How to Set Up Email Newsletter Tracking in Google Analytics: An In-Depth Guide for Webmasters

As an experienced webmaster, I know that sending email newsletters is crucial for engaging your audience. But even more important is tracking the performance of those newsletters.

Without analytics, you‘re just guessing about what works and what doesn‘t. Implementing tracking provides the data you need to optimize your email marketing.

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll show you how to set up detailed email newsletter tracking in Google Analytics as a webmaster.

Why You Should Be Tracking Your Email Newsletters (And What Happens When You Don‘t)

Here are some powerful benefits you‘ll get by adding tracking to your newsletters:

• See which newsletter designs and content resonate best with your subscribers
• Identify your most effective calls-to-action
• Find out which links and topics get the most clicks
• Monitor engagement metrics like open and click-through rates
• attribute conversions and revenue directly to each campaign
• Catch deliverability issues early and troubleshoot problems
• Spot trends and optimize your campaigns over time

Without tracking, you‘re missing out on all these insights. You‘ll be clueless about what content works and what doesn‘t.

Here are some common issues that occur when you don‘t track your email newsletters:

• You have no idea which newsletters perform best.
• Important links get low clicks and go unnoticed.
• Conversion attribution is impossible.
• Subscriber engagement decreases over time.
• Significant deliverability problems crop up.
• Optimization is guesswork at best.

As you can see, not tracking your emails leads to endless problems. You end up wasting time and money sending campaigns that don‘t resonate or drive results.

How Does Email Newsletter Tracking Work?

Newsletter tracking relies on using special trackable links that pass data to Google Analytics.

Here‘s an overview of how it works:

1. You create trackable URLs with campaign parameters like utm_source, utm_campaign, etc.
2. These URLs get added to calls-to-action, images, links, etc in your newsletter.
3. When someone clicks a link, data passes to Google Analytics.
4. Google Analytics records clicks, generates reports, attributes conversions, etc.

Now you understand the basic mechanism behind newsletter tracking. Next, let‘s get into how to actually implement this in WordPress…

Step 1: Creating Trackable URLs for Your Newsletter Links

The most important step is creating special trackable links for your newsletters.

Based on my experience, there are two good options:

Option 1: Use a URL Builder Plugin (Recommended)

The easiest way is to use a URL builder plugin like MonsterInsights that integrates directly with Google Analytics.

Here‘s an overview of the process:

1. Install and activate MonsterInsights in WordPress.
2. Go to Insights → Tools → URL Builder.
3. Enter your link and email campaign details.
4. The plugin automatically builds trackable URLs for you.

This is by far the fastest way to create the links you need at scale. Just a few clicks, and you‘re done!

Here‘s a preview:

I‘d recommend MonsterInsights to any webmaster as it simplifies the entire process.

Option 2: Manually Append Tracking Parameters

You can also manually append the tracking parameters to your URLs as needed. Here is the structure:

http://www.example.com?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign={campaignname}

• utm_source should be set to newsletter
• utm_medium should be email
• utm_campaign can be customized for each newsletter name

This works fine, but it takes more effort compared to using a dedicated plugin. As a webmaster, I only use manual URLs if I have a specific need to.

Step 2: Inserting the Trackable Links in Your Emails

Once you have the tracker URLs, it‘s time to put them into your newsletter emails:

• Use the URLs for any links pointing back to your website.
• Also use them in images, buttons, or any clickable elements.
• Place the tracker links wherever you originally had regular links.

Here‘s an example inserting a trackable link in Mailchimp:

The process is the same no matter what email service you use. Just swap out your existing links for the trackable versions.

Step 3: Viewing Your Email Newsletter Reports

Now the fun part begins…viewing your results!

Once you send out your campaigns, head over to your Google Analytics reports:

1. Go to Acquisition → Campaigns → All Campaigns
2. Filter the Medium to Email
3. Under Campaign Source find your newsletter names
4. Click one to see the stats like clicks, conversions, etc.

Here is a preview of what your report will look like:

At a glance, you can see important metrics like:

• Clicks
• Bounce rate
• Conversion rate
• Goal completions
• Top converting landing pages

Drill into individual newsletters to spot high performing content.

I recommend going through your reports weekly or monthly to catch trends and identify opportunities. This informs how to optimize future email campaigns.

Pro Tip: How to Track Conversions from Your Email Newsletters

Beyond basic tracking, you can connect your newsletters to actual business goals and conversions. Here are two great ways to do this:

1. Install the MonsterInsights Ecommerce Addon

If you have an online store like WooCommerce, this plugin will automatically track all revenue and transactions from your newsletter clicks.

You‘ll see which emails generate the most sales right in the reports. This is invaluable data for an ecommerce site.

2. Add Custom Event Tracking

Use Google Analytics event tracking to monitor any important actions users take after clicking your links like:

• Filling out a contact form
• Downloading a file
• Watching a video
• Clicking a call-to-action button

Event tracking connects these behaviors directly back to your emails for complete data.

Make sure to track conversions specific to your business goals. This takes your newsletter analytics to the next level.

Get a Head Start by Tracking Your Newsletters Today

As you can see, implementing newsletter tracking provides tremendous value through actionable data.

I hope this guide gave you a good overview and action plan for getting set up quickly. Don‘t leave the success of your email marketing up to chance!

To get a head start:

• Audit your newsletters to find links to track.
• Install a URL builder like MonsterInsights to easily create trackable links.
• Start adding the tracking links to your next email campaign.
• Review the results and begin optimizing based on the data.

Within just 30 days, you‘ll uncover optimization opportunities and have data to improve all your future newsletters.

Let me know if you have any other questions! I‘m always happy to help fellow webmasters implement analytics.