I'd like to track how many people hit my website that might be logged into LinkedIn. Depending on the results, I might add an interactive LinkedIn section using their API.
I already have the Javascript logic to detect if they're logged in. My question is what is the best approach to log this result? Can Google Analytics do it with a custom variable or event detection?
I'd love to report on something like, "10,000 visits to my website, of which X number of visitors were logged into LinkedIn".
Any help would be appreciated!
I believe Google Analytics Custom Tracking Variables would do the trick. Something along the lines of:
_gaq.push(['_setCustomVar',
1, // variable slot
'LinkedInUser', // variable
'true', // value
1 // variable scope, 1=visitor
]);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
For custom variables (not that is this is a user-triggered event after the initial GA page load logic, a call to _trackPageview is needed to push the data back to GA), or:
_gaq.push(['_trackEvent',
'PageView',
'LinkedIn'
]);
For custom events. Just pop something similar to that into your JS routine that checks for authed LinkedIn users.
Related
I want to get the usage data of my customer out of google analytics, to make some usability analysis with it. For this, I need something that I can determine, which event was done by which user. Is there a possibility in a google analytics api to get this two parts linked?
You could add a user ID as a custom dimension, you'd probably want to set the scope to user.
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2709828?hl=en
This would allow you to connect up which users performed which actions.
Of course you can! :) I have used it in a lot of projects.
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/sending-hits
Example:
ga('send', {
hitType: 'event',
eventCategory: 'Video',
eventAction: 'play',
eventLabel: 'cats.mp4'
});
Since clientId has been made available through the API as ga:clientId you can use this value.
I would recommend using a custom User Id though - setting you own generated User Id in the script using the Universal Analytics User ID feature and in your backend db.
Also add the id to any link you send to your clients via email/sms/etc. that lands on your homepage to follow up on marketing performance.
You would need to have some javascript that grab the id and set it on the pageview. (like Linker, but adjusted for user id)
Note to anyone using the Universal Analytics User ID feature The values returned in ga:clientId is actually the userId Even more interessting. (As of time of writing) GA fails if you request clientId from a User ID view. So you should use a non-User ID view to get the User ID. :)
Let's say I have a site and the user comes into it with a parameter:
http://example.com&url=blahblahblah
How do I go about passing along the url value from the parameter into Google Analytics?
1) User comes to the page with a url in the params
2) User clicks a download link with a ga tracking code attached to it which was generated from ga account like this:
http://example.com/download/param1=dkljdf&_ga=1.149898996.39207121.1424368466
You have to create a custom Dimension and a metric for that.
About custom Dimensions and metrics:
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/platform/customdimsmets
After you have created a Dimension, you can add metrics to it by view, in example.
Follow the steps here for Universal Analytics:
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/custom-dims-mets
Note that due to not have 10 point of reputation, I wrote the a "_" in http like "ht_tp"
BUT:
I think what you want to know is the number os visitors that clicks a download link in your site that comes from, lets say "blahblahblah" as web origin or other methods.
For that, you have the param utm_source that you can receive directly in the url.
So instead of ht_tp://example.com&url=origin you should receive ht_tp://example.com&utm_source=origin
In this way, you have no care about it. Analytics is going to take care for you so you can get a report of clicks by source.
Or, just use the referer in case all the incoming visitors are from webs:
ga('set', 'referrer', 'ht_tp://example.com');
And a final option, to use Events:
_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'ReferencedVisitors', jsVarWhereYouHaveTheOrigin]);
I have a web app. The home page has two main actions:
Sign up to the application
Log into the application
I have a goal set up for sign-ups. I am trying to track the goal conversion rate of users who have never logged into the application before.
The problem I have at the moment is that the conversion rate is being skewed by users who are visiting the homepage simply to log in.
Is there a simple way of doing this?
Thanks very much,
Ben
For the kind of tracking you are looking for, there should be some coding on both your system and Google Analytics.
First, I would recommend you place into your system the intelligence to know the number of log-ins the user has made (As an example, a counter on your database).
Now, to implement that, you will need to set a Custom Var in Google Analytics in a visit level, to segment the users from the non-users, in that CustomVar, you can store both the user ID and the number of logins he has made.
This is the on the login page:
Your Code Should Look Like:
_gaq.push(['_setCustomVar',
1,
'Member Login',
'NUMBER OF LOGINS', // SET THIS FROM YOUR SYSTEM
2 //VISIT LEVEL Custom Var
]);
Remember that this code should go before tracking the pageview.
After setting this up, you should use Advanced Segments to check those specific users, one case could be: (Using the example above)
Setup an Advanced Segment that "Excludes" the Custom Variable (Key 1) - Mathing RegExp : .*
This will give you all the never-loged user access.
Something else you could do is set up Adv Segments to check on a specific number of logins
Setup an Advanced Segment that "Excludes" the Custom Variable (Key 1) - Mathing RegExp : [^1]
This will give you all the users that loged-in more than once.
You can find more info on Custom Vars here.
our marketing consultant has asked me to help with configuring google analytics to setup Goal Tracking for User Signups... from what I've read this is accomplished by assigning the URL of the page the user is directed to after a successful signup to the Goal you are trying to track.
but what if the URL your user is directed to is a URL they regularly visit? e.g. after signing up they are directed to their profile page - which is the same page they visit every time they login. is there some way to configure a referer to go with the goal URL so that it is the pair of them that define the goal? e.g. user visits /profile and is referred by /signup.
further complication: what if after signup the user is directed to a different page depending on the user type? it would be nice to configure a single Goal with multiple URLs (but still using the referer restriction described above).
an alternative would be to use an event... if the server creates a user then it could signal the view to output the javascript code that generates the appropriate event.
or... is there a way for server-side code to send events to google analytics? is there an api?
If your users are directed to is a URL they regularly visit you can make a conditional statement for the goal occasion with a virtual pageview, have a look at this: http://services.google.com/analytics/breeze/en/et_vps/index.html
If after signup the user is directed to a different page depending on the user type, you can use regular expressions to set goal URL pattern, like this ^user./login./(type1|type2|type3)/$, look here for more info: http://services.google.com/analytics/breeze/en/regex_ga/index.html
I came across this question in google and believe I found a more appropriate answer.
Google Analytics now provide a service called Analytics Measurement Protocol.
This will allow you to send server-side requests to track your users activities in your analytics account.
To track a sign up event as mentioned in the question, the best way I can see would be to first create an event based goal in your account with the category set to 'users' and an action as 'sign_up' (you can optionally provide a label and value). Then in your code once a successful sign-up occurs (maybe when a user confirms their activation email link?), send a POST request to www.google-analytics.com/collect with the following payload:
v=1 // Version.
&tid=UA-XXXXX-Y // Tracking ID / Property ID.
&cid=555 // Anonymous Client ID.
&t=event // Event hit type
&ec=user // Event Category. Required.
&ea=sign_up // Event Action. Required.
&el=label // Event label.
&ev=1 // Event value.
A full list of the parameters and their meanings are defined here: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/protocol/v1/parameters
You could use an event that is triggered when the user submits the sign-up form :
onsubmit="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'Category','Action','Label','Value']);"
and use the Category / Action / Label data model in Google Analytics to pass whatever data you need to pass, for example :
onsubmit="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'Sign-up','Premium','6-month',6]);"
You then have to configure this Goal in Google Analytics as an Event, which lets you choose which combination of each of the fields Category / Action / Label / Value you want to use.
Another option, maybe less maintenance-heavy, is to use a query-string to identify people that get back to the Profile page after having just signed up. So instead of sending them back to /user/profile after they sign up, you send them back to /user/profile/?sign-up=true.
You will then be able to track these pages as a URL goal in GA using a Regular expression like :
\?sign-up=true
I wrote a helper function for tracking GA events.
function trackGoogleAnalyticsEvent(category, action, label) {
try {
ga('send', 'event', category, action, label);
} catch (e) {
console.warn('Google analytics error: ' + e);
}
}
Usage:
trackGoogleAnalyticsEvent('Signup', 'Signup Success', 'Facebook');
What method would you use to associate tracking information in Google Analytics with a particular named user?
I want to be able to do custom reports, and ultimately drill down on usage by user.
EDIT
I was thinking that perhaps the EventTracking API would be able to help somehow.
Also, referring to this documentation.
You could add the user's username as a tracking/segmentation) variable...
pageTracker._setVar(username);
You can only use one _setVar per page, though...
http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=57045
http://groups.google.com/group/analytics-help-basics/browse_thread/thread/07e29dc610050971
Since Google Analytics isn't aware of users who are logged into your site you'd have to do that sort of tracking within your site's software itself. If there isn't some sort of plugin or extension out there already you'll probably have to write one yourself that keeps track of what your users do when their logged in.
I think you want Google Analytics - Custom Variables. You can set five variables per page, and there is support for variables you set persisting over session and cookie (aka "visitor") lifetime. Take note of the rules for overwriting previous values based upon slot and scope; the documentation explains this with some examples. You should probably include something in a click-wrapped privacy policy about tracking individual users this way; it's somewhat invasive, depending on the purpose of your website.
_gaq.push(['_setCustomVar',
1, // Slot number: [1-5], inclusive. Required.
'Username', // Custom variable name. Required.
username, // Custom variable value. Required.
2 // Scope:
// 1 = visitor/cookie-level, 2 = session-level, 3 = page-level.
// Optional, default=3.
]);
http://www.highlyrelevant.com/2011/03/25/how-to-add-edit-google-analytics-users-to-your-account/
This post was really helpful for me and my team. Not only does it show how to add users, but it also tells you how to edit existing users that aren't setup correctly.
Thanks!
Phil