This feature available on the Agency Plan
Contents
Getting There
Reading Analytics
Alternative Tracking Methods
Data: ShortStack Analytics vs. Google Analytics
Overview
Analytics are detailed reports of the performance of campaigns and the widgets on campaigns. Analytics track Views, Entries, Shares, and more. All analytics data can be exported as a PDF.
Note: ShortStack analytics are only available on the Agency Plan or higher.
Getting There
From the Dashboard or the Campaign Manager, click on the pie chart icon to the right of the campaign name for which you want to view analytics. The analytics for that campaign will then appear in a pop-up window.
If you'd like the analytics to display in a new tab instead of the pop-up, click the New Tab icon in the bottom-left corner of the pop-up.
Reading Analytics
Setting a Date Range
The top-left of the pop-up will show the date range of the analytics that are being displayed. Clicking on the Day link will show you the other date range options that are available.
If you click the Select Date Range option under the Custom category in the dropdown, a couple of fields will appear that allow you to select exactly the date range you'd like to view.
Enter the Start Date and the End Date of the date range you want to select, and then choose whether you want the analytics to show by Hour, Day, Week, or Month. Once it's all set, click the blue Apply button.
Note: We only retain analytics data for two years; keep this in mind and export old campaign analytics as needed before the analytics are deleted.
Scoreboard
The Scoreboard spans the top of the Analytics pop-up and shows a snapshot of the campaign's numbers: Campaign Views, Unique Views, Entries, and Email Opens.
Navigation Menu
There are five tabs below the Scoreboard: Traffic, Entries, Sharing, Autoresponder, and Clicks. These buttons control the information displayed in the graphs, charts, and maps below.
- Traffic displays data on the views the campaign received. Collected data includes:
- Views (Overall) - Total number of views.
- Views by Device - Desktop, mobile, or tablet.
- Traffic Sources - Where your campaign visitors came from on the web.
- Views by Environment - Web, Facebook, or embedded.
- Views by Country - The geographical location (determined by IP address) of your visitors.
- Views by Platform - Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, or other.
- An interactive map showing where your views are coming from
- Entries displays information on how many entries you received and the devices used to submit those entries (Desktop, Mobile or Tablet).
- Sharing displays the number of times entrants have shared the campaign, and to which social media platforms your campaign was shared (by Manual Link, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or LinkedIn).
- Autoresponder details how many autoresponder emails have been sent by your campaign, how many times those emails were opened, and how many clicks were achieved in the emails.
- Clicks lays out how many times things in your campaign were clicked; including which links were clicked on.
Exporting Analytics
All analytics data can be exported as a PDF. Find and click the Export as PDF button in the bottom-right corner. The download process will begin automatically.
Alternative Tracking Methods
Google Analytics Tracking
You can add the Tracking Widget to track analytics using Google Analytics (now known as Universal Analytics) or Google Analytics 4. This simple way to set up additional third-party analytics already has some event tracking built-in. Here’s how to set it up:
- Add a Tracking Widget to your campaign.
- When configuring the Tracking Widget: Select your tracking method, add your Google Analytics tag in the Setup section, and (if using UA) customize the tracked events in the Events section. Using GA 4, several events are configured automatically.
Facebook Pixel Tracking
In much the same manner as Google Analytics, you can add the Tracking Widget to track events using the Facebook Pixel. Here’s how to set it up:
- Add a Tracking Widget to your campaign.
- When configuring the Tracking Widget: Select Facebook Pixel, add your Pixel ID in the Setup section, and select which events to track (between Page View and Form Submit) in the Events section.
More in-depth information about setting up analytics using the Tracking Widget can be found on the Tracking Widget help doc.
Customizing Behavior With Events
If you have knowledge of JavaScript and jQuery you can write custom code to get even more granular with event tracking, using a Code Widget. While we cannot provide support for issues arising from the use of custom code, we do have a help doc that should help you get up and running with tracking specific events.
Data: ShortStack Analytics vs. Google Analytics
For several reasons, you may wish to utilize both ShortStack's analytics and a third-party system like Google Analytics simultaneously. Doing so, you will likely find that the data can be slightly different between the two - and there's a reason for this.
For ShortStack's analytics, we use a different algorithm for identifying what a "user" (or "visitor") is. In our case, we combine the user agent string and the IP address, then hash that to get a string of characters called a Visitor GUID. If any number of users with the same Visitor GUID arrives on your campaign on five different occasions (on the same day), then that would be counted as five page views, but only one unique view. If the same user(s) returns the following day and visits the campaign twice, that would be counted as two page views and one unique view for that day.
Remember that for GDPR compliance reasons, we do not use cookies for tracking.
ShortStack's numbers for "Unique Views" will undercount the real number when different people are visiting from the same IP address and have the exact same user agent string. However, it will overcount the real number if the same person visits the campaign from two different browsers or from two different networks (e.g., home and office, or desktop and mobile). Google Analytics (or any other third-party tool) will have similar issues.
Platforms like Google Analytics also have access to specific information that isn't passed to ShortStack. For example, Google has access to whether or not a user is logged into Google and any cookies that the user consented to provide. These bits of info can also skew analytics numbers between two different platforms.
