If visitors are led to the website via a link or an advertisement, etracker Analytics automatically records the referrer domain including information in UTM or etracker link parameters. In this way, any campaigns from all systems can be measured.
What are UTM parameters?
UTM parameters are special variables that are added to the URLs of the campaigns in order to be able to evaluate them in detail. UTM stands for “Urchin Tracking Modules”. The web analysis software Urchin was bought by Google in 2005 and is the predecessor of Google Analytics.
The UTM parameters are also recorded by etracker Analytics as standard and attributed to the etracker campaign attributes. Existing campaigns with UTM parameters do not need to be changed and campaign links can be created as usual.
Further information on UTM parameter attribution can be found here.
What are etracker link parameters?
etracker link parameters can be used to transfer campaign information as an alternative or supplement to UTM parameters. These are also “name-value” pairs with predefined or self-configured attribute names (or campaign segments).
How do I use etracker link parameters?
While a maximum of five UTM parameters are available, etracker link parameters can be used to transfer up to fifteen dimensions and thus evaluate campaigns very granularly. The etracker link parameters are divided into two necessary parameters (mandatory attributes) and thirteen optional parameters.
Necessary parameters
The attributes listed in the table are required by default for measuring external campaigns (mandatory attributes).
| Attribut | Parameter (Attribut-Name) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Medium | etcc_med | Category of the source. The media "SEO" for recognised search engines, "Social Media" for recognised social media, "Link/Referrer" for other sources of origin and "Type-In" for entries without referrers or parameters (including direct entries) are assigned by default. |
| Campaign | etcc_cmp | Name of the campaign or advertising measure. |
Optional Parameters
The attributes listed in the table can be passed in addition to the mandatory attributes.
| Attribut | Parameter (Attribut-Name) | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Partner | etcc_par | |
| Creative | etcc_ctv | |
| Group | etcc_grp | |
| Booked keyword | etcc_bky | |
| Match type | etcc_mty | |
| Booked Device | etcc_bde | |
| Origin | etcc_ori | Overtypes the automatically entered referrer domain. |
| Keyword | etcc_key | Overtype the automatically captured searched keyword, if applicable. Since Google has been encoding its search results page since the end of 2011, the keyword data for organic search results is only rarely transferred. In most cases, the value "not provided" is therefore displayed. |
| Advertiser | et_cmp_seg1 | Name can be adjusted. |
| Agency | et_cmp_seg2 | Name can be adjusted. |
| Target | et_cmp_seg3 | Name can be adjusted. |
| Variant | et_cmp_seg4 | Name can be adjusted. |
| Placement | et_cmp_seg5 | Name can be adjusted. |
Change Attribute Names
The names of the five customisable campaign segments can be changed under Settings → Account → Campaign Segments.
Passing Parameter Values statically or dynamically
The information on the campaign attributes can be passed as static or dynamic values:
Static: The transferred value is permanently stored in the link, e.g. etcc_cmp=brand (campaign name).
Dynamic: The values are automatically added by the advertising platforms using variables, e.g. etcc_bky={keyword}. {keyword} stands for the booked keyword that triggered the ad display.
Unfortunately, marketing platforms do not offer suitable variables for all desired information. Therefore, a mixture of static and dynamic values is often useful.
The link parameters are added to the end of the target URL, separated by a ‘? ‘ The values are assigned to the parameters with an ‘=’. The complete target URL with parameters looks for example like this:
https://www.website.de/landingpage?etcc_med=Newsletter&etcc_cmp=January
However, thanks to the campaign link generator you don’t have to deal with the structure and formatting, but can concentrate entirely on filling in the parameter values.
The etracker Campaign Link Generator
The Campaign Link Generator in the etracker application is particularly recommended for static parameter values. You open it via the Marketing Reports menu by clicking on the magic wand to the right of Campaign.
Note: It is recommended to consider a naming convention for which parameters should be used in which way in advance. To ensure consistency in naming, it is helpful to save the created links in the history.
Using Dynamic Parameters
Click on the magic wand to the right of Paid Media in the Marketing Reports menu to access the recommended parameters for tracking Google Ads, Microsoft Ads as well as Facebook and Instagram Ads.
Detailed instructions for the Google, Microsoft and Facebook ad platforms can be found at the bottom of this article.
Following the same principle, variables from other systems, such as Baidu or Yandex, can also be used for the distribution of online advertising such as Baidu or Yandex. It is important that the allocation is as consistent as possible across all platforms.
| Kampagnen-Segment | etracker Parameter | Google Ads | Facebook/ Instagram Ads | Microsoft Advertising | Baidu Ads | Yandex.Direct |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medium | etcc_med | SEA | Social%20Ads | SEA | SEA | SEA |
| Partner | etcc_par | {{site_source_name}} | Bing | Baidu | Yandex | |
| Kampagne | etcc_cmp | {campaignid} oder manuelle Eingabe | {{campaign.name}} | {Campaign} | Manuelle Eingabe | {campaign_name} |
| Gruppe | etcc_grp | {adgroupid} oder manuelle Eingabe | {{adset.name}} | {AdGroup} | {gbid} | |
| Gebuchtes Keyword | etcc_bky | {keyword} | {keyword:default} | {keywordid} | {keyword} | |
| Matchtype | etcc_mty | {matchtype} | {MatchType} | {match_type} | ||
| Platzierung | etcc_plc | {placement} | {{placement}} | {placement} | {source} | |
| Anzeige | etcc_ctv | {creative} | {{ad.name}} | {AdId} | {creative} | {ad_id} |
| Gebuchtes Device | etcc_bde | {device} | {Device} | {device_type} | ||
| Variante | etcc_var | {gclid} | {msclkid} | |||
| Keyword | etcc_key | {QueryString} | {matched_keyword} |
Analogue to external campaigns, you can also easily measure the success of internal campaigns.