How to Track CTA Analytics

Google analytics is a powerful tool, but it has its limitations. It’s tough to track on-page activity without a lot of custom programming. Read on to learn how to track CTA analytics using PlanITPDQ’s shortened URL function.

Here’s a scenario where this functionality is important: your web site has multiple calls to action (CTAs) that point to the same page. You can easily track pageviews in Google Analytics (and using PlanITPDQ), but that number counts all pageviews. It doesn’t distinguish among sources of the click so you can’t track CTA numbers accurately.

On the PlanITPDQ website, for example, we have multiple CTAs that encourage visitors to sign up for a free trial. They all drive traffic to a single beta sign-up page. We want to know which ones are working the best. We also want to know many people click on a CTA but never carry through with signing up for a beta. The only way to do that is to know how to track CTA clicks and links.

How to Track CTA Analytics

You can do this in PlanITPDQ, and quickly look at all of the results from every button and link from your main PlanIT. Here’s how:

1. ID the URL(s) you want to track. Each URL has to be unique; if you want to track activity to the same page from multiple CTAs, simply use the following distinction:

http://urlhere.com/#1

http://urlhere.com/#2

These URLs will go to the same page, but can be tracked individually.

2. Assign a custom URL within PlanITPDQ to each URL.

From your main PlanIT, click on the red circle and choose “New Project”. Fill in the name, description, start/end dates, and choose a category. For my PlanIT, we have a special category called Buttons and Links.

Scroll down and choose “Shortened URLs” from the Integrations list. Enter the name and the URL you wish to track, and click Create Project:

From your PlanIT, select your project and click the blue pencil to edit it. On the bottom, copy the shortened URL created for that project.

On your webpage, use the new shortened URL for the specific CTA (URL link for a button, hyperlink within text, etc.)

Repeat for every CTA.

3. Track CTA clicks. Simply click on each project to get a count at a glance. Remember that you must connect to your Google account via the Settings button to get an accurate, up-to-date count.

When you track CTA analytics you can get more insight into your site, including which CTAs perform better than others along with overall click counts. You can make informed decisions about how to tweak your website to improve performance.

Got questions on how to use PlanITPDQ to track CTA analytics? Just reach out – we always have time for you. For more tips on using PlanITPDt, visit the PlanITPDQ How To page.