Using Google Analytics to Track Email Marketing

Google Analytics is power and free tool that you can use to track your email marketing efforts. Google Analytics gives you the details that help you better understand more about the subscribers that you send messages to, and how they react when they receive the message.

How Google Analytics Works for Email Marketing

Tagging the links in your email marketing messages is the first step that must be made to receive relevant data concerning your email marketing campaign. Tags are additional information that is added to the links that you create. Tagged links will allow you to appraise the performance of different links that are contained in the email messages that you send. Tagging your links for Google Analytics also allows you to get the most comprehensive statistics about your campaign that are possible.

Tagging your emails is easy with the Google Analytics URL Builder, which generates tagged links for your campaign. The following information can be retrieved by Google Analytics using appropriately tagged links:

Campaign name - the name of the specific email marketing campaign that you want to track.
Campaign source - this can be used to identify the distributor of the campaign for those who use third parties for distribution, or you can use your own company name if launching the campaign yourself.
Campaign medium - this is the method that you will be used for delivery; usually "email".
Campaign content - specify the call to action for the link to determine which is more effective. For example, "30% Off Your Next Order" or "Check Out Our New Products" - might be two separate links within the same email - by tagging each you can see which was more often clicked.
Campaign term - the term is the types of links, such as button, image or text links. By tagging each accordingly, you can determine which is more effective.

Getting Started with Google Analytics

To get started using Google Analytics, you'll visit the Google website and follow the account set-up instructions. Once your account is established, you can begin tagging your links and receive automatic monitoring of your website or landing page traffic. Google Analytics will show you which links were most often clicked by your subscribers, the time that the subscriber visited your page or website, the amount of time the subscriber stayed on the page, and where they navigated to on your site when they landed there. You can also receive data on geographic regions, browser types, and visitor activity. An "e-commerce" tab in Google Analytics allows you to calculate your ROI (return on investment) based on purchases made by your subscribers. This information is valuable to give you an idea of the best way to adjust your campaign strategies and improve your response rates.