Tracking how and if customers engage with your content is important as it helps you to understand what’s working and what isn’t. An actionable metric is one that ties specific and repeatable actions to observed results. This data can help you make better marketing decisions.
Google Analytics
To run an effective digital marketing campaign, it is essential to be able to monitor how well the campaign is doing. You can do this using tracking tools.
The most well known data tracker is Google Analytics. Webmasters can track how their website and content is performing by placing tracking code from Google into the pages of their websites. Tracking data from Google Analytics include bounce rate, how long the person spent on a page and whether they are a new or returning visitor amongst other things.
This data on its own doesn’t mean anything. Drilling down to where a visitor came from, what search terms were used and the bounce rate, could help to determine whether they found that page useful or not.
Individual page views are an important metric. It can help to decide which pages to keep, delete and improve on when auditing content on your website. If a page has never been visited, you should look at the content and whether the page was easy to find before making a decision to consolidate the content with something else and delete the page.
Pageviews and bounce rates are important to know when implementing a marketing campaign. If your call to action is to visit a specific page and the page views are low, it could mean your content marketing isn’t effective.
How tracking tools work
Tracking tools are made up of various technologies such as javascript, pixel tracking and cookies.
Cookies
Most tracking tools such as Google Analytics uses cookies to track data. A cookie is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored on the user’s computer by the user’s web browser while the user is browsing.
Prior to the EU Cookie Law, many people were not aware of cookies. The law requires that websites get consent from visitors to store a cookie on their computer. The law was designed to protect online privacy, by making consumers aware of how information about them is collected and used online, and giving them a choice to allow it or not. This is why many websites with customers in the EU have a cookie consent popup message.
Pixel tracking
Pixel tracking works in the same way as a cookie. Whenever someone visits a site, a tracking pixel is downloaded onto the user’s computer. Facebook uses pixel tracking that enables marketers to access audience insights, run dynamic product ads and measure cross-device conversions.
Tracking tools can also be used to track how many people receive, open and click links in your emails.
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