Use Google Analytics To Track Your Email Campaigns

When it comes to digital marketing, there is truly no end to the program options and varieties you can choose from. The types you invest in is typically based on business type and specific growth goals. One undeniably effective digital marketing format is email marketing.

Email marketing is an essential part of any digital marketing strategy. It yields the highest return on investment of any other digital marketing campaign type. When you send out promotional emails, the users receiving them likely already trust the company. Customers and potential customers with a pre-established desire to purchase, engage with, and learn about a company are much closer to completing a conversion than a “cold call” or a first impression.

If you run an email marketing campaign, there may be opportunities left on the table if you are not yet utilizing data from Google Analytics in your campaign strategy. Check out a brief collection of tips on how to use Google Analytics to track your email campaign.  

Always Use UTMs

UTMs, short for Urchin Tracking Modules, are the links that allow tracking of where traffic to the website comes from. They help you identify which emails are generating traffic and helps track the effectiveness of different emails and other digital marketing campaigns.

Using a UTM Builder

Using the UTM builder that Google provides is an effective solution to building trackable links. To use this tool, simply put in your URL, campaign ID, campaign source, campaign medium (email), and campaign name. The tool then generates a UTM for you to use.

Understand Your ESP

Your current Email Service Provider (ESP) may already provide a UTM system that you can utilize or that automatically tracks traffic from your emails. Not every ESP allows for this service, but many do. Check in with your current ESP and ask about the current features. It is vital to understand the offerings and take advantage of all available features.

The Goal of Using UTMs

The goal of using UTMs is to track which email brought in the traffic. This helps so that when you look at your analytics, you can further define which emails are performing the best. Understanding this information is essential to refining your future sends to optimize them for the best possible performance.

Pull Additional Data

Using analytics allows you to pull additional data from your campaign and further analyze the opportunities for improvement and refinement. Analytics allows you to organize your data in a way to pull out insights. You can then use that data in your email marketing strategy.

While it’s not always available to get this level of data from your Email Service Provider, many ESPs do offer this in-depth information. Check with yours and combine that with Google Analytics for the most holistic view of your campaign’s data.

Using your data in this way allows you to filter and see the most productive sends from a conversion perspective. Data helps you answer these types of questions:

• At what time of day do sends perform the best?
• What type of email gets the most opens?
• Are opportunities to reach the full-potential left on the table?

Google Analytics helps you to answer these questions and so many more. These answers are beneficial to fine-tune the emails you send out to optimize them perfectly for your audience.

Build a Data Timeline

Like with any other data-driven approach, not acting on the data every time there is a shift is essential. Wait for data to compile over time to ensure there is enough to justify a change in strategy. Knowing when to act on data findings and when to allow it time to marinate is a finely-tuned skill.

This is an area where having an expert in email marketing really pays off.

Look at Purchase Path and Conversion Path

Through data in Google Analytics, you can follow the purchase and conversion paths and pinpoint not only where that traffic came from, but where it originated. You can see if something started as an impression through a paid search ad and eventually converted through email. You can see how many times a customer opened an email before buying. These are real-time trackable insights about your audience.

The better you understand your audience and their typical conversion path, the better you can cater to it and ensure the messaging is hyper-tailored to their wants and needs.

Comparisons

Instead of looking at your last send versus your current send for comparisons, try looking at a longer lens. Look at year-over-year or even season-over-season to get solid insights on trends in your company and in your industry.

Comparisons are essential as they provide insights on how the campaign is progressing and visually displaying what growth looks like stemming from an email marketing campaign. Comparing data sets is a crucial part of moving your campaign and company forward in sustainable growth.

Email Service Provider Considerations

Even if your ESP provides analytics in a more in-depth capacity, cross referencing with a trustworthy program such as Google Analytics is an important part of running a campaign. There are many ESPs to choose from and many hold similar benefits. Talk with ESPs before deciding on one to ensure they provide all the services you want for your campaign. While Google Analytics is not required for those using ESPs with robust data sets, it is always good to monitor multiple data streams.

How ECG Can Help

Here at ECG, we offer reliable and effective managed email marketing services. What sets us apart is our continued dedication to building relationships and generating results for our clients. We have an experienced team of email marketing professionals ready to set your campaign up for success.

With ECG, you get a dedicated account manager that gets to know you and your business. We strive to help each of our clients build a robust campaign tailored to their target audience and boosts them to reach their goals.

For more information and a free consultation on our email marketing services, contact us today.