Campaign tracking with mutiple ? in url

[pawełp56255812]

Hi Team,

I have a question regarding campaign tracking. I'm using the ?s_cid=(campaign tag) code at the end of the url that leads to my website from specific campaigns. It works perfectly. But I have a problem with certain pages. Some of them already have ?lpi=13124311241 (some random numbers) or ?p_pubid=1074067692810&gclid=CIyb - It's a CMS thingy :)
So my question is how to track those urls (ie. www.abc.de?lpi=1234567) because puting ?c_cid= affter doesn't work. Should I exchange ? with & in such cases?

Br.

PP

[Harsh_Kabra · Accepted solution]

Hi Pawel,

Before I answer your question, it is important to understand how Adobe Analytics capture the campaign tracking code. In Adobe Analytics, Campaign tracking is handled by a plug-in called "getQueryParam". I believe that you have already configured this plugin with "s_cid" to track your campaign tracking code.

Now to answer your question, the solution lies in the way java script reads a query String Parameter (QSP). In case of multiple QSP, I don't see any challenge in using the "&" instead of "?". The following example explains it better:

www.abc.de?lpi=12345&s_cid=<Campaign Tracking Code>

Hope this helps and don't forget to like it!

Regards,

Harsh Kabra |  Adobe Certified Expert: Digital Analytics® & SiteCatalyst Implementation & Reporting®

[pawełp56255812]

Hi Harsh,

thank you for your answer. Works like a charm now :)

Btw. is there a way to put more info intro tarcking code? Cause atm when I enter (ie.) ?s_cid=somewebsitename i get that info "somewebsitename" in my Adobe Analytics capaign tracking. Which of course is good. But let's say I have 3 different ads on this website and I want to track each of them separetly. In GA I would just set same source in utm and change the utm medium. Does Adobe Analytics offer something similar? 

Br.
PP

[Harsh_Kabra]

Hi Powel,

Glad to know that it worked like a charm :) 

Please like the comment should you find it useful by clicking the heart like button and also, move this thread to SOLVED for the benefit of the other users of the Forum.

To answer your question, to get the mazimum information from the Campaign Tracking Code, I can suggest you 2 approaches, feel free to leverage one which fits better to your requirement.

Solution#1: I have learnt from your previous comment that you were using GA/UA previously. You can use the same campaign tracking code in SiteCatalyst. I had provided this solution to one of my previous client who was adamant to use their previous campaign codes of GA only.

1. Lets assume that the URL given below is your campaign landing page URL with UTM parameters:

www.abc.de?lpi=12345&utm_source=<source>&utm_medium=<medium>&utm_term=<term>&utm_campaign=<campaign>;

 2. Now, the next step would be to do some SiteCatalyst magic to let this UTM parameters to the job for us. Instead of s.getQueryParam("s_cid") , we can use the following:

s.campaign=s.getQueryParam('utm_source,utm_medium,utm_term,utm_campaign',':');

The resultant value of the Campaign Tracking code would be: "<source>:<medium>:<term>:<campaign>"

3. The last step in this process would be to apply SAINT Classification to classify all the values passed in s.campaign as appropriate.

AND WE ARE DONE ..!!!

Solution#2: The second solution would be to transform your current Campaign Tracking Code to a SMARTER Campaign Tracking code. Wondering how.. ? Lets do that here:

1. The syntax of your campiagn tracking code to something like, s_cid=<ChannelCode><UniqueID>

Where,

<ChannelCode> = afl=Affiliates / dis=Display Banners / em=Email / ps= Paid Search , ..., etc.

<UniqueID> = This should be a unique id for a specific marketing element.

<Other>, you can add some more uniqueness to you campaign tracking code to distinguish b/w your campaign coming from the same source as well.

2. Same as solution#1, we need to apply SAINT classification on this Tracking Code report and we are done. I would suggest you read a little about SAINT classification, a very powerful tool of Adobe Analytics which can give you much morer granular level of information than what you need.

Hope this helps and Don't forget to like the comment :)

Thanks,

Harsh Kabra |  Adobe Certified Expert: Digital Analytics® & SiteCatalyst Implementation & Reporting®

[kunjalk3064084]

Hi,

I am using getQueryParam plugin 2.3 to set s.campaign but it doesn't accept multiple values

s.campaign=s.getQueryParam('utm_source,utm_medium,utm_term,utm_campaign',':');

returns an error

s.campaign=s.getQueryParam('utm_source');

returns the source value in s.campaign

is there a solution for this?

[jamest7029278]

Hello,

With the URL below, will I be able to see the Adobe tracking and the Google tracking codes in their respective analytics interfaces?

https://www.nycgo.com/things-to-do/events-in-nyc/dont-miss-this-month/december?cid=nycos_events_fb_f...&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=nycgosocial&utm_campaign=events&utm_term=decemberevents&utm_content=calendar

The codes are separated with an "&" so based on the above, it sounds like it should work. I am having difficulties validating this in a dev environment.

- James

[Pablo_Childe]

Check out SAINT classifications you can get tremendous RICH secondary data associated to campaign IDs.

The beauty is you don't need all the giant long Google like URLs to do it. Its more efficient as well as allows for literally dozens of secondary groupings if you want it.

Also allows you to be retro active..

GLTU

[jamest7029278]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. Aren't SAINT classification applied once the data is captured correctly? My issue is that Adobe analytics is not recognizing the "cid" code, but the UTM codes, which is not what I'm looking for. Perhaps the screen shot below may help. I am just looking to capture the cid information in Adobe analytics.

[Pablo_Childe]

ok then this is just a placement issue of where the ID is within the URL

try this...

Delete the middle cid...

Then apply at the end of URL

&cid=tryme

campaign should then say "tryme" in debugger...

when using URLs with queries and blog like structure often adjust cid location to end like this will help important to use "&".

SAINT is great as you can upload the associated data at any time(even prior to live launch). SInce you just need 1 CID you can make it like "tryme:  as an example and upload:

meduim type, medium location, campaign name, sales rep, ad size, customer name etc...

all as asocaited and easily reportable yet URL is just the CID#. CLeaner and way more flexible than goole utm codes...

GLTU

[jamest7029278]

Hi Pablo,

I really appreciate you taking your time to help with this issue. Unfortunately, your recommendation does not work. It is still capturing the UTM codes. Please see screen shot. I'm talking to a former colleague of mine and she said there might be something in DTM to prioritize the cid to be captured instead of the UTM code. Does that sounds like a possible solution?

The reason why we are using UTM codes is because we are working with a vendor where they data is dependent on it. Unfortunately, we are not able to modify their tracking.

[Pablo_Childe]

can you paste actual URL or priv message me URL...

[Pablo_Childe]

ok I think I know issue.

The challenge is your scode(main code) is setup to pick from UTM codes to then parse out and create the s.camapign variable.

try this fake URL

https://www.nycgo.com/things-to-do/events-in-nyc/dont-miss-this-month/december?utm_term=decembereven... _content=calendar&cid=nycos_events_fb_f18_us_en_decevents_eventpage_20181116

You will see how it starts to populate it.

If its not in scode directly then you will need to look in processing rules under Admin.

[jamest7029278]

Thanks for the insight. I will work with the dev team to understand if we can pick up the cid instead of UTM to then populate the s.campaign variable.

- James