Everything you need to know about your tracking plan, to measure your performance

However, if you have set up advertising campaigns that aim to attract traffic to your website, but you have not set up a tagging plan, you are missing out on a huge opportunity to monitor your performance in detail!

We know this process can seem very complex from the outside. That’s why we explain everything you need to know about a tracking plan in this blog post, as well as the tracking best practices.

Why is tagging your website essential for your digital advertising campaigns?

By default, the performance tracking tool you use for your advertising campaigns (like Google Analytics) can help you access general data. Bounce rate, number of pages seen, time spent on those pages, traffic sources… All this data is not so specific, and moreover, it isn’t directly linked to your global business goals.

This is where a good tracking plan comes in handy: it enables you to track KPIs linked to these goals, like conversions, very precisely.

Furthermore, when you launch an ad campaign, you have to know precisely which results you can attribute to your specific advertising actions. Here lies the second advantage of a tracking plan: helping you track how many conversions, how many sales, or how many downloads were generated by one specific campaign.

So many benefits that make your tagging plan essential, to accurately measure your return on investment!

6 steps to setting up your website’s tracking plan

Because a tagging plan requires attention to many details, we explain step by step the six steps you need to go through to ensure optimal tracking of your website.

Step 1: Determine the campaign goals you want to track

During this first step, you need to determine which marketing and/or business goals lie behind your ad campaign. It’s an essential element to set up dashboards that will really be useful - as they’ll be nourished by KPIs you really need.

For instance, do you want to make your prospects download a white paper? Or boost the sales of one of your ecommerce products in particular? Or drive traffic to your website?

Step 2: Translate your goals into KPIs you will track

Each goal you have set up in the previous step corresponds to KPIs that you will want to track on Google Analytics, as well as other platforms (such as your DSP).

For example, if you have determined you want to boost the sales of one of your products, you’ll want to track those sales, but also the number of visits and the bounce rate on this page.

Step 3: Plan which traffic sources you want to track

Now is the time to determine the traffic sources you will have to track to measure your campaigns’ performance. Those depend on the channels where you launch your campaign.

If you launch your ad campaign on Google Ads as well as on Facebook Ads and LinkedIn Ads, you’ll need to integrate those three sources in your tracking plan.

Beware: for this tracking to be really effective, you will sometimes need to install some elements on your website. For example, think about installing the Facebook pixel for campaigns in the Meta universe, or the Twitter pixel for ads on Twitter.

Step 4: Think about your segmentation criteria

This step will help you read your data in a very precise way, depending on the different profiles of your targeted audience.

So when a target fills out your form, they may enter a particular segment, and you can then analyze the performance of your campaign based on the characteristics of that segment.

‍Set up a tracking for the forms you promote in your campaigns, and segment your tracking plan depending on their different fields.

Step 5: Implement your tracking plan

So far, you have determined the action plan to be deployed to ensure a good tagging of your site. Now it's time to move on to the technical phase, by implementing your plan.

You now have to: 

• Set up your Google Analytics with Google Tag Manager or another Tag Management System (TMS), but integrating all the settings described in your tracking plan.
• Integrate the pixels of the platforms you want to track, like Meta, Twitter, or your DSP…‍

This implementation can be quite a technical step: make sure you have a tracking plan expert to help you out if needed.

Note that you can also synchronize your analytics to your CRM, and skip this implementation step. But this synchronization will never be as complete as if you go through this step!

Step 6: Setting up the right UTM tags for each campaign

Last but not least, to ensure that the tracking of your website is effective, think about using specific UTM tags for each of your advertising or web marketing campaigns.

‍Each time you launch an ad campaign, give it a UTM tag, so that you can track it the right way.

“The base to set up an optimal tracking plan is to make it match the business goals that lie behind your digital advertising campaigns. The KPIs and traffic sources that you want to track also depend on this, as well as the segmentation criteria that can interest you. Make sure you determine those goals, before you even call an expert that will help you on the technical implementation phase.” Baptiste Pechery, Head of Media Trading, Gamned!

4 more tips to track your performance the best way

Monitoring the performance of your campaigns with a tagging plan is good. However, without applying the following four tips, your digital strategy won't be completely perfected!

Optimize your cookie consent banners

You probably know about the RGPD, that made cookie consent banners mandatory since 2018. If your users refuse that your website collects their cookies, your performance measurement may be affected.

Make sure you design banners that reassure users, and push them to accept cookies. You can use A/B testing to see which design works best.

Set up a tracking on your web servers

By following what is going on on your web servers, you can track your campaign performance, even if your users are using adblocks, firewalls or Chrome plugins that block analytics tools like Google Analytics. 

Delete your useless tags and trackings at the end of your campaigns

You launched a campaign with a time limit, and it has ended? Make sure you delete its tags and trackings in your analytics tool. This good practice allows you to keep your website fast, but also, to limit the transmission of your users' data to third parties.

Update your tracking plan when needed

Finally, don't forget that a tagging plan is not a fixed element, and that it can change as your marketing plan evolves. Update it regularly, according to your business objectives and the different campaigns you launch.

Need a specialist to create your tracking plan or audit your existing plan? Contact a Gamned! expert right now, and trust our professionals that know everything about tracking.