Adding customer tracking code to email URLs

[JenniferT07]

For our marketing emails, I need to be able to add tracking code to all the email links that will identify the customer who received (and clicked on) the email.  I'd like to be able to use the send-to email as that identifier.  Does anyone know how I can append some tracking code to the end of each URL in the email, i.e. what the field is ("to_email" or something else) and how it should be formatted?  I'm assuming something like "?=to_email", but don't know proper field names or formatting.

Thanks!

[QDT_Benelux]

I am looking for a way to customize my campaign URL so I can add UTM tagging for Google Analytics.

Or any other way I can better track my email campaigns in Google Analytics.

[Frankie_P]

Hi @QDT_Benelux 

I can understand how helpful it would be for your reporting to include Google Analytics and dynamic variables on your links. I apologize these features are not currently available. The good news is in the meantime we do have workarounds for both. For Google Analytics links  you can create these links outside of your account through Google's Campaign URL builder. These links can then be inserted as regular links. As for the dynamic links, we suggest putting the entire code into the custom field, instead of just the dynamic variable. Once this information is added into your contacts you will then insert it as a standard contact detail. It is also important to mention using our dynamic link workaround will not hyperlink the URL. Instead your contacts will have to copy and paste the URL into their browsers.

[Roxy22]

Every time I add a link to something that has a $ in it, it automatically changes it to %24 when it sends the link out. How do I go about fixing this?

[William_A]

Hello @Roxy22,

I'm sorry to see that you've had trouble with your link formatting, but hopefully I can provide some insight into that process.

Taking a look, it appears that you're trying to insert a dynamic link, which requires a degree of coding that is not available in the 3ge email builder. However, it is possible to do in the 2ge (legacy) and custom code email builders, both of which you have access to. Here are the steps for doing this in 2ge:

1. Create or edit an email in 2GE
2. Place your cursor over the block where you want to add the link.
3. Click the Edit this block icon in the upper left-hand corner of the block.
4. Place your cursor where you want the link to appear.
5. Click the Insert button on the left-hand side of the page.
6. Place your cursor over the Link icon and click the Plus button.
7. In the Text to display as link field, add the text you want your contacts to see as the link.
8. Uncheck the "Track" option. A dynamic link won't function properly if tracking is enabled for it.
9. Enter your URL into the Link URL field.
10. Add the variable to the end of the URL.
    Example: https://www.yourdomainhere.com/$Subscriber.Email$
11. Click Insert to finish editing the block content.

If you have any additional questions or concerns feel free to reply to this thread and we'd be happy to assist.

[brianc616]

Hi there - 

I want to send an email to my list and include a call-to-action link in the email.  When the user clicks that link, they will land on a landing page and I want to know who they are so we can auto-log them back in to our site.  Is it possible to include either the email itself or some unique parameter in the URL?  If so, how would I do that on the constant contact side?

Thanks!

[Zoe_H]

Hello @brianc616,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community! When you put the link into your email, many customers do this using our button feature. It is a visually appealing way of putting a call to action link inside an email that can go to your landing page. Then, you can see exactly who clicked on that link by selecting the email's title and looking at the reporting once it sends. Click here to see where that is located. However adding a dynamic link through a button is not currently available. At this time we would suggest importing the full dynamic URL as a custom field under the matching contacts. You can then insert this custom field into your email. Your contact won't be able to put clickable text for the URL, but the URL will at least get inserted in the email. Thanks!

[MohamedY751]

I need to perform the same. 

How to pass a parameter in the URL?

I read some users were using https://www.example.com/landingpage/?$Subscriber.Email 

but it's not working anymore. So how to we do that?

[Frankie_P]

Hi @MohamedY751 

I apologize you have been unable to insert these dynamic links as you should. At this time our system does not allow the option to include these types of clickable links in an email campaign. Instead the workaround we recommend is to add these the full dynamic URLs into your email as a custom field. We have also updated our original response in this thread to display this correct answer.

[MohamedY751]

Thank you.

If I have a custom field with a dynamic URL, how to use this custom field as a button URL?

I honestly think that since CC switched to the new modern system, we've lost a lot of golden old features which most of the competitors are offering now.

Using parameters are mandatory to in modern digital marketing, and I cannot see why this is not an option.

[Zoe_H]

Hello @MohamedY751,

I do apologize for any inconvenience, but we do not have an option for custom fields to go inside of our buttons. Take a look here and see what options we have for our buttons. Click here to see how to insert your information into the newsletter. Thanks! 

[user120701]

Hi,

i'm trying to integrate contant contact with my landingspages.
With other platforms I could easy merge the EMAIL field in minutes. 

I tried EVERYTHING for many hours and found many different items in the manuals which is very confusing. It never worked.

Added merge texts to the button url in the campaign builder:

Button URL:

https://mydomain.com/landingspage.php?email=$Subscriber.Email

https://mydomain.com/landingspage.php?email=[[EmailAddress]]

I also tried a HTML coded email from scratch, same results

<a href="https://mydomain.com/landingspage.php?email=$Subscriber.Email">link</a>

<a href="https://mydomain.com/landingspage.php?email=[[EmailAddress]]">link</a>

when I email the campaigns above to a list it's not replacing the EMAIL merge field in the URL
it works in the body text but just not in the URL so I'm not able to make a unique URL per receiver.

Does anyone was able to create a unique url for each sent email?

[Frankie_P]

Hi @user120701 

I apologize your dynamic links are not working as it should! I can understand how helpful it would be to include this custom information in your emails. But at this time our emails do not allow the ability to insert dynamic links directly in them. Instead we suggest inserting the full URL for each contact into a spreadsheet and importing as a custom field. You won't be able to put clickable text for the URL, but the URL will at least get inserted in the email for contacts. Does this workaround work for you?

[user120701]

no sorry, that's not a solution for us

Very strange Constant Contact still does not have this solution after so many requests already here in this forum. All other email platforms I know can do it without any problem.

[Aaron_H]

Hello @user120701,

I'm sorry our current solution doesn't work.  If you do need the text to be fully clickable, then the only workaround would be to put the entire html string into a custom field, and use the custom code editor.  For this the custom field would need to include all of the html for that link, and be a total of less than 250 characters.  I'm sorry that there's not a better solution for you currently, but we'll continue tracking this requests and passing this need along to our design team.

[dpruth001]

This function really needs to be added to Constant Contact. It's crazy that in 2020 we cannot add custom fields to a URL/hyperlink. The workaround solution to use Excel to create a new custom field every time we need a different hyperlink is insane! Is there a "Suggest & Vote" area where we can upvote this need?

[GeriB]

I have uploaded a new contact list that includes a field for a web address. Each recipient has a specific web address assigned to them so they can download an e-gift card. It's essentially a link. When I insert that field from the contact list it just places the link in it. How do I make it a clickable link that takes them to the individual web address?

[Caitlin_M]

Hi @GeriB. While the link can be inserted as a custom field, there is not a way to make it automatically clickable. Your contact would need to copy and paste the link into their browser.  

[Frankie_P · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for your patience as we looked into this! The good news is we have received word from our engineers that Email Newsletters in our Third Generation Editor has been updated to support dynamic links! You can learn more about this feature here. If you have any issues occur or if you have any additional questions on this, please don’t hesitate to reach out as we would be happy to assist you further.

[TinaP4]

page in link doesn't load. Please provide instruction on dynamic links

[Amber_L]

Hello @TinaP4 ,

I'm sorry to hear that link was not loading for you. You can find the guide on how to insert dynamic links here. Please let us know if you have any questions about the process! 

[TinaP4]

The link doesn't work. None of the links to the Knowledge Base ever load.