Tracking Clicks for Website Conversions Multiple Buttons
Learning how to track button clicks with the new Google Analytics 4 property will provide you with in-depth information on what CTAs are working best with your audience. With this, you won't waste valuable website space with buttons that no one may care about.
What is click tracking?
Click tracking is defined as an analytics feature that allows you to measure and analyse where and when people click on your website, app or even on emails.
This can be done by using softwares like tags or with a click tracking tool that records mouse clicks and taps on mobile devices. Then the data can be shown numerically, visually with a heat map or by individual sessions.
These are a few types of click tracking you can consider on Google Analytics:
- Button click tracking: collect data on buttons like "add to cart"
- Outbound link clicks: Track when a link leading to an external resource is clicked
- Contact link clicks: Clicking on an email address or phone number
- File downloads: when someone downloads a template or ebook
Why track website clicks?
Tracking website clicks is a critical part of your marketing strategy. It provides you with the chance to better optimise your website and content so that you can get the most out of your visitors.
Here are some of the ways in which click tracking can help you:
- Track what is working on your website and what isn't
By using click maps you can track what your visitors are clicking on. They could be buttons, CTAs or links that are placed through your web pages. By analysing this, you can understand if any key elements are being ignored by your visitors.
If you notice that these elements aren't getting good engagement, you have the data to make strategic choices on where they would be best suited.
- Find any errors on your website
Some website visitors might choose to click on an image in hopes that it will take them to another link. Or maybe they select a button that isn't correctly set up and nothing happens. By tracking your clicks you can quickly find any bugs or errors that are occurring.
You can track all the failed clicks that limited users to find the information they need to turn into a converted customer. By understanding these areas of confusion you can work and fix them so that your buttons can get users to where you want them to go.
- Helps increase conversions and revenue
In general, by understanding what works on your website and what needs to be worked on, at the end of the day, you'd be optimising your website to deliver its full potential. This means that it should help increase essential KPIs like conversion rates and revenue.
If you know exactly which CTAs are working with your audience, you will also know which type of content, what journeys they are taking and what placement best suits them. By understanding how users move around your website you can easily place the best conversion triggers in the right places.
Google Analytics 4 Automatic Click Tracking
When using Google Analytics 4 to track data from your website, you have an option to use Enhanced Measurement. This is designed to help track as many events as possible and share the data on the built-in reports without the need of dealing with code or configuring Google Tag Manager.
To access this head to Admin» Data Stream » select the appropriate data stream
By default, the feature of tracking outbound clicks will be enabled. This means that any click that connects a visitor to another domain will be automatically tracked.
But if you would like to at some point disable or make sure that it is actually working, click on the gear icon as shown in the image above.
Using Google Tag Manager to track Button clicks
The easiest way to track your most important button clicks is by using Google Tag Manager. You can easily create events that can then be tracked on your Google Analytics account.
Step 1) Find the button you want to track
The first thing you have to do is, find the buttons you wish to be tracked.
In our case, we are going to use our newsletter subscription button.
Step 2) Find the source code of the button
To find the source code of the button you should right-click on the button and then select inspect (if you're using Google Chrome).
This will open the developers' tool which will let you see the source code of the button.
With this, you may notice that the button would take visitors to a form that is linked to it. It is also stated that the button has a class which ours is
et_pb_button et_pb_button_0_tb_body et_pb_bg_layout_light
Step 3) Head over to your Google Tag Manager Account
Google Tag Manager provides a range of built-in variables that make the configuring of tags a lot easier.
Some of the variables you can consider using are to check views on a particular page, count embedded video views, scrolling and in this case, clicking a particular button on your website.
Go to Variables on the left-hand side and then select Configure under Built-in Variables.
Step 4) Configure your built-in Variable
Scroll down on the opened configuration page and look for Form Class.
Depending on how you choose to identify your button, you can use different variables.
For more information on what each of the elements is used for, head over to Google support post on built-in elements for web containers.
Step 5) Create your specific tag
Now, we have to create a tag which when triggered will send data to Google Analytics.
Select Tags on the left-hand menu, then click New and name your tag to the specific button.
For ours, we named it "Newsletter Signup Button"
Now, you should select Tag Configuration
Depending on which Google Analytics property you want to track the button clicks, you can choose between Google Analytics: Universal Analytics and Google Analytics: GA4 Events.
We chose to use the Google Analytics: GA4 Events
Then fill out the areas requested like adding your ID Measurement which can be found on the Enhanced Measurement feature on your Google Analytics.
Also, define the event name which will appear on your GA4 reports.
Step 6) Add your event parameters
Click on the drop-down button for your event parameters then select Add Row.
Write down your parameter name, we called ours: button_name
As well as select your variable that you will be tracking, for us, it's Form Class
Now you just have to save your changes
Step 7) Create a Trigger for your event
Click on the triggering section of your tag and select the + button on the top right corner
Name your trigger, we are going to call ours "Check Button Clicks"
And then select the Choose your trigger type in the middle
Then select All Elements under the section Clicks
After, you should select for the trigger to be fired on Some Clicks
Add the class name that was found on Step 2 of this tutorial
Ours is:
et_pb_button et_pb_button_0_tb_body et_pb_bg_layout_light
Lastly, hit Save
Now our entire tag looks like the image below.
Yours should be similar but with different defined names.
If all looks good, then click Save once again.
Step 8) Preview the container
Next, click on Preview on the top right corner to make sure you are tracking the right button clicks
Then add the URL where the button you want to track is present and click on Start
Click on the button you are going to track and head back to the preview window of GTM to make sure your tag was fired on the click event.
Step 9) Go to your GA4 Real-Time report
The last step you need to do is navigate to your GA4 real-time report to make sure the tag is also present there.
And you have successfully set up a custom button tracking event!
Tracking your button clicks is an essential tactic to understand what your visitors and customers are looking for. No matter what type of website your business has, you can either learn the best content you provide or the top products you sell. There's a lot you can do with the information gathered from tracking your most essential buttons.
The best way to do this is by using Google Analytics, you simply have to create a tag for the desired buttons and wait for insightful data to show up.
There are many other website features that could be of interest to you. For example, you might want to know how far down a user scrolls through one of your web pages or what they searched on your websites search bar.
Keeping track of all these small actions is a step closer in optimsing your website and in turn your business.
Tracking Clicks for Website Conversions Multiple Buttons
Source: https://easyreporting.io/how-to-track-button-clicks-in-google-analytics-4/