This document explains how to set up and use Google Analytics within the Certain platform. If you want to track page hits on registration forms and event websites, Google Analytics can be used. Certain provides a seamless integration with Google Analytics for this purpose. Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about visits to a website. You can track site activities such as site visits, page views, pages per visit, and average time on site, as well as referring URLs. To enable this tracking, you obtain a Google Analytics Tracking ID from Google and add it to Certain. Certain uses the Tracking ID in the HTML of all attendee-facing pages you wish to track. For details about cookies added to Certain forms and websites when using Google Analytics, see the Cookies in Certain guide. Note that Certain uses Google Analytics internally for some aspects of the Certain platform; an administrator can disable this. See the Certain Google Analytics in your Account section for details.
Contents
- Set Up a Google Analytics Website Profile
- Configure your Event for Google Analytics
- Add a Tracking ID to an Event Website
- Add a Tracking ID to an Event Registration Form
- Enable page-specific, page-level URLs
- Add a Tracking ID to a Speaker Portal
- “Certain Google Analytics” in your Account
Set Up a Google Analytics Website Profile
The Website Profile is created when you sign up for a Google Analytics account. You are prompted to set up your first Website Profile. It is recommended to set up one Website Profile per Certain event to track site traffic for each event separately. Google will provide a separate Tracking ID for each registered Website Profile.
When prompted to enter the URL for the Website Profile, enter the domain name portion of the URL you use to access Certain. For example, the Standard edition URL would be “www.certain.com”. For an Enterprise edition, you would use the first part of the URL you access Certain with, such as “registration.example.com”.
Tracking ID
When the Tracking Instructions page appears, copy the Tracking ID, which is in the format “UA-12345678-1”. You will paste this Tracking ID into Certain later. Do not copy the long tracking code snippet beginning with “<script>” and ending with “</script>”. Copy just the short Tracking ID, such as “UA-12345678-1”. Certain will dynamically generate the relevant code to use that Tracking ID in your Certain registration forms and websites.
Configure your Event for Google Analytics
To use Google Analytics for an event, follow these instructions. In the event, go to Plan > Configure > Options. In the Global Settings section, enter (or paste) the Tracking ID into the Event-level default Google Analytics Tracking ID field. Click Save to save your settings.
Add a Tracking ID to an Event Website
If you have entered a Google Analytics Tracking ID at the event level, any event websites will automatically inherit that Tracking ID. In some cases, you may wish to track traffic for an event website only, and not for registration forms. In such cases, you can enter a different Tracking ID at the website level. Note that a Tracking ID entered for the website will override the ID (if any was entered) at the event level. To use Google Analytics with a separate Tracking ID for an event website, follow these steps: In the event, go to Promote > Websites > Setup page for that website. In the Website Setup section, enter (or paste) the Tracking ID into the Google Analytics Tracking ID field.
Add a Tracking ID to an Event Registration Form
If you have entered a Google Analytics Tracking ID at the event level, all registration forms will automatically include the code to use that Tracking ID. You may sometimes wish to track traffic separately for each registration form, which you can do using separate Google Analytics Tracking IDs. This is typically done in the case of “series” type events in Certain, where a series of recurring events is set up as a single event, with a separate registration form for each occurrence or meeting. Note that a Tracking ID entered for the form will override the event-level Tracking ID if one was entered. To set up Google Analytics for an individual registration form, follow these steps: In the event, go to Plan > Forms > Setup for that form. In the Setup Information section, enter (or paste) the Tracking ID into the Google Analytics Tracking ID field. Click Save to save your changes.
Enable page-specific, page-level URLs
By default, hits to registration form pages are not tracked at the individual level. That means you can’t track the individual pages in a single registration form. This can be changed by setting labels to Enable page-specific, page-level URLs. To do that, follow these steps: In the event, go to Plan > Forms > Setup for that form. In the Page & URL Titles section, select Enable page-specific, page-level URL? A list of text fields is displayed, numbered from 1 to n, where n is the number of pages you have included in the form’s Online Form Sequence. In each field, you can enter an optional text label to be added (preceded by #) to the URL for that page. Note that the examples such as “Entry” or “Registrant Details” are placeholders with suggested text; you must enter your own text. This feature enables each page of your form to have its own unique URL so that form progress can be tracked via embedded web tracking codes. For example, if you set the label for page 1 to “ENTRY,” the URL for the first page would be something like: https://yourdomain/profile/form/index.cfm#PKformID=0x12345678all#ENTRY. You could then use that page-unique URL in your web analytics. This feature was introduced in Certain 5.6; without these labels, the URLs for each page seem identical.
Add a Tracking ID to a Speaker Portal
If you are using the Speaker and Session Management module in an event, its Speaker Portal can have a Google Analytics Tracking ID. In the event, go to Manage > Speakers and Sessions > Speaker Portal and click Settings. That configuration page includes a Google Analytics Tracking ID field. If you have entered a Tracking ID at the event level (see Configure your Event for Google Analytics), the Speaker Portal automatically inherits that Tracking ID. You can choose to specify a separate Tracking ID for the Speaker Portal. This enables you to track visits to Speaker Portal pages separately from visits to event registration website pages. If you do not enter a separate Tracking ID here, visits to speaker portal pages will be tracked using the event-level code, if there is one. If you do enter a tracking code here, then when you are logged into Google Analytics, you can go to Content > Event > Overview to see visit statistics for each Speaker Portal page separately (My Information, My Tasks, My Sessions, etc.).
“Certain Google Analytics” in your Account
Certain uses Google Analytics in the platform itself. An Administrator can disable this for an account by going to Account Settings > Implementation > Security and clearing the Certain Google Analytics checkbox.
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