Declining click rates and Google campaign tracking

[Scripps_Oceanography]

We've been seeing declining click rates for the past several months that don't seem to be related to a change in our newsletter content.

We did append Google custom campaign tracking codes to our links earlier in the year (similar to ?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fall2020) and one user has complained that his VPN and adware blocker won't let him open those links, so now we're wondering if that is contributing.

I can't tell if he's unique; has anyone else seen such an issue?

[William_A · Accepted solution]

Hello @Scripps_Oceanography ,

Are you using Google Analytics for your links? If that's the case, are you generating the link on their side prior to adding it to your emails in our system? Generally when it comes to using Google's tracking this is the only way to make it work alongside our own automatic tracking-link rewrite of links inserted into emails.

For full instructions of using GA-generated links in our system:

1. Go to Google's Campaign URL builder: https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/
2. Enter the URL you want tracked, including "http://".
3. Enter a Campaign Source. We recommend using "Email" or "Newsletter".
4. Enter a Campaign Medium. We recommend using "Email" or "Newsletter".
5. To track each individual email's performance, enter a Campaign Name that matches your email name.
   Note: It's recommended to use underscores (_) instead of spaces for any variables within the Google Analytics URL Builder.
6. Once your URL has the specifications you prefer, click the button to "Convert URL to Short Link".
7. After you copy the URL, insert it as a link in your Constant Contact email.

Example pic:

[Scripps_Oceanography]

Aha, we've just been adding the parameters to each link after building the newsletter. I can see shortlinks would avoid the issue if we want to keep using the extra tracking.