I talk to business owners every day who are promoting their business, but can't tell me what's working or not online - does this sound familiar? This doesn't need to be your case! Know which social media post is helping you the most online using this simple trick that professional marketers have been keeping under wraps for years!
It's not about which social post got the most engagement, likes, or views - it's about which social post is driving leads or new customers to your business (meaning, your website!).
Why You Need To Track Campaigns
Before we get into how to do this, let's talk about why.
You know you need to be tracking numbers, but those numbers can be scary ("I'm not seeing amazing numbers, I must suck?!") or confusing ("What does this even mean? Ugh, I don't have time to learn all of this!!") and this creates a barrier to knowing what's going on when it comes to your efforts online (and off).
But tracking what's going on, facing those numbers means that you can put your efforts where they pay off. Maybe you're holding events and want to know whether they are worth your time, the numbers will tell you! Maybe you're posting on Instagram a lot and want to consider hiring someone to help, if you don't know whether Instagram is creating new leads or customers, you can't know if a social media assistant will be beneficial.
Knowing how to track your campaigns (ranging from an everyday post to a product launch) means you can focus your time and efforts - only worrying about actual income-producing activities.
What You Need To Track In Campaigns
This brings us to what exactly you need to track in each of your campaigns (or really, all the work you do regarding your website or online efforts), this is what's actually moving the needle for you!
What I recommend you track is:
- Website Traffic: all the people who have visited your website.
- Website Bounce Rate: the people who visit one page on your site and leave.
- Sessions (By Country): the country majority of your website visitors are coming from.
- Campaign Channels By Visit: how people are reaching your site from your campaigns, through social media posts, ads, referrals, going directly to it or finding it in search results (organic).
- Campaigns By Visit: the campaigns that are bringing people to your site (more on this later in this article!).
- Traffic By Device: whether you mainly have people visiting your site from mobile, tablet, or desktop devices.
- Top Traffic Sources: how people are reaching your site in general.
- Most Read Articles: only applicable if you have a blog, but which blogs are bringing in the most traffic.
- Top Landing Pages: which pages on your website are people are visiting first, "landing" onto your website.
There's even more you can track, but I find this view is best for business owners who are just beginning to dive into their analytics and understand what it's telling them. No more of that intimidation factor or imposter syndrome - you'll be informed.
If you'd like to get all of these things tracked, claim your free Google Analytics account and access this starting template for yourself! Find out more information on Google Analytics and how to get started by
clicking here.
So why track your campaigns? So you don't waste your time! Why make your own orange juice when you have some waiting in the fridge for you? Same with your marketing, don't waste your time!
How To Track What Social Post Is The Best
If you've been reading closely you caught the line, "Campaigns By Visit: the campaigns that are bringing people to your site (more on this later in this article!)." - this is how you're going to track with social posts are proving your business the most value!
What Are UTM Codes?
UTM stands or urchin tracking metrics, but knowing this doesn't clear anything up about what UTM codes do. Google defines UTM tracking, saying, " This tool allows you to easily add campaign parameters to URLs so you can track Custom Campaigns in Google Analytics."
Did that help? No?
No worries! UTM allows you to definitely know how people are reaching your website from your efforts charing your campaigns, your website, even your blog articles online. You can narrow it down the specific post even!
How To Use UTM Codes?
To get started using UTM codes, or "Campaign URL Builder" head
here.
Add in the URL you want people to go to next to "Website URL"
What source you're posting this link on, such as a newsletter/email. Facebook, Instagram, even Business Card (make sure to not include spaces or use dashes to replace spaces) - your "Campaign Source"
Next, add in your "Campaign Medium" (which is optional). This will allow you to differentiate between many different posts on Facebook or like the example below.
Lastly, include your Campaign Name, how you will know the website traffic is attributed to your campaign efforts.
You will see the full URL update as you include more information and be able to copy it or create a "short link" that hides all the extra tracking information added onto your link. Wavoto can help you with this, too! You can create a vanity URL that hides the UTM parameters you've added and creates a cleaner link, something you can use on business cards or Instagram.
In the example below, I create a UTM code for tracking how many people click on the Google Analytics article link, used earlier in this article. I put in the article link, made "blog" the campaign source, "UTM-article" the campaign medium (so I can know people are viewing the Google Analytics article from this one), and the general campaign name of "blog" (which is what I use when sharing blog articles anywhere).
After you've used UTM codes and are ready to track your campaigns, just head to Google Analytics and look under "Aquisition" and then "Campaigns" - you'll see where your traffic is from and, most importantly, know what social posts, emails, or any link you share is bringing the most traffic and conversions to your business!
Using UTMs will take a minute more of your time, but save you effort in the long term trying to understand which of your campaign efforts is actually working!
What do you use to promote your campaigns? Are you going to start tracking your efforts? Let me know in the comments below!
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