🔗 Website⚙ Integrations

Google Analytics integration

This article will guide you through the setup of conversion goals in your Google Analytics account.

About the Google Analytics and AnyTrack integration

The Google Analytics and AnyTrack integration enables you to receive conversion data from conversion sources such as Affiliate networks, eCommerce platforms, partners, CRMs or API, and sync them with your Google Analytics account. There are many benefits to this integration, starting with the ability to seamlessly send your conversions to Google Ads, create custom audiences for retargeting in Google ads, understanding how your funnel leads to conversions.

Deprecation: Google Analytics universal will be deprecated on July 1st 2023.

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Learn how to Integrate GA4 with Anytrack

Skip the introduction and jump 👉 to the step by step guide.

This guide was last updated on February 8th, 2021. Since we are updating the platform on a regular basis, you might find some discrepancies.

Please inform us if you see anything that should be updated.

Google Analytics gives you the answers to the following questions:

  • Audiences - Who are your users?

  • Acquisition - Where are your users coming from?

  • Behavior - How are your users consuming your content?

  • Conversions -

    • What actions are being taken by your users?

    • What products do users buy?

    • What forms do they fill?

As a marketer, your ability to mix and match these answers, you get unlimited actionable insights to optimize your marketing, content, website and funnels.

Imagine that you would like to attract the best possible audience that will convert for a high value product.

You'd would need to know:

  • The demographics of such audience.

  • What content leads to the purchase.

  • Where can such audience can be found.

With the Google Analytics & anyTrack integration, you can now tie your entire conversion data back to your Google Analytics, so you can quickly and easily make sense of your data, and focus on marketing rather than trying to guess what works or not.

TL:DR - Watch the video to connect Google Analytics in AnyTrack

  1. Connect

  2. Select the GA property (UA-123213213) account (Google Authentication)

  3. Enable Server Events (conversions from third party platforms, such as Affiliate Networks, CRM, API's)

  4. Create Conversion Goals for Google Ads integration.

How to track affiliate conversions in Google Analytics

From the Google Support site.

Goals measure how well your site fulfills your target objectives. A goal represents a completed activity, called a conversion, that contributes to the success of your business. Examples of goals include making a purchase (for an ecommerce site), completing a game level (for a mobile gaming app), or submitting a contact information form (for a marketing or lead generation site).

Defining goals is a fundamental component of any digital analytics measurement plan. Having properly configured goals allows Analytics to provide you with critical information, such as the number of conversions and the conversion rate for your site or app. Without this information, it's almost impossible to evaluate the effectiveness of your online business and marketing campaigns.

Read the complete article here

Google Analytics will instantly record the Events sent by AnyTrack. However, if you want those Events to be interpreted as Conversion Goals, you will need to define them in your Google Analytics account.

AnyTrack Goals' terminology

Once the goals are set up in your Google Analytics account, they will appear as follow.

The Event Action Name must be exactly set as shown below, otherwise the Google Analytics will not record the conversion.

Goal Name

Event Action Name

Event Category

Event Label

Source

Form Submit

at.formSubmit

Form name attribute

click_id

Website

OutboundClick

at.callToAction

link attribute data-brand or data-label

click_id

Website

Lead

at.lead

Brand / affiliate Network

click_id

Affiliate network

CompleteRegistration

at.acquisition

Brand / affiliate Network

click_id

Affiliate Network

Purchase

at.sale

Brand / affiliate Network

click_id

Affiliate Network

AnyTrack Install

at.install

Brand / affiliate Network

click_id

Affiliate Network

Steps to add Goals to your Google Analytics Account

👉 Step 1: Connect with Google Analytics

  1. Add your Google Analytics ID (UA-1231231)

  2. Connect via Google Authentication select the GA

  3. Enable Server Events (to enable Anytrack to send conversions from affiliate networks, api, crm to GA).

  4. Rename the conversions if you wish to. - No space / special characters.

    1. Left column are the standard AnyTrack Events

    2. Right column are the events sent to Google Analytics

  5. 💾 Save

👉 Step 2: Setup Goals

Setting up goals will create new conversion goal configurations in your Google Analytics account. The goals will include the conversion value (payout, sales), and will then be used within Google Ads.

  1. Click on Setup Goals

  2. Select the property & View

  3. Select the Goals you'd like to create in Google Analytics (we recommend all)

  4. 💾 Save

🏁 Et voila! Now all conversions tracked in AnyTrack will automatically be sent to your Google Analytics account.

Google Analytics settings

Google Analytics can be an overwhelming platform, and to help you better collect and track your data, there are some simple steps that you can take to make sure your data is in order.

Note that some options are automatically enabled when activating Signals (see below). Therefore, some of the settings below will be set by default. We still recommend to go through each steps to make sure you have the right settings.

UTM Override

UTM parameters are standard query parameters that help Google Analytics attribute your campaigns. Given the huge footprint Google Analytics has among digital marketers, most ad networks will also pass utm parameters.

We highly recommend the article by CXL institute about UTM Parameters which covers everything you need to know about them.

Note that UTM parameters are also used by Google Analytics to track new ad click sessions, so you should never add utm parameters for internal linking. Otherwise, GA will interpret the internal click as a new ad click session.

  1. Navigate to your Admin > Property setup

  2. Enable UTM Override (so GA can also capture UTM parameters sent by other networks than Google Ads)

  3. Enable Demographics - this will allow you to create retargeting audiences

  4. Enable Enhanced Link Attribution (so links on outbound clicks can be reported back to GA)

Google Analytics Property Settings

Data Collection

  1. Navigate to Admin > Tracking info

  2. Data Collection

    1. Enable Google Signals - for cross device tracking

    2. Enable personalization

  3. Data Retention - Update the settings as you see fit (26 months is the default settings)

Link your Google Ads Account

  1. Navigate to Admin > Google Ads Linking

  2. Select your Google Ads Account(s)

  3. Enable the relevant View

  4. Save

Google Ads Linking

Retargeting audiences

If you would like to use your Google Analytics data to create retargeting audiences, you should enable these settings ASAP, as they start filling up only when you enable this option.

  1. Navigate to Admin > Audience definition

  2. Enable Retargeting - A first audience that includes all your traffic will be set by default.

  3. Select the destinations

    1. Google Analytics - So you can see in GA your audiences performances

    2. Google Ads - So you can use your GA audiences in Google Ads

  4. Save

In the illustration below we create an audience based on users that triggered a sale.

Create retargeting audiences

Once this feature is enabled, we recommend to create your custom audiences ASAP.

Google Analytics integration checklist

In Anytrack:

In Google Analytics

If you are running campaigns on Google Ads

Google Ads Integration
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