Link tracking
Link tracking lets you measure which links in your emails get clicked, by whom, and how many times. After sending, this data appears in your campaign report under the Link overview and Link map sections. You can also use link tracking to automatically assign interests to contacts based on what they click, which builds audience profiles passively over time.
How link tracking works
When you enable tracking for a link, Flexmail wraps it in a redirect URL. When a contact clicks the link, the click is recorded before the contact is forwarded to the actual destination. This happens in milliseconds and is invisible to the reader.
Automatic UTM tagging
With automatic UTM tagging, Flexmail adds UTM parameters to the links with link tracking in your campaigns. In your analytics tool, such as Google Analytics, you can then see which email and which link brought a visitor to your website. Previously, this setting was called Google Analytics link tracking.
How to enable it
- Go to Settings > Tracking
- Open the UTM tagging tab
- Switch on Automatic UTM tagging
The setting applies to your entire account. It is saved immediately.
Which parameters does Flexmail add?
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| utm_source | flexmail |
| utm_medium | |
| utm_campaign | The name of your campaign. If you change the campaign name, this value changes with it |
| utm_content | The name of the link from the link tracking of your message. You set that name there yourself |
Example Anna clicks on the link "Shop now" in your campaign "Spring sale". In your analytics tool, you see her visit with source flexmail, medium "e-mail", campaign "Spring sale", and content "Shop now".
Do you use your own UTM structure?
If you add UTM parameters to your links yourself, leave automatic UTM tagging switched off. Otherwise your links will receive duplicate or conflicting parameters. The exact parameters you use depend on how your analytics is set up. You determine and test that yourself.
What Flexmail does and what your analytics tool does
Flexmail adds the parameters to your links. Measuring and reporting take place in your analytics tool.
Opening link tracking
Link tracking is available from the message list or from the message editor:
- Email Builder: click the gear icon next to the message in the message list and select Link tracking.
- Wizard template: scroll to the Link tracking section at the bottom of the editor.
- HTML editor: scroll to the Link tracking section at the bottom of the editor.
Configuring tracking per link
The link tracking screen shows all links in your message. For each link you can:
- Give a descriptive name, which appears in your campaign reports. "Header CTA button" is more useful than a raw URL.
- Enable or disable tracking, tracking is enabled by default for all links.
- Enable UTM tagging, which adds UTM parameters to the link for reporting
- Assign an interest, every contact who clicks this link is automatically subscribed to the selected interest.
You can also set link tracking as a default value for your entire account on the Click tracking tab of the Tracking settings. That value applies to links where you do not select anything else. You can still adjust it per link or per campaign. Link tracking is separate from open tracking.
Attention To use UTM tagging, link tracking must also be enabled for that link.
Attention To disable link tracking for a single link, first make sure that 'Automatic link tracking' is disabled via Settings > Link tracking and then tick the remaining links.
Naming your links
If you include the same URL more than once in a message, such as a button and a text link that both lead to the same destination, give them different tracking names. This lets you see in reports whether contacts clicked the button or the text link, which gives you useful information about which design elements generate clicks.
UTM tagging
Pro tips
Support tip Assigning interests via link tracking is one of the most efficient ways to build audience data without asking contacts to fill in forms. After several campaigns, you will have detailed interest profiles for your most engaged contacts, based entirely on their own click behaviour.
- Set up link tracking before you finalise your campaign, not as an afterthought. You can no longer add or change tracking after a campaign has been sent.
- Check the Link overview section in your campaign reports after sending to see which links performed best. Use this data to improve future email design decisions.
Common mistakes to avoid
Warning Do not change link URLs or tracking settings after a campaign has been sent. This damages the click data in your campaign report. Configure tracking before sending and leave it unchanged.
- Leaving all links with default names (raw URLs). Descriptive names make your reports much more readable and actionable.
- Forgetting to configure tracking entirely. Scroll to the Link tracking section before every campaign send to verify that your key links are set up correctly.
Next steps
- See "Campaign reports" for how to read link click data after sending.
- See "Using interests" for how to use interests assigned via link tracking in targeting.