Event tracking: A mini guide for developers

If you’re not keeping track of your customers’ activities, then your company is falling far short of its potential. You’re also giving your competitors a leg up. Data gathering and metric analysis begin with event tracking. Learn this invaluable concept, what it is, why you need it, and how to put it into practice.

What is event tracking?

Event tracking is self-explanatory: It’s simply the tracking of events. What exactly is an event in this context? An event can be any number of actions taken by a website visitor, such as:

• Scrolling all the way to the bottom of the home page
• Using the site’s contact form or chat feature
• Commenting on a blog post
• Adding a product to the cart
• Updating a customer profile

What events should you track?

Not all of the above-mentioned events may be relevant to your business. The events you track should align, in some form or another, with your goals. Identify your goals, then determine the events to track to get you to your destination. Here are some examples of goals and suitable event-tracking parameters.

Example 1

Goal: Increase service registration by 20% in the next quarter

Events to track: Registration and de-registration numbers month-over-month

Example 2

Goal: Double the monthly sales of product X from the prior month

Events to track: product clicks, add-to-cart, and cart abandonment rate of product x

Example 3

Goal: Reduce bounce rate by 10%

Events to track: website visit duration, retarget ads click rate

Why event tracking matters

Event tracking yields data that guides your decision-making process. Let’s say your goal is to increase signups for a trial service. You have links to the signup page from multiple sources, such as at the bottom of your homepage, on the navigation bar, in the closing paragraph of your latest blog post, etc.

An event tracker records the click rate of each of these sources. You can determine where most of the clicks are coming from and optimize accordingly. For example, if the clicks come mainly from the CTA of your last blog post, then perhaps you can capitalize by including the same link in the closing section of future blog posts.

How to implement event tracking

You can implement event tracking manually via coding on your website’s backend. However, it’s far simpler to use Google Tag Manager (GTM). This is a universally used tag management system that’s available for free. Here is an easy 10-step process for setting up GTM.

1. Visit the Google Tag Manager website and create an account.
2. Set up rules for your container tags. These are code snippets that are in effect on every page. This eliminates the need to manually enter the code on each individual page.
3. Proceed to your GTM dashboard and click on Variables on the sidebar, and then Configure in the upper right-hand corner.
4. You’ll be presented with a list of events. Check the ones you want to track.
5. Return to the dashboard and go to Add a new tag
6. Go to Tag configuration and select Universal analytics. Proceed to select the events to track.
7. Under Google Analytics settings, select New variable.
8. Enter your analytics tracking ID. This sends events data to Google Analytics.
9. Return to the dashboard and select the Triggering configuration.
10. Select All pages. This sends data from all web pages to Google Analytics.

Event tracking: FAQs

Does event tracking implementation require technical expertise?

It’s best to leave the event tracking setup to your IT department, especially if you choose to set it up manually. If you use GTM, then follow the above step-by-step process. No technical knowledge is required.

Do I need to set up a data layer for event tracking?

Having a data layer embedded in your website is useful, especially if you use other analytic tools, such as Facebook Pixel. Without a data layer, your analytic tools may not receive identical data streams, leading to inconsistent metric readings.

Do I need a customer data platform (CDP) for website event tracking?

Having a CDP in place may be helpful, particularly if you work with data from multiple sources (e.g., website, social media, email). A CDP like Cloud Connect simplifies data tracking by providing a single location for all of your data management.

Is event tracking the same as virtual pageviews?

Event tracking and virtual pageviews differ in the following way: Virtual pageviews register an event as a pageview. With event tracking, the event is recorded separately and has no impact on actual page views. It’s better to stick with event tracking because it doesn’t artificially inflate pageview count.

The best tools for event tracking

Multiple event tracking apps, software, and databases are available. It’s best to stick to Google Tag Manager because it’s easy to use, free, and has a universal presence. Other proven-reliable event tracking systems include Adobe Launch, Adobe Dynamic Tag Manager, and Tealium.

We also recommend Cloud Connect. Assimilate all of your data and analytic tools (including GTM) into this system for easy monitoring and tracking of your data in real time. Try Lytics and register for a Cloud Connect account today; it’s free!