Presented at the 2016 Blackbaud Conference, Jen Boland and Sara Hoffman presented on combining Luminate Online and Google Analytics together to better track online donations and transactions. The presentation builds from Campaign Tracking into standard eCommerce, into enhanced eCommerce and Internal Promotions

1. Jen Boland
Sara Hoffman
Google Analytics as a
Fundraising Powerhouse

2. Nonprofit Marketing
& Fundraising
UX & Visual
Design
Web & Mobile
Development
Our Services
Partnering with Leading Nonprofits Since 2001

4. About Us
Lead Digital Analyst
@jenboland
Lead Digital Analyst
@salsus
Jen Boland Sara Hoffman
#gafundraising

5. Agenda
• Identifying How Users Came To Your Site
• Basic Donations Tracking
• Learning More About Conversions
• Learning More About Tracking Non-Converting Traffic
#gafundraising

6. Identify how users are
coming to your site
Google Campaign Tracking

7. Acquisition = Traffic Sources

8. Default Channel Grouping
• URL typed directly into
address bar, used a
bookmark.
Direct Traffic
• Followed a link from another
site
Referral Traffic
• Searched by typing in a
keyword and clicking on a
result (organic or paid).
Search Traffic
Your
Marketing
Efforts =
Your
Campaigns

9. Your Friends, Query String Parameters
Donation2?df_id=12362&12362.
donation=form1&s_src=FY17_ABC

10. Meet Your NEW Best Friends
utm_campaign
utm_medium
utm_source
utm_content
#gafundraising

11. Definitions: Source / Medium
• The channel through
which they came: referral,
direct, search (organic or
cpc), others
Medium
• Where they came from:
the site with the link, the
search engine
Source
#gafundraising

12. Elements of
Campaign
Tracking
Links in emails should
all contain these URL
parameters in order for
Google Analytics to be
able to identify email
traffic. Otherwise, traffic
would come in from
mail.yahoo.com as a
referral, for instance.
Campaign
Medium
Source
Content
Broad
channel, method,
publisher
Specific
“place”, website, email
campaign in Luminate,
“Who is delivering readers”
Optional
Variant, test information,
date/time, name of URL redirect
#gafundraising

13. giving-tuesday
email
thanksgiving
engagement
membership
social
twitter.com
facebook.com
instagram.com
cpc
Google
Bing
Facebook.com
Paid
Ads

14. Where these naming conventions and concepts came from – Google AdWords made
the rules
AdWords - Auto Tagging
Google AdWords will write your URLs for you… but Auto-tagging is turned off by default.
#gafundraising

15. #gafundraising
Definitions: Campaign
< insert definition here >

16. #gafundraising
Definitions: Campaign
direction, big idea, meet larger goal
why are we targeting these sources
through these channels?
for what purpose?

17. #gafundraising
Using a “URL
Builder” alone
can lead to
inconsistency

18. Create A Framework
Campaign Medium Sources
bbcon2016 social twitter.com
bbcon2016 email progressive-exchange
bbcon2016 print coaster
Bbcon2016 cpc Facebook.com
#gafundraising

19. Internal Documentation Is A MUST
Google
Campaign Name
Internal Name Status Start / End Goals/Action
/Content
renewal Default
Renewal
evergreen - Identify series in
content.
year-end End of Year
Fundraising
annual Oct-Dec YOY Links should land on
Donation Forms.
giving-tuesday Giving annual 1st Tues after
Thanksgiving
Links should land on
Donation Forms.
#gafundraising

20. #gafundraising
Even Hillary Does It
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/donate/give-
today/?amount=200&utm_source=sp&utm
_medium=email&utm_campaign=201609
27hfa3_fr&utm_content=26634326-
20160927-HFA2-qd%20(1)

21. Gage Skidmore/Flickr

22. Do Not Use
Internal Links
High Dollar
Low Ask
#gafundraising

23. Do Use
Vanity URLs for:
Direct Mail
Offline Ads
PSAs
#gafundraising
www.yourorganization.org/give turns into
www.yourorganization.org/donate?utm_campaign
=yearend&utm_source=aquisition&utm_medium=
directmail&utm_content=AQ1234

24. #gafundraising

25. Find Reports
Standard Reports - As Primary or Secondary
Dimensions
Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium
Acquisition > Campaigns > All Campaigns
Advanced Segments
#gafundraising

26. Create Segments In Google Analytics
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27. Apply Segments To Reports
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Find Trends

28. Plot Rows To See Dimensions
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29. Campaign Tracking Recap
• Redefine “Campaign” for YOUR organization
• Document and Follow a Framework
• Create and Use Segments in Google Analytics
#gafundraising

30. Track Your Donations
eCommerce Tracking

31. #gafundraising

32. #gafundraising

33. Think of Your Donation Form as Store
How do you report on Donations today?
• By Form (Name - ID)?
• By Issue Area?
• By Designee?
$$$$$
• Product Name
• Product SKU
• Product Category
#gafundraising

34. • Donation Form Name
• Source Code
Product
• Donation Form Id
• One-time vs Monthly
• Center or Security Category Id
Product SKU
• One-time vs Monthly
• Join, Renew
Product Category
Configuration Options
#gafundraising

35. How the users
arrived at the site
Revenue from
these users
#gafundraising

36. #gafundraising
Form Id – giving level - frequency
3104-Bronze-Onetime
3104-Gold-Onetime
3104-Other-Onetime
3104-Bronze-Monthly
1234-Other-Onetime
3104-Silver-Onetime
3104-Bronze-Onetime
6868-Bronze-Onetime
3114-Gold-Onetime
5487-Bronze-Onetime
Transactions

37. #gafundraising
Can you figure out
which of these
donation forms
could be a
monthly form?

38. #gafundraising
Can you figure out
which of these
donation forms
could be a
monthly form?

39. Setting It Up
Go to Community for Code Samples
http://bfred.us/2cZoSmV - classic ga.js
http://bfred.us/2duWqOS - GTM
#gafundraising

40. Find Reports
What channels are converting more/less?
Ecommerce > Overview > Change Top Revenue
Sources to Source / Medium
What Donation Forms have the most
conversions?
Ecommerce > Overview > Product or Product
Performance
#gafundraising

41. #gafundraising
Key Takeaways:
To sync up a “donation
form/product” to a transaction, each
use S120 tags to populate Google
Analytics' Transaction ID.
It is searchable in Luminate Online.

42. Tracking Donations Recap
• Think About Your Donation Forms as Product in a Store
• Consider how to use Product Name, SKU and Category to
provide meaning for you and your org
• Make sure to identify one-time vs monthly gift to help calculated
fields make sense
• Bring in the Luminate Online Transaction Id for additional ways to
look up transaction information

43. Learn More About Your
Users and Donations
Enhanced eCommerce
Internal Promotions
Shopping Behavior
Checkout Analysis

44. #gafundraising
Makes
adding
eCommerce
code easier
Tag One
Analytics
Tag Three
AdWords
Tag Three
Remarketing
Tag Four
Facebook
Installed into your
website through one
tag snippet
Google Tag Manager

45. http://bfred.us/
2d995UL
or
Google :
enhanced
ecommerce
tag manager
#gafundraising

46. #gafundraising
Revenue & Transaction Tracking
• Security Category
• Center or Chapter
Affiliation
• Event Type
• Donation Effort
Brand
• One-time vs Monthly
Variant
• Join v Renew
• Registration v Donation
Category

47. Helpful Enhanced Ecommerce Reports
#gafundraising
What onsite elements are driving users to donate or provide their
email address? Which promotions received the most clicks or
conversions, on what pages?
Marketing > Internal Promotions
What donation forms are visitors reaching? What are the
conversion rates on each donation form?
Product Performance
Are my visitors reaching donation forms? What is my overall
conversion rate? Where are users falling out the funnel?
Shopping Analysis > Shopping Behavior
How far are users making it through the donation form?
Shopping Analysis > Checkout Behavior

49. Internal
promotion
tracking allows
you to see what
content is driving
clicks and
conversion on
your website.
#gafundraising

50. #gafundraising
Promotions
work beyond
fundraising!

51. #gafundraising
Dig into Traffic
Sources
What
language
could work
best?

52. Requires helper script that looks for a specific class or ID on your ads or URL
parameters that specify the ad’s name, creative, or position.
Ex: ?promo_name=MatchingGift&
promo_creative=hero_space&
promo_position=main
Use with a gtm event, ex:
‘event’ : ‘promotionImpression’
#gafundraising
Promotion Impressions

53. Check out
step 1
Check out
step 2
Check out
step 3
Fire
AddtoCart
when user
interacts
with any
donation
form field

54. Product (Donation Form) Views
#gafundraising
Pass the Donation Form
Name and ID in the donation
form to make it easier to see
which donation form is which.

55. #gafundraising
Apply Segments

56. #gafundraising
New
Calculated
Metrics appear
with Enhanced
Ecommerce

57. Gift Info
Payment
Info
Billing
Info

58. Checkout Behavior Analysis
#gafundraising

59. Form View to Conversion

60. Solving Problems
Form Analytics and Error
Messaging Tracking
#gafundraising

61. Capturing Errors
var $errors = $('.form-error');
var labels = [];
if ($errors.length > 0) {
$errors.each(function(){
var $this = $(this);
var label = $this.find('label').text().replace(/:/g,'');
labels.push(label);
});
dataLayer.push({
'event' : 'formError',
'errors' : labels.join('|')
});
}
#gafundraising

62. Measuring Completion
Use JavaScript
Or…
Google Tag Manager
#gafundraising

63. Session Recap
• Campaign Tracking identifies traffic on your website related
to your marketing efforts
• eCommerce Tracking makes it rain $$$$$ in Google
Analytics
• Enhanced Ecommerce, Internal Promotions and Event
Tracking help you dig in to problems.
• By Traffic Source
• By Behavior
#gafundraising

64. Thank You!
jen.boland@beaconfire-red.com
@jenboland
sara.hoffman@beaconfire-red.com
@salsus
Jen Boland Sara Hoffman
#gafundraising

65. Did that leave you
inspired, wired, or fired up?
Tell us in a session survey on the
mobile app, and you’ll be entered to
win a complimentary pass to bbcon
2017 in Baltimore!
#gafundraising