Tracking ads and email

This page shows how to see which ad, email or text brought each visit and sale. Sporetag fills in most of it for you. You copy one thing and paste it in one place.

Short link or full link

• Short link: use it for SMS, bios, stories, DMs, email and QR codes. It is short, it counts every click, and it works on your own domain.
• Full link: use it in ads. The ad opens your page directly, with no extra redirect. Ad platforms check where an ad leads, and a direct link keeps that simple.

Both carry the same tags, so your stats line up.

Naming rules

Sporetag uses one style, and tidies what you type to match it:

• Lowercase, with hyphens for spaces: spring-sale, not Spring Sale.
• utm_source is the platform: facebook, google, tiktok, newsletter, sms.
• utm_medium is the kind of traffic: social, paid-social, cpc, email, sms, qr or print.
• utm_campaign is the campaign, like spring-sale.
• utm_content is the ad or the spot, like bio, story or the ad name.
• utm_term is the ad set or the keyword.

The attribution report shows sales by campaign, by ad (utm_content) and by ad set or keyword (utm_term).

Meta ads

Pick Meta ads when you make a link, then copy the template:

utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign={{campaign.name}}&utm_content={{ad.name}}&utm_term={{adset.name}}&utm_id={{campaign.id}}

1. In Ads Manager, open your ad. Put your page address in Website URL, not the short link.
2. Under Tracking, find URL parameters and paste the template.
3. Publish. Meta fills in the campaign, ad set and ad names for each click.

Meta reads the names when the ad is published. If you rename an ad later, publish it again to see the new name. Meta also adds fbclid to the address, which Sporetag reads.

Google Ads

utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign={campaignid}&utm_content={creative}&utm_term={keyword}

1. In Google Ads, open the settings of your account or campaign and find Final URL suffix.
2. Paste the template. Keep auto-tagging on: it adds gclid, which Sporetag reads too.
3. Save. Google fills in the campaign id, the ad and the keyword.

TikTok Ads

utm_source=tiktok&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=__CAMPAIGN_NAME__&utm_content=__CID_NAME__&utm_term=__AID_NAME__&utm_id=__CAMPAIGN_ID__

1. In TikTok Ads Manager, open your ad and find Destination.
2. Under URL parameters, paste the template. Keep the capital letters: TikTok only reads them that way.
3. Submit. TikTok fills in the campaign, ad group and ad names. It also adds ttclid, which Sporetag reads.

Microsoft Ads

utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign={Campaign}&utm_content={AdId}&utm_term={keyword}&utm_id={CampaignId}

1. In Microsoft Advertising, open the settings of your account or campaign and find Final URL suffix.
2. Paste the template. Keep the Microsoft Click ID (msclkid) on. Turn off Microsoft's own UTM tagging, which can replace these values.
3. Save. Microsoft fills in the campaign, ad and keyword.

LinkedIn, Pinterest and Snapchat

Pick the platform and copy the full link as the ad's destination. LinkedIn Campaign Manager can also add dynamic UTM tags for you, set once for the account. For Pinterest and Snapchat dynamic values, check each platform's ads help. Sporetag reads their click ids: li_fat_id (LinkedIn), epik (Pinterest) and ScCid (Snapchat).

SMS

Pick SMS. Sporetag makes the shortest link it can: your own go. domain with six random characters. The result shows the link and how many characters it takes.

SMS tools such as Attentive, Postscript and Klaviyo often shorten links again with their own domain, so they can count clicks. Then two redirects run: theirs, then yours. Both still work. To keep only your link:

• Turn off the tool's link shortening or click tracking for that message, if it lets you. In Klaviyo, this is the Automatically shorten links option on an SMS message.
• Or accept the double redirect. Your Sporetag stats still count the click.

Each tool names these settings a little differently, so check its help pages.

Email

Pick Email. Use the short link in the email: it is tidy, it counts clicks, and Sporetag's tags always win, because the short link ignores anything added to it.

Many email tools add their own UTM tags to every link. On a short link that does no harm. On a full link, the tool may replace your tags or add a second set, depending on the tool. Turn its tags off, or set it to use the same names as above.

To fill the campaign in per send, use the full link with your email tool's merge tags instead of a short link. A short link cannot carry merge tags. For Mailchimp, pick Email and copy the template:

utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=*|CAMPAIGN_UID|*

Mailchimp fills in the campaign id when it sends. Klaviyo can add UTM tags to every link from its UTM tracking settings, with the campaign name as a value. Merge tags differ by tool, so check your tool's docs for the exact tag.

Check that it works

Click your own ad preview, text or email link. Then open your site's dashboard. The Sources panel shows the visit under the campaign, the ad and the ad set or keyword.