement on Google Analytics is an essential part of growth hacking because it enables marketers to determine the success of any campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this guide, we\u2019ll give you a step-by-step guide to building a campaign URL to checking performance on the Analytics platform.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ub-table-of-contents-block ub_table-of-contents\" data-showtext=\"show\" data-hidetext=\"hide\" data-scrolltype=\"auto\" id=\"ub_table-of-contents-14ad3057-aa51-484d-b0ba-a70933d02793\" data-initiallyhideonmobile=\"false\"\n                    data-initiallyshow=\"true\"><div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-header-container\"><div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-header\">\n                    <div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-title\">Table of Contents<\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-extra-container\"><div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-container ub_table-of-contents-1-column \"><ul><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/campaign-url-builder\/#0-why-tracking-is-essential-to-hacking>Why Tracking is Essential to Hacking<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/campaign-url-builder\/#1-what-is-the-campaign-url-builder>What is the Campaign URL Builder<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/campaign-url-builder\/#2-creating-a-campaign-url>Creating a Campaign URL<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/campaign-url-builder\/#3-shortening-the-campaign-url>Shortening the campaign URL<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/campaign-url-builder\/#4-alternatives-to-google-analytics-demos-amp-tools>Alternatives to Google Analytics Demos &amp; Tools<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/campaign-url-builder\/#5-accessing-custom-campaigns-on-google-analytics>Accessing Custom Campaigns on Google Analytics<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/campaign-url-builder\/#6-analyzing-the-data>Analyzing the Data<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https:\/\/bamf.com\/campaign-url-builder\/#7-takeaways>Takeaways<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"0-why-tracking-is-essential-to-hacking\">Why Tracking is Essential to Hacking<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Proper campaign tracking enables growth hackers to have a proper feedback system for the material that they put online. It allows teams to discover which campaigns work and which don\u2019t, enabling them to reallocate resources effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s what.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unless you create custom tracking URLs, Google Analytics is going to combine all these statistics into the direct traffic category on its platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re trying to measure the best medium to put your campaign in or the best type of copy that\u2019s working well for your conversions, then assigning different campaign URLs is the only way to go for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can even track the performance of multiple links in an email by building campaign URLs. This allows you to properly tweak even individual elements on a piece of media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Read More: <a href=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/emails-facebook-friends\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">How To Extract the Emails of Your Competitors<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Running an ad campaign, allowing a non-performing post to stay on your profile, or keeping a non-converting landing page is costly to your marketing budget. It does nothing to bring in sales, nor does it resonate with your audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can track a lot of things using Google Analytics and its campaign URL builder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Landing pages<\/li><li>Blog pages<\/li><li>Any other web properties<\/li><li>Different types of links on an email \u2013 if they are linking to a website that you are actively managing.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A\/B tests or split-testing is also dependent on proper tracking to determine which of two \u2013 or more \u2013 pieces of content are getting more traction. For many growth hackers, it\u2019s an opportunity to tweak and\/or remove campaigns in real-time. This ability has led to more marketing campaigns being leaner, flexible, and efficient in their use of resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"1-what-is-the-campaign-url-builder\">What is the Campaign URL Builder<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Campaign URL Builder allows you to build custom URLs for all of your marketing campaigns. It attaches UTM parameters to the end of your URLs so that you can track them using the Google Analytics platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This means that every time a user clicks on the custom URL, you can automatically track their interaction and engagement with it, just as you would track a normal page on Google Analytics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can check out important details such as where the traffic is coming from i.e., social, organic, direct, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Understanding the data being generated every time someone clicks on your custom URL does require a short background in Google Analytics, but given Google Analytics has a friendly GUI, you can easily grab the statistics that you need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/1-The-Campaign-URL-Builder-The-Growth-Hackers-Guide.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25165\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Google also provides two other types of campaign URL builders. They have one for apps on the Google Play Store and a separate one for the Apple App Store. These two require using their two other URL builders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This option is pretty neat if you\u2019re also tracking marketing being done on your apps, either on iOS or Android.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2-creating-a-campaign-url\">Creating a Campaign URL<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>So say you have a swanky new landing page that you want to market using your organization\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/emails-facebook-friends\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook fan page<\/a>, you can easily track how much time people are spending on it by following these quick and easy steps.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Make your way to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ga-dev-tools.appspot.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google Analytics Demos &amp; Tools dashboard<\/a>&nbsp;and choose&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ga-dev-tools.appspot.com\/campaign-url-builder\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Campaign URL Builder<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2-The-Campaign-URL-Builder-The-Growth-Hackers-Guide.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25168\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>It will now take you to a page where you can create your custom URL by filling out four required and two optional fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Website URL \u2013 this is the website URL that you will be using.<\/li><li>Campaign Source \u2013 the campaign source identifies what is sending traffic to the web property, e.g., Google. It\u2019s considered to be the referrer.<\/li><li>Campaign Medium \u2013 is the medium on which the media is on, e.g., banner.<\/li><li>Campaign Name \u2013 the name that you have assigned to the campaign.<\/li><li>Campaign Term (Optional Field) \u2013 this is useful if you\u2019re using paid keywords; it keeps track of what keywords each campaign is tracking. However, you don\u2019t necessarily have to fill this up if you\u2019re not too iffy about it.<\/li><li>Campaign Content (Optional Field) \u2013 this is used to identify similar pieces of content and links in a campaign that you want to track. If you\u2019re doing split testing, this is a quick way to determine which link you\u2019re trying to track. Two different links or elements can be differentiated once you fill this field out.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/3-The-Campaign-URL-Builder-The-Growth-Hackers-Guide.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25169\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you fill out these fields, the application will automatically general the custom URL that you can use, and you can now start tracking!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As usual, there are important notes to consider:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>You can manually set up a tracking link, just put in the parameters after a question mark after the website URL.<\/li><li>These parameters are case sensitive, so if you\u2019re going to go about this manually, make sure you\u2019re typing the URL tracking parameters right, or the link won\u2019t work properly. If you change the case on just one letter, it will mean something else entirely. To make things easier, when in doubt, you should always use lowercase characters.<\/li><li>You don\u2019t have to fill out the optional fields, and there\u2019s a reason why they are optional. Even Google\u2019s own documentation advises against filling stuff up for the sake of filling out fields.<\/li><li>If you are using Google Ads, there is no need for you to tag if you have the auto-tagging option enabled. However, running paid ads on other search engines that are not Google will require that you tag the URLs.<\/li><li>CPC is just for CPC, don\u2019t use for anything else, or you run the risk of skewing your data.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"3-shortening-the-campaign-url\">Shortening the campaign URL<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There is an option to convert the URL to a short link \u2013 we suggest that you do that, but this will require authorization from your end, so go ahead and click on that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Growth hackers love short links because they are easier on the eyes and don\u2019t look as apprehensive as longer URLs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/4-The-Campaign-URL-Builder-The-Growth-Hackers-Guide-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25170\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re into other URL shorteners such as bit.ly, you can use those as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can now use your shortened campaign URL and track statistics from your Google Analytics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"4-alternatives-to-google-analytics-demos-amp-tools\">Alternatives to Google Analytics Demos &amp; Tools<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There are other analytics platforms that you can use to build custom tracking URLs, and you can even log into these ones in order to find out how many clicks your URL is doing \u2013 just like bit.ly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They come from a variety of providers, and you can use them, too. For this guide, we\u2019re using Google Analytics because it is the standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, there\u2019s more you can do with third-party tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are also handy&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/chrome-extensions-growth-hackers-2018\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">extensions<\/a>&nbsp;that you can use to create custom campaign URLs right from the comfort of the page of your website that you\u2019re on. These are helpful if you suddenly feel the urge to start tracking a particular page or if you want a quicker way to create a campaign URL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"5-accessing-custom-campaigns-on-google-analytics\">Accessing Custom Campaigns on Google Analytics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/5-The-Campaign-URL-Builder-The-Growth-Hackers-Guide.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25174\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Access your Google Analytics account and make your way to the type of view \u2013 usually \u201cAll Website Data.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/6-The-Campaign-URL-Builder-The-Growth-Hackers-Guide.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25173\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On the left-hand side under \u201cReports,\u201d click on \u201cAcquisition\u201d and then \u201cCampaigns.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019ll find all of your custom campaigns and their customized URLs here. Just go ahead and click on any one of the campaigns that you have decided to track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is where the fun analytical part starts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Read More: <a href=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/linkedin-growth-hacks\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LinkedIn Growth Hacks<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"6-analyzing-the-data\">Analyzing the Data<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/7-The-Campaign-URL-Builder-The-Growth-Hackers-Guide.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25172\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you\u2019re got the tracking parameters in, you can start analyzing the data that you have. The first step to data analysis is to set a specific time parameter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are different data ranges that you can use, and you can even use those ranges to compare your data with different time periods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This means that you can even check out a long-term experiment or A\/B test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A marketer can easily check out statistics on specific campaigns such as the number of new users, bounce rates, session durations, and if you have goals in place, you can check out how far you\u2019ve gone in achieving those goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>New users \u2013 are a measure of how many new eyeballs (or IPs) are checking out your link.<\/li><li>Bounce rates \u2013 are an indicator of how effective your page is at keeping people on the website. It\u2019s a good measure to check if you\u2019ve created enough buzz on a page to keep people looking around on your website. If they leave the page, that\u2019s considered a bounce.<\/li><li>Session duration \u2013 is one great way to determine if people find your page interesting enough that they would spend time on it. Say you have two pages that you\u2019re A\/B testing, and one page has a longer session duration, it would make sense that you just focus your links on the page with a longer session duration. If you want to know if you\u2019ve accidentally lead users into a boring landing page, then session duration is your guide.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>However, a growth hacker shouldn\u2019t get too bogged down with just one particular statistic because it is the combination of all of these statistics that determines the success or failure of a campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You still need a firm background in Google Analytics to make the most of the data that you are generating with the custom campaign URL builder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are also options for you to export the data that you have on the campaign or share it via email to other members of your team. Exporting data allows you to keep records of data and run it through different statistical treatments on your worksheets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This makes split testing so much easier and allows any marketer to be more flexible in switching out campaigns and tactics as the engagement data pours into Google Analytics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You should always check the data that you regularly have to ensure that your goals are on track. Set specific intervals for you to check on your data, especially if you are running split tests on multiple campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For campaigns that require you to be more agile with your actions, it\u2019s advised that you check more frequently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s why it helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you find out a campaign is not working properly, you can easily get rid of it and assign the resources to another one. If you\u2019re running an experiment, you can also use this time to tweak it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also determine customer behaviors from the way they interact with the landing page that you are tracking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"7-takeaways\">Takeaways<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There is no substitute for tracking your campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You may be able to gather some data on Google Analytics, but it won\u2019t be as accurate as of the data you\u2019d get if you\u2019d spent some time creating a custom URL. Custom URLs allow you to track links on your website, no matter what medium you put them on. It allows you to be more flexible with the way you monitor your campaigns, and this is great if you want to make sure that you are doing the right thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Growth hackers depend on proper monitoring and tracking systems to test the effectiveness of their campaigns. It allows us to learn about customer behavior and helps us quickly deploy fixes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This saves us a lot of time, money, and effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The best campaigns are built with a little creativity and a lot of tweaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you haven\u2019t started using custom campaign URLs to track your campaigns yet, then you\u2019re missing out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Read More: <a href=\"http:\/\/bamf.lovelacecreative.co\/5-tools-every-growth-hacker-should-use\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">5 Tools a Growth Marketer Should Use<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learn how to easily track the success of your campaigns using the Campaign URL builder &#038; how to use the Campaign URL builder &#038; analyze data effectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":25163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ub_ctt_via":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[112,3386,3258,589,268],"tags":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/4-The-Campaign-URL-Builder-The-Growth-Hackers-Guide.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Houston","author_link":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/author\/houston\/"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24797"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bamf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}