This article...
- Offers pre-setup notes about web tracking and the web-tracking codes, and it explains the two "web tracking" access points in Admin.
- Describes how to specify and configure the domains that you want to track.
- Details how to access the set-up instructions and the planning worksheet.
- Describes how to: retrieve your account-specific web-tracking code snippets; embed the code snippets on your site's pages; and execute the code.
- Mentions the two Web Tracking reports that are available.
NOTE: If you haven't already done so, review the information in Web Tracking Overview & Best Practices.
In order to use Web Tracking in your Higher Logic Thrive Marketing Professional (Thrive Marketing Professional) account, some set up is necessary. At a high level, you have to:
- Add the domains that you want to track.
- Access the instructions and worksheet, and plan your web-tracking implementation.
- Retrieve the tracking codes that are unique to your account.
- Embed the tracking codes on the pages (on your website) that you want to track.
- Send an email message that contains a link to one of your tracked pages; this executes the code and initiates web tracking.
Web Tracking notes
You can embed up to three activity-specific code snippets in order to track three types of user activities that occur on your website.
TIP: You do not have to embed code for an activity that you do not want to track or that isn't possible on your website. For example, if your site does not host any type of financial transaction (such as membership renewals and purchases), you don't have to embed the Purchase Tracking code snippet.
Web Tracking in Admin
The bulk of the web-tracking set-up procedure occurs in (or is initiated from) the Admin interface, but there are two "web tracking" access points in Admin:
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Web-tracking codes notes
To use Web Tracking, you must embed the necessary JavaScript codes on your site's pages.
- The required codes are provided by Higher Logic and are available directly from your site.
- The codes are customized to work with your Thrive Marketing Professional account only.
- Embedding the codes will likely require the skills of a web administrator with the appropriate permissions.
1 - Add domains
In order to track user activity on a website, you must "tell" Thrive Marketing Professional which domains you want to track.
Track multiple domains notes
You can track multiple domains, but each domain has to be individually added and configured.
IMPORTANT: If you plan to track multiple domains, it is imperative that you click the View Instructions button for each domain and use the code snippet from the Informz Web Tracking Instructions page for that domain set up only. The code snippets are tailored to the domain based on the View Instructions button that is clicked. Web tracking for a domain will not work if the code snippet for a different domain is embedded on its pages.
To add domains:
- Access the Admin interface and navigate to Settings > Setup > Web Tracking. The Add Domain to Track dialog automatically displays.
NOTE: If a domain has already been configured, this dialog does not automatically display. Instead, click the Add New Domain button to open the dialog and add a domain.
- Complete the fields on the dialog as described in the table below.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Domain Name | Specify only the name of the domain that you want to track. Do not include anything before the domain name. For example, do not include http://, https://, or www. |
| IP Addresses to Ignore | (Optional) Specify any IP addresses that you want to exclude (such as internal addresses). This is recommended for addresses that regularly visit the site and which you might not necessarily want to track because their activity could skew your reporting. |
| Parameters to Retain | (Optional) If navigation within your site occurs by changing a parameter in the URL, specify the parameter here so that web tracking recognizes it as separate web page. |
The following image is an example of how the dialog might be completed:
- Click Add Domain.
The domain is now listed on the Web Tracking Setup page.
NOTE: Not Receiving Data displays until the set-up process for that domain has been completed and the tracking codes have been executed.
Manage your domains
You can click:
- Add New Domain to repeat the steps and add another domain.
- Edit to make changes to any domain that has been added.
- View Instructions to open a new tab that has the set-up instructions and a link to the planning worksheet (refer to the next section).
- Delete to no longer track user activity on a domain; click Delete Domain to confirm.
NOTE: If a domain has been added and user activity from it has been collected, that information remains in Thrive Marketing Professional. The web-tracking data that has been collected is not deleted, even if the domain is deleted from your web-tracking implementation.
Proceed to the next section to continue the set-up process.
2 - Access the instructions and worksheet
The set-up instructions and a planning worksheet, Informz Web Site Interactions Planning Worksheet, are available via a link on the Web Tracking Setup page.
To access the instructions and worksheet:
- Access the Admin interface and navigate to Settings > Setup > Web Tracking.
- On the Web Tracking Setup page, click the View Instructions button to open the Informz Web Tracking Instructions page in a new tab.
- In the Getting Started paragraph, locate and click the linked text, this spreadsheet, to download the spreadsheet.
- Retrieve the spreadsheet (Informz_Website_Tracking_Planner.xlsx) from your browser's download feature and save it to your device.
- Navigate to and open the spreadsheet so that you can customize it for your web tracking.
Using the Interactions Planning Worksheet
The spreadsheet has two tabs, Instructions and Interaction Planner.
You should use the "planner" tab to log, categorize, and organize:
- which pages have user interactions that you want to track,
- what those interactions are, and
- how you want those interactions' activities written to Thrive Marketing Professional.
NOTE: The worksheet is designed and intended for cataloguing your user interactions only. It is not necessary to catalog your purchase items, too.
Higher Logic recommends that you:
- go through each page of your website that has an interaction that you want to track and add it to the worksheet, one row per interaction.
- update the worksheet as your website develops and your interactions change (e.g., new videos, new events, updated forms).
- "regulate" the number of interactions that you track because tracking too many interactions could make the report data unwieldy and difficult to use effectively.
- complete all of the fields in each row.
- maintain separate, dedicated worksheets (add a tab in the footer of the Interaction Planner) for each unique domain that you are tracking.
TIP: Leave the "sample" rows for easy reference; you can delete them when you have finished.
Interactions Planning worksheet fields
The table in this section offers guidance on how to specify the fields of the worksheet.
Categories and Items
As you complete the worksheet, keep in mind that:
- You create your own custom values for Category, Item, and Value based on your interactions and the "logic" that works for your unique account.
- Each combination of Category + Item must be unique, irrespective of what pages the interactions are on.
- Multiple interactions can have the same value for Category; if so, then they must have different values for Item.
- Multiple interactions can have the same value for Item; if so, then they must have different values for Category.
- The reason for the unique values of Category and Item is apparent on the Interactions tab on the Web Tracking Report page, where they display as columns (Category and Action).
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Page URL | The URL of the page that hosts the interaction. |
| Category |
A custom value that classifies
this type of interaction
within
your
organization. NOTE: The only valid characters are letters, numerals, and spaces. |
| Item |
A custom value that classifies this interaction
and makes it
unique
within your organization. NOTE: The only valid characters are letters, numerals, and spaces. NOTE: This field maps to the Action column of the report on the Interactions tab on the Web Tracking Report page. |
| Value (optional) | A custom value that you can specify in order to more easily identify this specific interaction. |
| Interaction Description | A brief description of the interaction. |
| Code | The code snippet that was embedded on the page in order to track the interaction. |
TIP: If you require further assistance when working with the planning sheet, create a case with Higher Logic Support.
Proceed to the next section to continue the set-up process.
3 - Retrieve the tracking code snippets
On the Informz Web Tracking Instructions page, scroll down to the section, The Code!, which displays four "code windows."
- Page Tracking Code is designed for every page that you want to track.
IMPORTANT: This code is unique to your account and designed exclusively for your web-tracking implementation. Do not use it for any other purpose or on any other websites or pages.
- Interaction Tracking Code is designed for every page that has user interactions that you want to track.
- Purchase Tracking Code is designed for every page that has a transaction-based activity that you want to track.
- Example Web Page can be copied and saved as a page on your website; it is designed for testing your web tracking.
Code examples
In addition to the Example Web Page code on the Informz Web Tracking Instructions page, we have included three code examples at the bottom of this article. These are included for you to preview before adding your account-specific code to your account domains.
WARNING: Do NOT use the code examples that are attached to this article! They are examples only! Use only the code that you retrieve from the Informz Web Tracking Instructions page.
Proceed to the next section to continue the set-up process.
4 - Embed the code snippets
On the pages that you want to track activities, embed the respective code snippets.
NOTE: You don't necessarily have to embed all three code snippets on every page of your website. Embed the code for only those activities that you want to track and on only the pages that host an interaction and/or purchase.
- Embed the Page Tracking Code on every page (preferably in the header or the footer) that you want to track.
- Embed the Interaction Tracking Code on every page that has user interactions that you want to track.
- As you navigate your site and embed the code, add a row to the Interactions Planner Worksheet for each tracked interaction.
- Embed the Purchase Tracking Code on every page that has a transaction-based activity that you want to track.
- Call addItem for each purchase item that you want to track.
- Call trackTrans once per page to submit all of the addItem calls to Thrive Marketing Professional.
Proceed to the next section to complete the set-up process.
5 - Execute the code
After the code has been embedded on the pages of your website:
- Create an email message that includes a link to a tracked page with an interaction.
- Send the message to yourself.
- Open the message and click the link to visit the site.
- Perform the interaction.
This will cause the JavaScript to execute for the first time.
NOTE: If the set up has been completed properly, the Web Tracking Setup page updates the Not Receiving Data indicator to Receiving Data for the domain.
TIP: Before you start tracking user visits and activities, consult the example page (created via the Example Web Page code) in your account to a see a working page that you can use as a basis for your own implementation.
Web Tracking reports
After the Web Tracking code has been added to your pages and their user, interaction, and/or purchase activities are being tracked and reported to Thrive Marketing Professional, there are two reports that you can view in order to get different levels of insights into those activities.
- The Web Tracking Report page in Admin provides high-level information about all web-tracking activity in your account.
To learn about this report and its data, see Web Tracking Reports Page in Admin.
- The Web Tracking report on the Details tab of the Mailing Activity Report (MAR) provides a more in-depth look at the activity that resulted from a single message (i.e., recipient activity that resulted from a link being clicked in the selected message).
The "sub-reports" of the Web Tracking report are described in Message-specific Web Tracking reports.
Code examples
Below are three examples of the web-tracking JavaScript code for you to review.
WARNING: Do NOT use these code examples for your web tracking! They are examples only! Use only the code that you retrieve from the Informz Web Tracking Instructions page as described in this article.