Campaigns: Commonly Asked Questions

Why does some of my campaign data appear to be missing?

• Your team might not be tagging your URLs with campaign parameters. Parse.ly only pulls in campaign data for URLs that include campaign parameters (e.g. utm_source=facebook) in a query string. Check out this doc for more information about setting up internal standards at your company for tagging URLs.
• Parse.ly might not support the type of parameter you use. If you don’t see the parameter you use listed here, contact us at support@parsely.com. We’ll consider supporting new parameters as long as they can be mapped to Campaign, Medium, Source, Content, or Term.

What do I do if Parse.ly doesn’t support a parameter I use?

If you don’t see the parameter you use listed here, contact us at support@parsely.com. We’ll consider supporting new parameters as long as they can be mapped to Campaign, Medium, Source, Content, or Term.

I sent out a URL with misspelled or mislabeled campaign values. Can I fix it in Parse.ly?

Yes. You can create a group of multiple campaign values. This allows you to put any variations under one umbrella and attribute traffic to the right campaign.

Does campaign tracking work with shortened URLs like bit.ly, t.co, or goo.gl?

Yes, as long as the URLs you post on Twitter or enter into a URL shortener include parameters. A shortened URL will redirect to the URL you originally entered. From there, Parse.ly will collect any attached parameters and display them in the dashboard.

Are campaign values case sensitive?

Yes. Traffic from URLs tagged with utm_source=Twitter and utm_source=twitter will show up as two separate sources in the dashboard. We recommend sticking to lowercase to avoid skewed data. If you make a mistake, you can create a group of multiple campaign values.

How do I keep track of my campaign information?

We recommend using a spreadsheet to build and track URLs with parameters. This will create a set of standards your team can reference to ensure consistency in all campaign tagging.

Get started with this URL builder made in Google Sheets.

Can I upload a CSV to Parse.ly that maps a campaign value to other parameters like medium or source?

Nope. If you’re putting multiple pieces of information into the campaign value, you can split the information into separate parameters by implementing dynamic pageview tracking.

var campaign = getCampaignFromCid(cid);
var source = getSourceFromCid(cid);
var medium = getMediumFromCid(cid);
PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView(
 {url: document.location.href + '?utm_campaign=' + campaign + '&utm_medium=' + medium + '&utm_source='+ source}
)

How are Campaigns different from Referrers?

Both Referrers and Campaigns show how visitors found your content through a general channel (like Social) or a specific domain within that channel (like Facebook).

In general, Referrers help you understand where earned and organic traffic is coming from. Campaigns allow you to track the origin of owned and paid traffic and identify the impact of deliberate efforts to drive traffic to your site.

How does Parse.ly track campaign data for videos?

Campaigns “get credit” for driving traffic to a video when a visitor watches a video on a web page with campaign parameters in its URL.

For instance, many visitors watch a video called “iPhone 7 Review” on https://cellreviews.com/iphone-7/, but some arrive at the page through a Twitter campaign, and others come from an email newsletter. Each URL is tagged with UTM parameters:

The number of visitors, video starts, and minutes watched for “iPhone 7 Review” are split up and attributed to whatever Campaign, Medium, Source, Content, and Term appeared  in the URL.

You can see how campaigns impact your video metrics by navigating to the Campaigns page and toggling from Posts to Videos.