Lead Source Tagging
- Ryan Schefke
Lead Sources
First, it's helpful to understand what a query string is. Check out this URL:www.leadliaison.com/?source=email
In that example, "source" is a "field" and "email" is a "value." Here's another example:
www.leadliaison.com/?source-two=second-email&source=email
That example has two query strings. If you have multiple query strings in a row, they're connected with the ampersand. You can learn more about query strings on Wikipedia if you're interested.
It's also helpful to understand what a referring URL is. When someone clicks on a link to your website from an external website it's possible to determine which web page contains the link to your website. That external webpage is called the "referring URL."
PPC Lead Source Tagging
Lead source tagging from Lead Liaison will only work if you enable auto-tagging in your PPC account. To enable auto-tagging for Google AdWords for example, do the following:
1) Login to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com
2) Go to Account settings
3) Under the Tracking section enable Auto-tagging
* Also, make sure to link a Google Analytics account to your Google AdWords account. Instructions can be found here: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=146820. If your Analytics account is under a different Google Account then add a new user with account administration rights to your Analytics account. Once that's done you can link your Analytics account to your AdWords account.
If Analytics is not linked to AdWords lead source tracking may not work. Specifically, the "gclid" parameter will not show up in the landing page link (see Lead Source Rules for "Paid Search (PPC)" below)
References:
Lead Source Rules
In general, the first thing we check for is whether there is a query string for "source=". If that value contains the word "email" then the visit is an Email Marketing campaign. Note that it doesn't have to be an exact match. The value just has to contain the word "email". Examples like "source=email-2011-06-01" and "source=060111-email-leadtracking" and "source=060111emailleadtracking" are all matches as Email Marketing campaigns. If the "source=" value contains "adword" or "ppc" or "cpc" we call the Lead Source of the visit a "Paid Search (PPC)". We add another layer of depth to identify what pay per click engine is used. For example, we identify Google, MSN and Yahoo! PPC engines as "Paid Search (PPC) - Google", "Paid Search (PPC) - MSN", "Paid Search (PPC) - Yahoo!" if the source value in the Landing Page Link also contains "google", "msn" and "yahoo" respectively. Let's use the example below. If this is the Landing Page Link then the Lead Source value would equal "Paid Search (PPC) - Google".
http://www.yourcompany.com/?source=googleppc&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&kw=somekeyword&kmas=1&kmca=something&kmag=somethinghere&kmkw=www.website.com&kmmt=e&acnw=g&acap=1t1&gclid=CMTCpb2Xsb0CFc1cfgodMLYA6Q
Lead Liaison allows the addition of custom values. For example, if you had a specific trade show that you wanted to track and every link in the tradeshow follow up email contained "source=customvalue" our system will auto-tag your lead with the custom Lead Source type.
Next, we look at the query strings for "utm_source=", "utm_medium=", and "utm_campaign=". We follow the same rules for those as we did for "source=".
The next area of lead source analysis is the referring URL. If the referring URL contains "facebook.com" we mark the Lead Source as "Facebook". If the referring URL contains "twitter.com" we mark the Lead Source as "Twitter".
Landing Page Link = URL of a page on your website
Referral Link = URL of a 3rd party page that contained a link to your website
Destination URL = Used by Google AdWords. The destination URL is the exact URL within your website that you want to send users to from your ad.
Display URL = Website address that's displayed on your Google AdWords ad.
Lead Source | Assignment Rules |
| Custom Lead Source from a Lead Liaison Tracking URL | If the Landing Page Link contains the "llcmpid" parameter. Note, if the Landing Page Link was generated from a Lead Liaison Tracking URL the Lead Source will already be defined as entered by the user when setting up the Tracking URL. Lead Source's from Tracking URLs take precedence over any of the rules in the table below, which define how Lead Liaison auto-tags the lead with a lead source. |
Email Marketing | If the link visited contains the "llsubId" parameter. This parameter is added to all links sent through individual email marketing messages (not part of an automated workflow). This behavior indicates the recipient clicked a link sent from a mass email. |
Lead Nurturing | If the link visited contains the "llsubId" AND "lead_nrtr" parameters. These parameters are added to all links sent through an automated workflow. This behavior indicates the recipient clicked a link sent from an automated email. |
Email Plug-in | If the link visited contains the "em" parameter and the value of this parameter is a valid email address. The email address is Base 64 encoded. This behavior indicates the recipient clicked a link sent from a Send & Track email. |
| Paid Search (PPC) - Google | Same as below for "Paid Search (PPC)" AND if the Landing Page Link "source=" value contains "google". |
| Paid Search (PPC) - MSN | Same as below for "Paid Search (PPC)" AND if the Landing Page Link "source=" value contains "msn". |
| Paid Search (PPC) - Yahoo! | Same as below for "Paid Search (PPC)" AND if the Landing Page Link "source=" value contains "yahoo". |
Paid Search (PPC) | 1) Referral Link "source=" field contains the word "adword" or "ppc" or "cpc" OR |
Organic Search (SEO) | Visitor not from PPC AND the Referral Link is an identified search engine (there could be Search Words or NO search words, it doesn't matter) |
Social Media | Referral Link contains any of the Top Social Media Websites or the word "blog". For example, if Referral Link contains "twitter.com" (or "t.co") or "facebook.com" |
Direct Traffic | Referring Link is empty AND there is no relevant query string. Also indicates direct traffic. |
Other Campaigns | 1) Landing Page Link contains "utm_source=" AND "utm_medium=" AND "utm_campaign=" is present (and of course it doesn't contain adword or ppc or cpc) OR |
Referrals | Referring Link is from other domains (not a search engine, social media site, etc.) AND none of the above rules were met. |
For Google AdWords:
Google AdWords ad's automatically add a gclid parameter to the destination URL.
The "gclid" parameter used in auto-tagging will show up in your landing page URL when a user arrives at your site from your ad. For example, if your site is www.mysite.co.uk, when a user clicks on your ad it will appear in the address bar as:
www.mysite.com/?gclid=123xyz
Top Social Media Sites for "Social Media" Lead Source Tagging
If a lead comes from any of the following top social media sites the lead source is tagged with "Social Media". Rankings are based off of Alexa ratings as of 2011.
Number | Website | Alexa Ranking | Category |
1 | facebook.com | 2 | General |
2 | youtube.com | 3 | Videos |
3 | twitter.com | 9 | General |
4 | linkedin.com | 17 | General |
5 | flickr.com | 31 | Images |
6 | stumbleupon.com | 113 | Cool Content |
7 | reddit.com | 136 | General |
8 | digg.com | 140 | General |
9 | scribd.com | 199 | Articles |
10 | del.icio.us | 244 | General |
11 | metacafe.com | 285 | Videos |
12 | technorati.com | 901 | Blogging |
13 | mixx.com | 2,265 | General |
Search Engines Used for Lead Source Rules
Here is a list of search engines tracked/identified by our tool:
- altavista
- aol
- ask
- dmoz
- kanoodle
- msn
- teoma
- bing
- yahoo
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