Comments on: Ultimate Guide to Google Analytics Campaign Tracking

By: Paul Koks

Paul Koks — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 08:10:12 +0000

In reply to Annalisa. Hi Annalisa, Please see this post on PII and how to best deal with it. It explains about PII in great detail. Best, Paul

By: Annalisa

Annalisa — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 16:09:43 +0000

Hi, Paul,

Thanks as always for your useful tips!

I’m trying to figure out how to always ensure no PII data gets past on to GA. You mention that in your best practices: “Make sure to send no personally identifiable information (PII) in a campaign tracking parameter” – can you explain how I can ensure this doesn’t happen both in campaign tracking and in general tracking?

By: Paul Koks

Paul Koks — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 15:45:13 +0000

In reply to Valentino Iorio.

Hi Valentino,
You could set up a medium “paid social”.
And then you need to set up a new channel in the default channel group that matches that medium – then you are all set!

Best,
Paul

By: Valentino Iorio

Valentino Iorio — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 13:08:24 +0000

How would you UTM paid social? What would you put as “medium”: “cpc” or “social”?
Paid social is a mix of both “medium” really and either way you would lose some info when looking at the Default Grouping Channel report in GA.

By: Paul Koks

Paul Koks — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 07:39:40 +0000

In reply to afshin.

Hi and thanks for your comment! Good question and it could be something for a future post.
You might want to check out these articles:
https://builtvisible.com/one-weird-trick-to-avoid-utm-parameters/
https://holini.com/hide-utm-parameters/
It’s not a simply way, but I hope it helps!
Best,
Paul

By: afshin

afshin — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 22:45:57 +0000

hi Paul
your post about google analytics is truly amazing. thank you so much
I have a little question,
Is there a simple way to hide utm parameters but still track them?
I don’t want to user see this long url

By: Paul Koks

Paul Koks — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 12:30:16 +0000

In reply to Jeenfer Wilson. Thanks for sharing, it looks very useful!

By: Jeenfer Wilson

Jeenfer Wilson — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 07:10:45 +0000

We have created a Google spreadsheet to create, manage, shorten and save campaign URLs. With this spreadsheet you can

-Create fully tagged campaign URLs -Shorten the URLs using Bit.ly and TinyURL
-Keep track of all campaign and short URLs created
-Share your short links to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest with a single click!
-Track number of clicks on your short links

Direct link to the spreadsheet (No optins) – https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kV-xMYzJ5G5LQiu3CY1G7pRtOLukdKWV1ntuZ2FPoRw/edit?usp=drive_web

By: Paul Koks

Paul Koks — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 13:13:17 +0000

In reply to Assaf. Hi Assaf, it looks great and thanks a lot for your comment!

By: Assaf

Assaf — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 12:30:20 +0000

Hi,
You might want to try the Chrome extension instead of the regular URL builder that does all of that and much more – pre configured tag sets, bitly, fetching current URL automatically and lot of other stuff.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-analytics-url-buil/gaidpiakchgkapdgbnoglpnbccdepnpk