Overview of the URL Tracking Tool

EveryoneSocial's URL Tracking Tool enables you to automatically add UTM parameters to your branded shares, making the content trackable for campaigns and web analytics. 

If you're familiar with the basics of web analytics and UTM tracking—adding parameters to a URL to collect visitor analytics—you're already well-acquainted with the concepts we employ inside of EveryoneSocial. 

This article serves as a deeper explanation of the URL Tracking Tool. If you're looking for a guide on how to use the tool,please check out our article on How to Use the URL Tracking Tool.  

Let’s get started!

🔹 This is available on the Teams, Enterprise, and Unlimited plans.

🔸 This feature is accessible to Admin.

URL Tracking Tool overview

EveryoneSocial’s URL Tracking tool works by adding Tracking Keys and Values to the end of a URL with the purpose of gathering data around how and where a link was shared. These Tracking Keys and Values are activated by a Workspace Admin and the data gathered is reviewable within CRMs and analytical tools, such as Google Analytics. Without URL tracking, an analytics tool will only provide general details around a share, such as traffic from "Direct Link" or "Social" referrals.

🔷 Here's an example of a URL Tracking Link, with the URL Tracking components bolded.

https://help.everyonesocial.app/hc/en-us/articles/5593394264471?source=es_share&es_id=7cbd1500c5

  • ? separates the tracked URL from the first Tracking Key.
  • = separates the Tracking Key from the Value.
  • & separates multiple Tracking Keys and Values.

Here is how the tracking breaks down in to Tracking Keys and Values.

  • source=es_share: This is an assigned Static Value to track a share from EveryoneSocial.
  • es_id=7cbd1500c5: This is a default Tracking Key and Value added to every URL Tracking Link. This tracks clicks for shared posts found in Analytics reporting within two reports, Users > External Activity and Shares clicks.

What you'll need

In order to gather the information from the Tracking Keys and Values, you will need to have access to the following. 

  • Owned domain: You must be able to access analytics for the URL being used in the URL Tracking Tool. We recommend Google Analytics.

🔸 You can add URL Tracking for a URL you don't own. This would be beneficial if you have a partnership with another company and want to provide them the ability to track data. They would only need to know the Tracking Key and Value you set to see the data within their analytics tool.

Terms

Here are the terms to know when using the URL Tracking Tool. 

  • Tracking Key: Commonly known as a UTM Parameter. A Tracking Key indicates or defines the following Value tracked. Tracking Keys are flexible, allowing Keys to be created that mirror your established funnels. You are not limited to the legacy UTM naming conventions “utm_source,” “utm_medium,” or “utm_campaign. For example, you could set a Tracking Key "user" to indicate data representing the person sharing content.
  • Value: Values immediately follow a Tracking Key and represent the data tracked. For example, a Tracking Key "user" would need a "user ID" Value to track the person sharing content. There are three Values in EveryoneSocial.
    • Static: A singular and specific word used to track a Value you define.
    • Dynamic: Predefined values in a Workspace to track the user, social network, or post's share ID.
    • Value Options: Similar to the Static Value, this Value type allows an Admin to set multiple Static Values and one Value can be selected from a drop-down during the content curation process. When an admin is curating Workspace content, they can toggle on URL Tracking and select the Value to represent the data. This Value usually represents a content type or campaign name.

There's a healthy amount of thought during the setup process, but once it's set up, URL Tracking is automated. To help get you started, we'll use the following sections to outline use cases and best practices associated with this tool.

Use cases

There are numerous ways you can use URL Tracking Links. We hope this list provides some inspiration.

Static Values

  • Track all traffic for a URL shared from EveryoneSocial.
    • Key = Advocacy_Source
    • Value = EveryoneSocial
  • Track all traffic for a URL created for a specific campaign.
    • Key = Campaign
    • Value = Campaign_Name

Dynamic Values

  • Track shares by specific users, such as a webinar promotion or demo request.
    • Key = UserID
    • Value = User
  • Track networks the link was shared to.
    • Key = Network_SharedTo
    • Value = Social Network
  • Track the Workspace post the link was shared from.
    • Key = Content_ID
    • Value = Share ID

Value Options

  • Track the content type shared from a URL.
    • Key = Content_Type
    • Values = Blog_Post, Press_Release, Webinar, Conference, Downloadable_Resource, Not_Specified
  • Track a campaign name associated with share content.
    • Key = Campaign
    • Values = Campaign names
  • Track content authors' success, such as for blog posts or content curation.
    • Key = Author
    • Values = Author names

Best practices

Having a plan from the onset is incredibly important for better data and consistency. These are some of our favorite practices for the URL Tracking Tool.

Know the existing data your team is tracking. Understanding what your team is already tracking means you can easily correlate data between EveryoneSocial and other platforms. You’ll have synchronous naming conventions and foster cross-team collaboration to spur analysis on content driven by EveryoneSocial.

Use a spreadsheet to keep tabs on published URL Tracking Keys for your data team. This ensures you aren't creating something that already exists, and everyone knows what's at their disposal.

Standardize naming. You can name your Tracking Key and the Value anything you'd like, but these names are sensitive. It's best to have a few guidelines before your team gets started.

  • Be specific with your naming parameters to state what you're tracking and where clearly.
  • Keep Tracking Keys and Values short but descriptive (e.g., “FB” versus "Facebook").
  • Choose a capitalization style, such as lowercase, uppercase, camelcase, etc. Tracking Keys are case-sensitive.

Other considerations

  • If your analytics provider requires "utm_" in the URL before the parameter, you'll include that inside the Tracking Key text box. 
  • All URL Tracking domains are branded content in Analytics. This is irreversible.
  • Redirected URLs won't apply URL Tracking Links because the destination URL changes. Check this site to confirm no redirect exists.
  • Tracking Links will appear only when the tracked URL is shared to social networks. This ensures you receive the most accurate data, and the URL Tracking Link can't be copied early to capture data that isn't attributable to the Values set.
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