In today’s market, getting visitors to the page is only half the battle. You want to make that conversion. You want them to register for that meeting, and when they do, you want to know how they got to it, so you know what works and what to change.
You can easily track these conversion sources by using your MatrixMaxx AMS combined with the power of Google Analytics. What to learn how? Keep reading this article for an example of how we could track individuals registering for a meeting, or you may watch this instructional how-to video.
URL Creation
If you aren’t already doing so, your association must start to use Google Analytics UTM codes in your emails (and create redirects to these URLs for print mailings). These codes allow you to track the success of your website marketing campaigns in Google Analytics, as well as track meeting registration conversions in MatrixMaxx — a two-for-one value!!!
You start this process by creating a special parameterized URL that will contain the critical data you want to track.
NOTE! The codes you use are case-sensitive, so be sure to copy and use the URL, and codes, exactly.
- First, get the URL of the meeting you are publicizing/marketing. In order to track conversions in MatrixMaxx using this generic method, this page must be a MatrixMaxx-generated page. For example, if you are generating your meeting page in your CMS or as a custom-built site, then the only way you can generically track conversions is to send the user directly to the MatrixMaxx-generated registration form. (Matrix can add custom code to your CMS to enable it to function with this tracking; contact Matrix Group to discuss our custom URL Builder.)
- Then access Google’s URL Builder to create the links that you send out with your communications.
- For Campaign Name, you should put in the name of the meeting. For example, “Annual Meeting 2016”. (You will then use this name in MeetingMaxx to connect to this meeting. See below for details. This name MUST match what you put into MatrixMaxx’s Analytics Campaign Code field or your conversions won’t be tracked in MatrixMaxx!)
- Fill in the Medium with the general way you’re reaching your audience, such as “social media,” “email,” or “print”.
- Then, the most important field is the specific Source that narrows the information even further. You can use terms like “Newsletter-April2016, Homepage Branding Area, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Brochure, STD Postcard, CEOLetter-June2016”
Once your parameter data is complete, Google will provide you with a special URL. You should now use this URL in your marketing campaigns.
MeetingMaxx Setup
During meeting setup, put the campaign code you want to use into MatrixMaxx under the field “Analytics Campaign Code,” which is on page 1 of your meeting setup.
(IMPORTANT: This value MUST match what you put into your parameterized URLs or your conversions won’t be tracked in MatrixMaxx!)
Marketing your Meeting
Make sure any communications sent out use these parameterized Google tracking ‘UTM’ links.
When a user clicks on the link, MatrixMaxx sets a cookie in their browser, containing the Campaign and Source information.
Tech Notes:
- The cookie expires after 90 days.
- If a user follows one link but doesn’t register, then a few weeks later follows a second link with the same Campaign name, we’ll overwrite the cookie with the new Source data so that if the user registers this second time, we’ll capture the second source that created the conversion, not the first one that failed to convert.
- If there is no source for the particular campaign for the item that has just been ‘sold,’ but the browser session holds a source, we will use this for the sake of gathering potentially useful data. For example: A user follows a link to the ‘2017 Salary Survey’ product, which sets a cookie with a source of ’email-newsletter-April2017′. The user does NOT buy the product, but they end up linking to the Annual Meeting and registering, we will capture the current browser session source of ‘2017 Salary Survey’ and record that, even if you never mentioned or marketed the annual meeting in the April newsletter, it clearly drove them to your site and influenced their registration.
- By default, this cookie-setting function will only work by sending users to MatrixMaxx-generated WWW pages. However, you may make this function work with other pages (e.g., CMS-generated pages) by using the MatrixMaxx URL Builder. Go to Reports -> Analytics -> MatrixMaxx URL Builder
IMPORTANT! If your association sends out links to this meeting without the UTM codes in place, we can’t set the cookie and thus you can’t track conversions!
Reporting on the Results in MeetingMaxx
So here’s what you’ve been waiting for: How do you see all this great data???
Individual Meeting Registrations
The Google Campaign Source is being saved into the MeetingMaxx’s Marketing Code field.
You can check the Source an individual came from by going into their individual registration.
- MatrixMaxx Intranet -> Meetings tab
- Go to the Meeting and search for registrations from there, or search through all registrations to find the registration you want to view.
- Under Registration Information, you’ll see Marketing Code, which will contain the source this registration came in with, if they had one. Anyone who was registered as part of a group registration will also have the source of the individual who registered them.
Meeting-level Conversion Tracking: The Meeting Summary Report
You can see the breakdown of registrations by Marketing Code by clicking into the meeting you wish to check, then going into the Summary Report under the Reports section. Near the bottom of the page there will be a heading that reads “Meeting Registration Fees, by Marketing Code“. This will break down how much of the total registration fees are coming from various sources.
Reporting on the Results in Google Analytics
You can see the traffic to your meeting page broken down by source by accessing your Analytics and going to Site Content -> All Pages and finding the page you’re linking to. Click on the URL and you’ll be taken to a view for that page only. You can then set the primary or secondary dimension to Source and you’ll have a breakdown of the traffic by the Source you used in your communications.
Note that this works for any page on your site; the source data is kept for a user’s entire session, from when they enter through your link with tracking codes to when their session ends by either leaving your site or closing their browser.