Campaign Tags are short bits of code added to the end of a URL that let us know that the link is part of a marketing effort and gives us information about how the link was used.
Although data is captured natively in platform, if you include links back to nature.org (or another one of the domains we own), we need campaign link tags on those URLs to track the visitors once they leave the email or social platform and hit our domains.
Always and only tag links to pages on TNC properties from outside of TNC websites. That means:
- IF you are linking to a page on nature.org or another TNC domain from an email, social post, paid search, ad buy, etc DO add a tag to the link;
- IF you are linking from one TNC page (on, say, natureunited.ca) to another TNC page (on nature.org) DO NOT add link tags, these are tracked in-platform. Use in-text or CTA links using the AEM relative URL.
- IF you are linking to an article by a TNC thought leader hosted on Huffington Post or a local newspaper, DO NOT add a link tag as we we will not recieve information from these pages and will not know that the tag has been used.
The link tag gives us information about a visitor to nature.org. If we provide information to a chapter that, for example, 24% of unique visitors to their article on sea level rise got there from an email link, we know this because of a link tag.
Example: Tagging a Article
Original Link: https://www.nature.org/.../climate-courage-and-the-ambition-we-need-now/
Tagged Link: www.nature.org/.../climate-courage-and-the-ambition-we-need-now/?src=e.gc.eg.x.ctylist
Tag: ?src = e.gc.eg.x.ctylist
- ?src=: The start of a TNC link tag.
- e: Email (channel)
- gc: Global Comms (team)
- eg: Engagement (objective)
- x: No campaign (not part of a global campaign)
- ctylist: Optional variant. Meaningful for the individual team.
What does this tell us? If an individual lands on the article page “Climate Change and the Ambition We Need Now” with the tagged link above, we know that they clicked the link in an email sent by the Global Comms team, and a successful visit will show engagement with the content.
The GC team also knows that they sent this email to their list of subscribers to updates on their city work* (*made-up example).
So, with analytics, we can now measure how much traffic to the page was driven by the email and if the campaign was successful by leading to engagement with the content. Without a link tag, we won’t know that the traffic came from the email campaign or how to measure success.
How to Add a Campaign Tag
Ways to generate tagged URLs for use in marketing efforts.
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Campaign Tag Generator
Whenever you are using a nature.org (or other TNC property) link in an online ad, paid search, providing a link for a partner to share, QR code, text message, or a social post done natively (not through Khoros) use the Campaign Tag Generator to first add a campaign tag to that link. See the video embedded below this list on using the generator. Campaign Tag Generator
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Exceptions
Not sure if you need a campaign tag? Finding that the generators don't sufficiently account for your needs? Submit a digital request form for assistance from the Analytics team. Digital Request
If you are posting to a social platform through Khoros and pointing to a TNC domain, you will add the link tags in Khoros when you create the post. Watch this short video to see how to tag a link in Khoros.
Related Articles
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Step by step instructions for how to find your campaign tags in Adobe Analytics.
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Analyzing social content success through the analytics console in Khoros.
How to find your campaign tags in Adobe
Step by step guide to locating your campaign tag in Adobe provided by the Digital Analytics team.