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Integrate Google Analytics tracking with Mailchimp

Google Analytics Mailchimp integration

So you use Mailchimp and designed the ideal e-mail campaign? You felt great about the copy and the visuals and pressed SEND. Great! After your e-mail is sent, Mailchimp provides you with reports and who received the email, who opened it and who clicked it. It also has a section about those pesky unsubscribers. But now you’re thinking:

“That’s great but what if I could track the performance of my e-mail campaigns based on what my subscribers do once they reach my site?”

– every e-mail marketer ever

In this post, I will show you how to integrate Google Analytics tracking with Mailchimp and how to track e-mail performance, with the help of Google Tag Manager.

Ready? Let’s get started!

Integrate Google Analytics tracking with Mailchimp

Content groups in Google Analytics

If there is an unsung hero in Google Analytics, it is definitely something called content groups (or content grouping). Never heard of it? It is hiding in plain sight, in your Google Analytics view settings, and can be set up in a couple of clicks. Once content groupings are set up, you will always want to use them 🙂

Ready? Get some coffee, snacks, and let’s go build some content groups.

Content groups in Google Analytics

Creating page-count-based triggers in Google Tag Manager

Nothing is more annoying than visiting a website and getting spammed by pop-ups, right? I’m pretty sure your users resent that too so if you’re a digital marketer, you are not always in control of how some partner tags get fired. What if you could set up engagement-based triggers to add another layer of control? What if you could control tags based on page count?

In today’s post we’ll be looking at how to set this up with Google Tag Manager by using a simple rule to store and increment the number of page views in a cookie. Then we’ll build a trigger that fires tags after a set number of pages have been viewed.

Ready? Let’s go 🙂

Creating page-count-based triggers in Google Tag Manager

Debugging Google Tag Manager remotely

So your website is equipped with Google Tag Manager (good).
But your webmaster/IT contact is AWOL/bankrupt/defunct (bad).
On top of that, let’s assume that you’re trying to debug something complex such as an e-commerce transaction but you have no way to place test orders to perform basic debugging.
Long story short: debugging Google Tag Manager can prove tricky! But fear not, here is one reliable method you can use!

Debugging Google Tag Manager remotely

Google Universal Analytics Cheat Sheet – Measurement Protocol Parameters

Google Universal Analytics Cheat SheetHere is a Google Universal Analytics Cheat Sheet to help you make sure you use the right parameters to track data on your websites and mobiles apps!

Working on Hub’Scan means I need to master every single aspect of Google Universal Analytics data collection. This means I get to maintain an accurate, updated list of parameters for the 500+ tags in the Hub’Scan library.
Don’t get me wrong, there are Google Universal Analytics cheat sheets out there but they are not complete and the official Google reference does not provide a list of all parameters.

 

Google Universal Analytics Cheat Sheet – Measurement Protocol Parameters

Should you switch to Google Analytics’ Global Site Tag?

2020 October UPDATE: With the release of Google Analytics 4 (App+Web/Firebase), the old tracking code (analytics.js) is no longer supported, only GA4 and gtag.js are supported going forward.

2019 September UPDATE: In September of 2018, Apple rolled out its Intelligent Tracking Protection (ITP) 2.0 program. When ITP is activated, third-party cookies can only track a user’s activity across sites for 24 hours from the exact moment a user visits a website. After this 24-hour window, these third-party cookies are only able to “remember” a user’s login information. With ITP, all third-party cookies are gone after thirty days.[link]

Recommendation

Use Google Analytics tracking via GTM in order to avoid any code conflict and use a conversion linker

In August 2017, Google announced the Google Universal Analytics Global Site Tag.

The announcement triggered a few discussions on Twitter, with digital marketers and IT folks worldwide asking: “is it time to upgrade already?”

This post explains what is at stake with the Global Site Tag and why you should switch – or not.

Should you switch to Google Analytics’ Global Site Tag?