Let's go through the Third Party Tracking integration features.
Key Features of Third Party Tracking
Click URL Tokens
The key to Third Party Tracking is Click URL Tokens. Anything in this box will be appended to every link shared through the platform.
You can even use UTM codes here to track aspects of your program back to your website performance, so this is your fastest path to integrating with Google Analytics.
Tip: You can add utm_campaign=dysi to the Click URL Tokens box. This will add that campaign code to every link shared, allowing you to track Dynamic Signal as the original source of your website traffic.
Each parameter in the Click URL Tokens box is structured in the following way
Parameter=Value
Each parameter and value pairing should be separated by an ampersand (&). This allows you to capture multiple pieces of data on each click, like this
Parameter1=Value1&Parameter2=Value2& (etc.)
Data passed through can be static, so you're passing the same data on every click. For example, adding utm_campaign=dysi will send that data on every click. utm codes are commonly used Parameters, but you can use any kind of Parameter you want, or call them anything you want. They are completely flexible.
However, data can also be dynamic, passing unique data through each click. You can use by replacing the Value of a Parameter with the following Tokens.
-
$(userid) - The Dynamic Signal user ID.
- This allows you to attach a Member to your traffic.
- $(userchannelid) - The ID of the user's channel
- $(channeltype) - The type of channel (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
- $(postid) - The post ID
- $(userexternalid) - Your user ID
- $(attr:attributeName) - The corresponding value of attributeName that you assigned to the user
- $(profilequestion:profileQuestionId) - The corresponding answer to profileQuestionId that the user provided
Common Token Applications
There are a few common ways that our customers use these Tokens to track platform usage. For example, if you want to track who shared a piece of content as part of your web traffic, you could use ...
CustomParameter=$(userid)
The only trick with using a CustomParameter is that while you can call it whatever you want, your integrated system needs to know to watch for it and capture it. Something like Google Analytics is smart enough to do this automatically, but if you're using something like a marketing automation or lead capture system, your forms may need to be updated to know to look for this parameter and save it as part of the record.
Other common tokens pairings include:
- utm_source=$(channeltype) - Sets the Source to the Social Media channel where the content is shared.
- CustomParameter=$(postid) - Captures the ID of the Post in a custom parameter so you know what piece of content originally drove the traffic.
Note: It's a good idea to contact your IT department and/or your Web team and find out if your website is configured to pass these parameters through when a user clicks through to additional pages on your website. This can allow you to capture data all the way through their journey.
Allowlist Domains
We often recommend having a mix of company and third-party content in your platform to help your Members be viewed as trusted sources of information. In order to prevent your data from leaking out to those third party websites, you'll want to make sure to list every website owned by your company in the Allowlist Domains box.
Each domain should be listed on a separate line. You can use a wildcard domain (*.domain.com) in cases where you may have multiple subdomains.
Note: Only include domains that your company owns/controls, or domains you explicitly trust in the Allowlist Domains list.
Blocklist Domains
To deny passing data through to a website, you can enter the domain in the Blocklist Domains box.
Each domain should be listed on a separate line. You can use a wildcard domain (*.domain.com) in cases where you may have multiple subdomains.
Note: You should not use the blocklist to prevent your data from ending up with third-party websites. If you have domains in the allowlist, every other site is blocklisted by default. The blocklist should primarily be used to prevent specific subdomains from receiving data where the main domain is allowlisted.
Additional Settings
It's not uncommon for your Marketing team to be using UTM parameters as part of campaigns they may have in-flight at any given time. When content is imported into Dynamic Signal, there are a variety of ways that we can handle conflicts between what is in the Click URL Tokens box, and what is already attached to a given link.
If you check the Update click tokens found in individual permalinks box, we will check each permalink attached to a post for a Parameter/Value pair, and check to see if we have a matching Parameter. If so, we will update the corresponding Value with what is designated in the Click URL Tokens box. If we don't have that Parameter, we leave it alone.
Tip: Use this option to update existing Marketing campaigns to view Dynamic Signal as a traffic source, to change the social media channel from where it was imported from, to where it was shared to, or otherwise "true up" the data to match the sharing activity from the platform.
If you check the Replace existing query string parameters with the ones provided box, we will delete all existing parameters from the URL and use what's in the the Click URL Tokens box instead. If left unchecked, we append our parameters and don't touch what's already there.
Troubleshooting Tip: If you are experiencing an issue where the UTM parameters are not appending, it may be due to the affected URLs being associated with a wildcard domain that has been allowlisted, try checking Replace existing query string parameters with the ones provided to resolve this