Enable Google Analytics email tracking with unknown and untracked URL

Question

Good day,

Background: We have a single web application that multiple external websites link to; users visit www.aaa.com or www.bbb.com and can then click through to our web site at www.example.com.

When we send email comms, the users are directed to their respective client URL.

We require a method of tracking these users from email comms using Google Analytics so that we can see their activity in the Campaigns section.

Issue: The problem is that whilst we have Google Analytics enabled on www.example.com, we are not able to install analytics on client URLs. This means that if we affix the Google tags after the URL in emails, these are stripped out when a user then navigates around a client URL before visiting ours. This then means they do not appear in the 'Campaigns' tab of GA. That is:

trackable --> www.example.com?utm_source=offeremail&utm_campaign=testcampaign&utm_medium=email

not trackable -- > www.aaa.com?utm_source=offeremail&utm_campaign=testcampaign&utm_medium=email

Question: Are we able to start the tracking once a user clicks a link in an email but then accesses our site from another site and then show the results in the campaign tab?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Short answer: No. You need to pass the UTM-parameters in the URL for Google Analytics to understand it is campaign traffic. This is usually the issue with redirects between websites, that this UTM-tagging is lost, thus losing the campaign information.

What I would suggest is that you look at referrals or have your clients add tracking to the links back to your website. Then correlate that to the dates of your send-outs. It is a bit of a middleground, but it should do the trick to atleast see trending success.