About link tracking
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About Link Tracking
Link tracking is a powerful feature within ActiveCampaign that helps users understand how effectively their emails engage contacts. By enabling link tracking, you can see if contacts clicked any links in your campaigns, allowing you to gauge interest and improve your email strategies. This feature is essential for businesses aiming to enhance customer engagement and optimize their campaigns.
How Link Tracking Works
By default, link tracking is enabled for all direct and automated campaigns that include links. Whenever a link is added to your campaign, ActiveCampaign generates a unique tracking link specific to that campaign and each individual contact. When a contact clicks a link, they are redirected to the specified URL, and the click action is logged in ActiveCampaign's system. This information is subsequently reflected in your campaign reports and in each contact's activity stream.
Importantly, note that link tracking cannot monitor clicks associated with email addresses or personalization tags instead of valid URLs.
By utilizing link tracking, you can access vital data in your campaign reports, including:
- Which links were clicked
- The number of times each link was clicked
- Which contacts engaged with specific links
Additionally, link tracking serves dual purposes by allowing you to trigger other actions within your account, such as link actions, automations, segmenting contacts, adding conditional content to campaigns, and updating lead scores.
How to Access Link Tracking
To leverage link tracking features in your ActiveCampaign account, follow these steps:
1. Navigate to the Campaigns section from your ActiveCampaign dashboard. 2. Create a new campaign or edit an existing one. 3. Ensure that you include links in your email, as this feature is only applicable if links are present.
Step-by-Step Instructions
To view the link click data, perform the following steps based on whether you're analyzing direct or automated campaigns:
Locate Link Click Data for Direct Campaigns
1. Click on Reports in the left menu. 2. Select the All Campaigns option on the left side of the screen. 3. Click the name of the respective campaign. 4. Click on the Clicks option located in the Summary box.
Locate Link Click Data for Automated Campaigns
1. Click on Reports in the left menu. 2. Select the Automation Reports option on the left side of the screen. 3. Click on All Automations. 4. Find the desired automation and click the ellipsis under the automation name. 5. A modal window will appear; click the Automation Overview option. 6. Scroll down to the Campaign Metrics table; click the ellipsis under the campaign's name and select the Campaign Overview option. 7. Click the Clicks option located in the Summary box.
Configuration Options and Settings
Link tracking offers various settings that can be customized based on your campaign requirements:
- **Link Tracking**: This feature is enabled by default, ensuring that all links you include in your email are monitored for clicks.
- **Website Tracking**: If using the Site Tracking feature, a parameter is added to your links to identify which contacts clicked your campaign link. This keeps your tracking compliant with browser data collection regulations. You can manually adjust these settings as needed.
- **Custom Domain Tracking**: If you utilize a custom domain name (CNAME) with link tracking enabled, links will redirect through one of ActiveCampaign's domains while still masking your custom CNAME.
Options to Modify Link Tracking
1. **Manually turn off link tracking** for each email under the Campaign Summary page in the Options section. 2. **Untick the Site Tracking box** for the whitelisted URL, accessible under the Settings > Tracking page in your account.
Best Practices and Tips
- Ensure you are using distinct URLs for any links in your campaigns. Unique URLs help to properly segment tracking data for detailed reports.
- Try to avoid sending plain text emails if you need trackable links. This is due to issues with hyperlink recognition across different email clients, which may result in untracked clicks.
- Use templates from the template library when necessary, then simply delete image blocks for tracking in text-only emails.
- Regularly review the Clicks report to gain insights into which contacts are most engaged and tailor your future campaigns accordingly.
Troubleshooting
Should you encounter issues with link tracking, consider the following troubleshooting tips:
- Verify that links in your email are correctly formatted and not replaced with email addresses or personalization tags.
- Check your settings to ensure that link tracking and/or site tracking are enabled for your campaigns.
- Use the Reports section to ensure you’re looking in the correct modules for your data.
FAQ
Q1: Can I track link clicks in plain text emails? A1: Yes, while it is possible, it is not recommended due to the difficulty in hyperlinking URLs correctly.
Q2: Will link clicks be tracked if a contact has images disabled? A2: Yes, link clicks will still be tracked as well as counted as campaign opens.
Q3: How do I view link click performance? A3: Link click performance is found under the Clicks report section in your campaign analytics.
Q4: Does link tracking work with custom domains? A4: Yes, if you have link tracking enabled with a custom domain, your links will still redirect using ActiveCampaign's tracking domains, while showing your custom domain.
Q5: Can I turn off link tracking for a specific campaign? A5: Yes, you can disable link tracking from the Campaign Summary page under the Options section for each campaign.
Q6: What data is included in the Clicks report? A6: The report includes unique clicks, total link clicks, unique link clicks per link, contacts who did not click any links, and the average recipients per link click.
Q7: What happens if I don’t use unique URLs for link tracking? A7: Tracking may not function correctly, as it relies on unique URLs to differentiate between different links in a campaign.
With this comprehensive understanding of link tracking, you can effectively leverage the feature to enhance your email marketing efforts within ActiveCampaign. ```