When setting up event tracking, the first thing you’ll need to decide is what you’re tracking on your website. You may be compelled to track every button click on your website, however as I’ve discussed previously, collecting data for data’s sake is a bad move. In this two-part blog, I’m going to write about some key events to track that help move your business goals forward, such as CTA (call to action) clicks and form submissions.
Tracking Form Submissions on Your Website
There are a couple of different ways to track form submissions on your website. The most popular way to track these submissions is by having the form submission result in a thank you page. Sometimes, however, a thank you page can be visited without a user ever submitting his or her information. As a result, you may want to track form submissions via event tracking.
You can take your form submission event tracking to the next level by tracking the fields people try and skip when submitting a form. Is everyone from your Facebook campaign willing to fill out the form, but only if they don’t have to give a last name? Do people give up on trying to contact you after the fourth form field? Event tracking can tell you all of that!
Side note: If you’re still waffling about how to best track form submissions, visit my post about destination based goals vs. event-based goals.
Tracking (Mobile) Calls on Your Website
Tracking all phone calls generated from a website without purchasing call tracking software or using a dedicated website phone number is impossible. Tracking calls on mobile, however, is a completely different (and much easier) story. Any time someone “clicks to call” your business from your website, you can record it as an event in Google Analytics. Even better, with the shift to mobile, these click to call events are increasing by the minute and the amount of data you’re missing out on is decreasing.
Side note: With desktop calling programs, such as Skype, it is technically possible to call from your desktop. It’s just very unlikely.
Tracking Email Clicks on Your Website
Sometimes people want to contact you outside of a form submission or a phone call. This is where it’s helpful to track clicks on your email links. Although those email clicks may not necessarily translate into email sends, it’s helpful to know all the different ways people are trying to contact you. Additionally, you may find it useful to have an email that is solely featured on the website, that way if someone emails you even without clicking, you are able to attribute the source of that email more accurately.
Summary
Deciding what to track on your website can be an overwhelming task, but staying focused on business goals and understanding how people are using your website can lead you in the right direction. Stay tuned for part two of things you should event track coming up next week!