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[Music] Hello there and welcome to Fulfillment.com ecommerce education vlog. My name is AJ Yeager with Praxismetrics.com and I'm going to be your host today. So over the next five minutes I want to go over what is I believe is to be the number one mistake that 90 percent of e-commerce brands are making when they're tracking their revenue online. I've worked with a lot of brands uh in the world over 150 different brands in e-commerce and their data so I'm coming from a lot of experience here and this continues to come up like 99% of the time. So marketing without data is like driving with your eyes closed I hope you agree with me on that we can't steer the ship if we don't know our numbers so today I'm going to go over three things. One is the actual biggest mistake when it comes to tracking e-commerce data . Number two is exactly what utms are and how they can take your marketing data to the next level and how to build a utm link in the most effective way so you can utilize them in your business. So one of the biggest mistakes is assuming that everything is tracking in your business. Okay what I mean is that all these different applications you're using um are are not tracking exactly what you may need and I mean that by out-of-the-box software limitations. Some of the apps like Shopify what you may be using are yes tracking certain things automatically but there are other softwares out there that are not tracking the fields that you need ultimately to answer your business questions the technology is just not set up properly. SOPs may not have been followed by your team when setting these up and getting all the extra custom values filled out and also some of these platforms are lacking uids which are unique identifiers. Email's a big one, address, phone number you know exact name we need something to make sure we tell the whole story of the data and many of these don't don't tie it together and they don't work together. Google analytics I mean I know many of you probably use it, some of you may hate it, some of you may love it but it is one of the best free tools out there. It does not come set up the right way, putting code on your website does not handle everything you need most people think it's set it and forget it meaning they they set it, they install it and they're like oh good i don't have to deal with it. I feel like they never have to log in there now. I don't recommend logging in there because it's not actually a really good dashboard unless you are trained to use it it does not work the way that you want to especially for business owners and marketing teams it's too complicated. Now this is all about ROI I want to make sure that you can get ROI out of this training and what you're going to, what I'm going to teach you. Now the number one mistake is not properly using organized utms for all of your marketing efforts online. Okay we've got to be able to prove ROI from all the different channels we're using and that is super important and this is very very um detailed and I think many companies get lazy and or don't follow a certain structure. UTMs stand for urchin tracking mechan or module uh I won't go into the history but it's a very simple term, it's a free link that you can create all it is is a parameter it is a encoded suffix that you append and add to your url and it can be quite long and made up of various various parameters but basically it's providing very specific information about where that link is coming from and by stringing these parameters together you're able to track online marketing campaigns with a tremendous amount of detail and granularity. So uh this is it may seem simple uh you might have heard about these before but it is literally one of the most powerful ways to track your marketing sales and any activity you're doing online and I highly recommend you listen to this so here's an example my buddy justin goff is doing a promotion for us he sent out an email to his list and if they click there or where the other red arrow is it would be the link was actually this one now it's long it's ugly but here's what it means it tells us six different things one the url two the source three the medium for the campaign name five the content and then last not least the term now i'm going to break these down for you real quick url is very simple that's where you're driving them to usually going to be your e-commerce domain campaign source this is where the clicks are coming from is it a search engine is it another specific site is it from maybe even a newsletter that was sent out for you this could be a lot of different things campaign medium is how the link was presented to them uh search end results pay-per-click ad email affiliate link whatever that may be this is a very important part social media you there's a lot of different um ways that you can add in medium but uh it's really different for each business campaign name here let me move my my video up here campaign name is the marketing campaign that the link belongs to traditionally this is done in succession of campaigns like a black friday sale campaign content is the specific part of a marketing campaign that got them to take action this is very optional you don't have to use it but it's good for testing sometimes ad copy a b split test between emails or other things campaign term the keyword used in paper click advertisements that generate the click and the substance subsequent visitor or what specific words were clicked in an email this is again optional you can make this whatever you want to i'll show you how i did it next is uh so so basically ours was the one above is is was justin goff so we know who it was he was an affiliate the campaign that he was specifically sending out that week and again that was justin goff email that way we just made sure but this is very simple because we know the affiliate and we know what relationship it is and how he sent it out now there are different ones he sent and the campaign term we changed later to include email one email two email three email four et cetera so um the website url is simply the website we're tracking right the campaign source examples for you for to use in the future are google facebook twitter the affiliate or affiliate name being adroll etc you can you can change that however you want to so these are examples for source here's some examples for medium cpc you know cost per click email um social post affiliate referral and you're going to come up with your own structure i don't have time to go through all that today but this is just some quick examples campaign summer sales social and then the date up the specific name of the product or a promo code uh also content email subject lines controller variation content a content b for term multiple links inside of an email different actual number of links you can put link number one link number two actual keywords or other further things that you could use to describe what you're doing that marketing activity so when you should not use utms let me move my face again this is not using what you should not do never put a utm tag or a campaign variable on an internal link you're not doing this on your website this is all external outside driving to you do not use utms when creating internal links on your own internal website i just said that if you start using utms to link to various parts of your website you can artificially multiply session counts this means that you're going to double up or triple up the traffic coming through google analytics and you do not want to corrupt any of your data we do not want bad data so to wrap up and give you a few action steps the only way you can know the true roi of your online marketing activities is by using utms on every single specific online activity you're doing it doesn't cost anything it doesn't matter uh just it's just a matter of taking the time to do it so there is a cost internally to pay somebody to do this but it is so worth it and you're going to have to make mistakes along the way and figure out a system that works for your company there is a way to go ahead and use these you can use track funnels.com or you can just go create these inside of google's tool by itself sit down with your team and map out your hierarchy have a whiteboarding session to get very clear on each of those six different uh parameters how you're going to use it in the future with your marketing channels determine a way to stay organized keep it in a spreadsheet or use something like trackfunnels.com that we created for free or choose one campaign i want you to just choose one campaign right now and begin immediately okay utms can take your marketing to a whole new level all the channels analytics tools out there work with utms for the most part 95 90 of them will pass utms through um and you can use utms to have better data in your all of your marketing campaigns and you can use this data to track return on investment for anything and everything you're doing i hope you enjoyed today's video if you have any questions go ahead and let me know and i'll go ahead and answer anything in the comments thank you so much you

AJ Yager

Praxis Metrics

How to track the ROI of your digital marketing efforts like the pros (it’s easier than you think!)

AJ Yager from Praxis Metrics joins the Fulfillment.com Education Vlog to share some powerful insights on running proper analytics for your ecommerce store and marketing initiatives. In this video, you’ll learn how to unlock the power of UTM codes, go beyond what Google Analytics provides out of the box, and most importantly - confidently track ROI on ALL your marketing efforts. Sound confusing? It might be if you were on your own - Don’t worry! After this 10 minute video, you should be able to upgrade your tracking efforts and gain a much improved understanding of your marketing campaigns overall. The result? Data that allows you to make better informed decisions to save and make money. Learn more, earn more!

Want to learn more about this topic? Praxis Metrics is a trusted expert in the analytics and business intelligence space. You can learn more about them here.

You can also send your questions directly to AJ at: aj@praxismetrics.com

Video Transcription:

Hi there and welcome to fulfillment.com's ecommerce education blog. My name is AJ Yeager with practice metrics COMM And I'm gonna be your host today. So over the next five minutes I want to go over what is, I believe is to be the number one mistake that 90% of e commerce brands are making when they're tracking their revenue online. I've worked with a lot of brands in the world, over 150 different brands and e commerce and their data. So coming from a lot of experience here and this continues to come up like 99% of the time. So marketing without data is like driving with your eyes closed. I hope you agree with me on that. We can't steer the ship, but we don't know our numbers. So today I'm gonna go over three things. One is the actual biggest mistake when it comes to tracking ecommerce data. Number two is exactly what your teams are and how they can take your marketing data to the next level and how to build a UTM link in the most effective way so you can utilize them in your business.

Missing data in your tracking

So one of the biggest mistakes is assuming that everything is tracking in your business. Okay? What I mean is that all these different applications you're using are not tracking exactly what you may need. And I mean that by out of the box software limitations, some of the apps like Shopify, what you may be using are Yes, tracking certain things automatically. But there are other software's out there that are not tracking the fields that you need, ultimately, to answer your business questions. The technology just not set up properly slps may not have been followed by your team when setting these up and getting all the extra custom values filled out. And also some of these platforms are lacking you IDs, which are unique identifiers, emails, a big one address, phone number, you know, exact name, we need something to make sure that we tell the whole story of the data. And many of these Don't, don't tie it together and they don't work together. Google Analytics I mean, I know many of you probably use it, some of you may hate it. Some of you may love it, but it is one of the best free tools out there, it does not come set up the right way, putting code on your website does not handle everything you need. Most people think it's set it and forget it, meaning they set it, they install it, and really Oh good, I don't have to deal with it.

Tracking ROI with Google Analytics

I feel like they never have to log in there. Now, I don't recommend logging in there, because it's not actually a really good dashboard. Unless you are trained to use it, it does not work the way that you want to, especially for business owners and marketing teams. It's too complicated. Now, this is all about ROI. I want to make sure that you can get ROI out of this training and what you're going to what I'm going to teach you. Now the number one mistake is not properly using organized utms for all of your marketing efforts online. Okay, we've got to be able to prove ROI from all the different channels we're using. And that is super important. And this is very, very detailed. And I think many companies get lazy and or don't follow a certain structure UTM Stanford urgent tracking mechanism or module. I won't go into the history but it's a very simple term. It's a free letter. That you can create. All it is is a parameter, it is a encoded suffix that you append and add to your URL. And it can be quite long and made up of various, various parameters. But basically, it's providing very specific information about where that link is coming from. And by stringing these parameters together, you're able to track online marketing campaigns with a tremendous amount of detail and granularity. So this may seem simple. You might have heard about these before, but it is literally one of the most powerful ways to track your marketing, sales and any activity you're doing online. And I highly recommend you listen to this.

Using UTM code Example

So here's an example. My buddy Justin golf is doing a promotion for us, he sent out an email to his list. And if they click there, or where the other red arrow is, it would be the link was actually this one. Now it's long, it's ugly, but here's what it means. It tells us six different things. One, the URL to the source, three, the medium for the campaign name, five, the content and then last but not least the term. Now I'm going to break these down for you real quick. URLs very simple. That's where you're driving them to usually going to be your e commerce domain. campaign source. This is where the clips are coming from, is that a search engine? Is it another specific site is it from maybe even a newsletter that was sent out for you, this could be a lot of different things. campaign medium is how the link was presented to them. Search end results Pay Per Click ad, email, affiliate link, whatever that may be. This is very important part social media you there's a lot of different ways that you can add in medium, but it's really different for each business.

Campaigns

Let me move my my video up here. campaign name is the marketing campaign that the link belongs to. Traditionally This is done in succession of campaigns like a Black Friday sale. campaign content is the specific part of the marketing campaign that got them to take action. This is very optional. You don't have to use it, but it's good for testing sometimes ad copy, a B split test between emails or other things. campaign term, the keyword used in Pay Per Click advertisements that generate the click and then substance subsequent visitor, or what specific words were clicked in an email. This is again, optional, you can make this whatever you want to. I'll show you how I did it. Next is so so basically ours was the one above is was Justin Goff so we know who was he was an affiliate, the campaign that he was specifically sending out that week. And that again that it was Justin Goff email that way we just made sure but this is very simple because we know the affiliate and we know what relationship it is and how he sent it out. Now there are different ones he sent and the campaign term we change later to include email, one email to email three email for etc.

Website URL

The website URL is simply the website we're tracking right? The campaign source examples for you to use in the future are Google Facebook, Twitter, the affiliate or affiliate name, Bing, ad roll, etc. You can you can change that however you want to. So these are examples for source. Here's some examples for medium CPC, you know, cost per click email. Social post affiliate referral and you're going to come up with your own structure. I don't have time to go through all that today, but this is just some quick examples, campaigns, summer sales, social, and then the date up the specific name of the product or promo code. Also content, email subject lines controller, very variation content,a content lead.

Tracking different marketing activity

You can put link number one link number two, actual keywords or other further things that you could use to describe what you're doing in that marketing activity. Again, you should never put a UTM tag or a campaign variable on an internal link. You're not doing this on your website. This is all external outside driving to you. Do not use UTM when creating internal links on your own internal website. If you start using UTM to link to various parts of your website, you're going to artificially multiply session counts. This means that you're going to double up Triple up the traffic coming through Google Analytics, and you do not want to corrupt any of your data, we do not want bad data.

Wrapping Up

So to wrap up and give you a few action steps, the only way you can know the true ROI of your online marketing activities is by using UTM on every single specific online activity you're doing, it doesn't cost anything, it's just a matter of taking the time to do it. So there is a cost internally to pay somebody to do this, but it is so worth it. And you're going to have to make mistakes along the way and figure out a system that works for your company. There is a way to go ahead and use these you can use track funnels comm or you can just go create these inside of Google tool by itself. Sit down with your team and map out your hierarchy have a white-boarding session and get very clear on each of those six different parameters. how you're going to use it in the future with your marketing channels. determine a way to stay organized, keep it in a spreadsheet or use something like track funnels comm that we created for free or choose one campaign. I want you to just choose one campaign right now. begin immediately Okay, you change can take your marketing to a whole new level all the channels and analytics tools out there work with you teams for the most part 95 90% of them will pass you teams through. And you can use UTM to have better data in your all of your marketing campaigns. And you can use this data to track return on investment for anything and everything you're doing. I hope you enjoyed today's video. If you have any questions, go ahead and let me know. And I'll go ahead and answer anything in the comments. Thank you so much.

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Ecommerce Business Intelligence Hacks - Leverage data to gain powerful insights and make more money

AJ Yager

Praxis Metrics

How to track the ROI of your digital marketing efforts like the pros (it’s easier than you think!)

Want to learn more about this topic? Praxis Metrics is a trusted expert in the analytics and business intelligence space. You can learn more about them here.

You can also send your questions directly to AJ at: aj@praxismetrics.com