Digital Analytics Campaign Tracking Codes Part 1: Landing the right Campaign Tracking Code Structure
This is part one of a two-part series on Digital Analytics Campaign Tracking Codes. Through this series we will explore tracking code structures, how to keep the proper governance once created, and explore tools to make tracking codes easier to maintain and scale.
Let me guess, the tracking codes you use to measure marketing channels have two to ten different structures based on legacy & new platforms, dependent on an antiquated Excel with 20 + tabs, and you spend your Monday morning digging into your measurement platform trying to figure out what tracking code matches up to a media report you have due in two hours.
As a digital analytics consultancy we get a chance to see all kinds of tracking code structures and taxonomy. If you are feeling down about your tracking code structure or your process is broken, this series goes through the Softcrylic approach to campaign tracking codes.
What we see….
Most tracking codes we encounter with clients are structured based on what the business can get out of the platform.
This is a classic example of letting the platform drive the requirements and if your company has ONE platform, you are a unicorn. Most companies we work with have upwards of 5 + platforms that support tracking codes, some examples of those are:
Take the strategic approach
Softcrylic’s mindset is a little different as we are a platform agnostic consultancy and we do not like to build requirements with the various platforms in mind. “Let the business drive the requirements”; I know, I know you probably hear this after every Digital Analytics conference you have attended or on every Digital Analytics blog, however that could not be truer when it comes to tracking codes. Yes, you always must think with the platforms in mind; their capabilities, data availability, and product functionality, but do not let them impact the requirements. Start with a simple framework –
Of course the structures and values within the above framework will not support every business, but this framework will get you started in the right direction. Some good things to think about when creating the structure –
- Keep the tracking codes short and concise.
- Native integrations for Adobe Analytics (Data Connectors) and Google Analytics (Data Import) are offered for multiple third party platforms. When determining if native integration is right for your measurement platform, just remember most native integrations leverage a singular ID that will map your campaign tracking code structure, the same way that you would create your own singular ID with mapping table; an example is the Google’s glcid.
- Remember; just don’t start adding data values unless there is business value in tracking it.
- Make sure the tracking codes are granular enough to support the level of reporting needed, but as well, able to aggregate at a higher level of reporting if needed.
- Make sure tracking codes are set to lowercase to avoid any case sensitivity issues.
- If leveraging third party dynamic values; i.e. DCM Macros, DOCUMENT the values.
- Do not over-engineer the tracking codes; it will cause you more problems in the long run.
Now what?
Now that you have created a consistent tracking code structure you need to be able to report, analyze, and maintain proper governance of them within your Measurement Platforms. In Part 2 of this series we will review proper techniques to keep the tracking codes clean and actionable.
