AutoTag copy from readme

What is AutoTag, how it works and how you benefit from it.

In digital marketing, "AutoTag" refers to the process of automatically generating and appending tags or tracking parameters to the URLs of your marketing campaigns. Popular parameters and tags such as UTM parameters, allow marketers to track and analyze the performance of their digital campaigns across various channels and platforms.

For example, when visitors click on your Ads on Google Ads, Google AutoTags your final url with the gclid parameter. The value passed into the gclid parameter is automatically generated by Google, and is unique for every single ad click.

When the visitor lands on your website, analytics providers will collect collect the GCLID value from the URL and associate it with the visitor's session, and eventually with the conversions that will follow.

Google Click ID (GCLID) is a parameter passed in the URL with ad clicks, to identify the campaign and other attributes of the click associated with the ad for ad tracking and campaign attribution. In Google Ads, this is enabled by turning on the auto-tagging setting.

https://example.com?utm_source=google&gclid=asd0f98as0d98fas0d9f8as0d9f8

https://example.com?utm_source=facebook&fbclid=asd0f98as0d98fas0d9f8as0d9f8

//Bing Ads autotag: &msclkid
https://example.com?utm_source=bing&msclkid=asd0f98as0d98fas0d9f8as0d9f8

🚧 Good to know

Since the introduction of the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) by Apple, Google has introduced two new parameters.

• wbraid: Clicks from Mobile Apps to Websites. ex: Youtube app to AnyTrack website.

• gbraid: Clicks from Mobile Apps (ex: Youtube) to Mobile Apps (ex: Slack App).

🚧 Remember

In the Google Ads, Facebook and Bing Ads examples, you are responsible to capture the value passed into the gclid parameter.

When using AnyTrack, all parameters are automatically captured and stored for you.

AutoTag's AnyTrack's Flavor

AnyTrack approach takes AutoTag to a different level as it AutoTags links (or forms) according to the destination's tracking requirements.

For example, if you want to AutoTag a ClickBank's product links, you must append the click_id to the tid parameter so that ClickBank can record the click_id value. (see examples below)

💡 What is the Click ID:

The click_id is a unique Click Identifier automatically generated by the AnyTrack tracking Tag. Its value is what enables AnyTrack to track and attribute user interactions on your website and build the customer journey timeline. You can learn more about the clickid.

In affiliate marketing, tracking parameters are generally referred as subid.

Examples of AutoTag | subid parameters for specific software and products:

//Autotag parameter for ClickBank: tid
https://jok3v.pay.clickbank.net/?cbitems=1&tid=p8qkMansHXKGeSk0O4

// Autotag parameter for Calendly: utm_term
// Calendly does not provide any tracking parameters except standard UTM parameters
// so we took over the utm_term which is unlikely to be used for Google Search campaigns
https://calendly.com/anytrack/?meet=1&utm_term=p8qkMansHXKGeSk0O4KNG

//Autotag parameter for CJ: sid
https://www.tkqlhce.com/click-8971597-14073404?id=1&sid=IBTO9lOfAMybTX9

//Autotag parameter for Rakuten: u1
https://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=1&u1=asd9uasd9f8as09d8f0a8

//Autotag parameter for Tune: aff_click_id
https://click.hasoffers.com/?aff_id=xyz&aff_click_id=98asdf7asd9f87

How AutoTag Works

AnyTrack orchestrates data collection on and off your website. AutoTag is one of the data points, which enables AnyTrack to tie what happens on and off your website.

Data orchestration example:

Imagine a visitor landing on your comparison website.

1. When the page loads, the AnyTrack Tracking Tag AutoTags trackable elements found on the page.

2. When the visitor clicks on one of the links AnyTrack simultaneously does:

   1. Records the OutboundClick Event and associated attributes.

   2. Sends the OutboundClick Event to Google Analytics (and your other ad pixels).

AutoTag example:

Here is a complete example of the Event data generated when clicking on product link from ThriveCart.

The link published on your website:

<div>
 <a href="https://anytrack.io" linkid="link-example" 
data-label="autotag-example" data-payout="20" data-at-currency="USD" 
data-brand="anytrack-brand" data-tracking-group="thrivecart">Hover 
on the Demo Link to see the anytrack click_id</a>
</div>

The JSON payload fired in the browser:

{
  "cid": "z5BZX6gjdld8ka",
  "ts": 1679468232097,
  "pt": 1679468204378,
  "en": "OutboundClick",
  "dl": "https://anytrack.readme.io/docs/autotag",
  "dr": "https://dash.readme.com/",
  "dt": "AutoTag",
  "cp": [
    {
      "type": "ga",
      "id": "UA-143868881-1",
      "clientId": "916885560.1676918973"
    }
  ],
  "id": "k9XtlSlM",
  "ev": 20,
  "tgid": "thrivecart",
  "bn": "anytrack-brand",
  "link": {
    "label": "autotag-example",
    "url": "https://anytrack.io/"
  }
}

1. The destination platform records the click_id value and associates it with their tracking and attribution stack.

2. The visitor performs the desired action on the destination website (calendly booking page, affiliate offer, merchant's website).

3. The destination platform (tracking software, calendly etc...) calls the AnyTrack Webhook with the event data, and includes the click_id value.

4. AnyTrack parses the conversion payload and uses the click_id value to associate the action with the customer journey timeline.

5. Finally, AnyTrack sends a server side event to the Ad Platform's Conversion API and the conversion is attributed to your ads.

Since AnyTrack primarily uses Server Side tracking, passing a unique click identifier is essential to track conversions.

In short, you pass a unique id when a user clicks on a destination URL where such user will be able to perform an action - fill a form, purchase a product, book a demo etc...

For example, if you want to book a demo with the AnyTrack team you can hover on the Calendly Link. and you'll notice that the calendly calendar page carries tracking parameter

https://calendly.com/anytrack/?utm_term=p8qkMansHXKGeSk0O4KNG

If you really click on it, you'll notice that when landing on the booking page the URL will include a

📘

We pass the clickid into the utm_term parameter since calendly does not expose custom parameters in their API.

How AutoTag works

When your website loads, the AnyTrack tag scans your page and identify trackable elements (forms and urls) and appends a parameter and a unique Click ID.

https://calendly.com/anytrack/?utm_term=p8qkMansHXKGeSk0O4KNGnpJZ6j64NxWAV

In Calendly's case, the parameter is utm_term since Calendly doesn't expose custom parameters in their API.

Auto Below you will find some more examples:

Note that in every single case the URL is the AnyTrack website that has the data-tracking-group attribute set to the integrated platform software.

ThriveCart

//This is the code of the link as set on in the page HTML
<div>
  <a href="https://anytrack.io" linkid="link-example" data-label="autotag-example" data-payout="20" data-currency="USD" data-brand="anytrack-brand" data-tracking-group="thrivecart">Hover on the Demo Link to  
see the anytrack click_id</a>
</div>

When the visitor clicks on the link, the following data is captured by AnyTrack and sent Server-Side to the Ad Pixels and analytics connected to your property.

{
  "cid": "z5BZX6gjdld8ka",
  "ts": 1679468232097,
  "pt": 1679468204378,
  "en": "OutboundClick",
  "dl": "https://anytrack.readme.io/docs/autotag",
  "dr": "https://dash.readme.com/",
  "dt": "AutoTag",
  "cp": [
    {
      "type": "ga",
      "id": "UA-143868881-1",
      "clientId": "916885560.1676918973"
    }
  ],
  "id": "k9XtlSlM",
  "ev": 20,
  "tgid": "thrivecart",
  "bn": "anytrack-brand",
  "link": {
    "label": "autotag-example",
    "url": "https://anytrack.io/"
  }
}

DigiStore24 Affiliates

Hover on the digistore Demo Link to see the anytrack click_id

DIigistore AutoTag

<a href="https://anytrack.io" data-tracking-group="digistore24"   
data-mce-href="https://anytrack.io">Hover on the digistore Demo   
Link to see the anytrack click\_id</a>

Digistore24 Merchants:

If you are a Digistore24 merchant, then the click_id is passed into the dst24 parameter and you'll have to manually append ?dst24=--CLICK-ID-- to the link.

<a href="https://anytrack.io?dst24=--CLICK-ID--"   
data-mce-href="https://anytrack.io">Hover on the digistore Demo   
Link to see the anytrack click\_id</a>

Clickbank

Hover on the Clickbank Demo Link to see the anytrack click_id

<div><a href="https://jok3v.pay.clickbank.net/?cbitems=1" rel="clickbank">Hover on the Clickbank Demo Link to see the anytrack click\_id</a></div>