Performance Mode Tracking

Applies to: ONTRAPORT Pro and above.

When you use ONTRAPORT's Marketing Tracking you can identify the source of all your traffic. Performance Mode Tracking overlays those results onto the Campaign Reports to answer questions like "Does Facebook send me more leads than Google Adwords?" or "Did my email campaign sell more coaching appointments than my Twitter ad?". 

ONTRAPORT's Marketing Tracking uses the industry standard UTM parameters you add to the links promoting your opt-in or product. It allows you to use the same page and form for opt-ins or sales, yet know if the contact clicked the link leading to that page from Twitter, your website, an email or Facebook. UTM is also used by Google Analytics, and does not conflict with ONTRAPORT's tracking.

If you are not familiar with UTM tracking see our Marketing Tracker Overview article, and do a web search for for articles on UTM.

Open a published Campaign in Performance Mode and select the Date Range you want to use. Start with the default Contact Flow report as shown here.

Click the Tracking drop down. The tracking defaults are shown making the tracking statement "These are the lead sources which the contact on this map first clicked."

Below that statement are the lead sources. "Facebook" and  "ONTRAPALOOZA" are shown in this image, and we can quickly see that the lead source we identified as "Facebook" added many more new contacts to our Campaign Map. Facebook is far superior for gaining new contacts.

About the Two Drop Down Fields

The drop down where lead sources appears lists all five of the UTM parameters you could use:

• Lead Sources
• Campaigns
• Medium
• Content 
• Terms

The drop down where first appears is the UTM attribution field. Is the UTM link their first real interaction with your company? The first attribution means these are brand new contacts added to your Contacts database when they opted in or purchased using the UTM enabled link.

Existing contacts that click a UTM enabled link and submit a form will be reported using the last category.

Each of the Lead Sources listed under the tracking statement have additional information available. You can click on the links with numbers in them to see just who these new contacts are. ONTRAPORT displays an ad hoc Group of these contacts. Click the browser's back button to return to the Campaign Map.

Selecting one of the lead source items listed turns the background red, and the statistics on the Campaign Map will change to show the Contact Flow report for that lead source. You can select more of the items to show the report for the combination of the lead sources selected. When only one item is shown, hover over the item and a Details link appears. Click the Details link and you can further define how to view the results of your marketing efforts.

The drop down in the "Show campaigns from this lead source" statement allows you to select any of the five UTM parameters. In the image above, the campaigns "LandingPageOptimization" and "HowtoCraftthePerfectEmail" are the best campaigns, making up over 7,000 of the 10,074 clicks, and 241 of the 274 "added to the map" opt-ins.

ONTRAPORT's Marketing Tracking provides a lot of information. It is easy to become overwhelmed with the volume of data and forget why it is provided. Start by using Performance Mode Tracking in two ways, to answer questions you have such as "Is my Facebook advertising doing better than my Google Adwords advertising?" and to prompt you to ask questions you didn't know to ask ("Why are my Twitter Lead Cards not producing a single opt-in?")

As you use tracking and as your statistical data builds, you will discover new ways to analyze exactly what is happening in your business, and where to focus your efforts for the greatest results.

UTM enabled links are a great way to track your marketing efforts. They are in use by the most sophisticated marketing programs, including Google's Analytics program. But they are not infallible. Here are some ways in which the numbers may not seem to add up:

• Deleted Contacts will still be represented in the totals, but will not be on the Campaign Map ("129 people opted in but only 127 are on the map!")
• Contacts may have privacy settings or other anti-cookie measures enabled in their browsers preventing tracking, but the order or opt in form will still add them to the Campaign Map.
• Tracking via UTM is not always precise; search Google for "UTM tracking errors" to see some examples
• A tracking report is a snapshot of a point in time; it may not reflect the activity in the last few minutes
• History can change: a new contact that logs in may be cookied with a UTM powered link weeks ago. They are reported in that past period.