💻 Key takeaways:
1. Integrate your dynamic QR Codes with Google Analytics to gain valuable insights into user engagement. This allows you to track metrics like number of scans, unique visitors, scan location, and device type.
2. You can uncover valuable user behavior patterns by analyzing QR Code scan data in Google Analytics. This helps you optimize your marketing campaigns and tailor your content to reach your target audience better.
3. Utilize Google Analytics data to make informed decisions about your QR Code strategy. This includes optimizing content for specific platforms, targeting campaigns by location, and understanding user demographics.
QR Code tracking gives you a real-time overview of your QR Codes’ performance. With Uniqode’s in-house analytics you can track QR Code metrics such as total scans, device type, location, unique visitors, and scans by specific date or time of day.
While these certainly help you tease out actionable insights, you might want to zero in on your end users even more and understand how they interact with your content once they land on your landing page or website. Adding QR Codes as a traffic source on Google Analytics can help. How would you go about setting up QR Code tracking in Google Analytics? Let’s find out!
Table of contents
- How to set up QR Code tracking in Google Analytics
- What QR Code metrics can you track in Google Analytics
- Frequently asked questions
How to set up QR Code tracking in Google Analytics
There are two ways to track QR Codes within Google Analytics:
1. Generate UTM links with the campaign URL builder and create a QR Code for each link
This method involves creating unique UTM links for every QR Code you generate.
Here’s how you generate UTM URLs for QR Codes in Google Analytics:
- Create/Sign-in to your Google Analytics account.
- Open Google’s Campaign URL Builder tool and enter your campaign details. Define all the UTM parameters (source, medium, ID, name, content, etc) that you wish to track during your QR Code campaign.
- Connect the UTM URL with the QR Code(s) you plan to deploy.
- Go to Google Analytics —> Acquisition —> Campaigns —> All Campaigns, and test-check if tracking data is being collected.
The process is fairly simple. However, you would find it cumbersome to do this at scale. If you’re deploying thousands of QR Codes for a marketing campaign, you’d have to generate UTM links for each one of those codes!
In addition to generating UTM links for each QR Code, this method can also result in fractional data loss.
When you record UTMs in Google Analytics, it only considers the users who’ve successfully visited the landing page.
15-25% of users (based on our cohesive data) typically drop off after scanning a QR Code. This is because the confirmation prompt that pops up upon scanning the QR Code leads them to decide that the content might not align with their interest or expectations.
As a business, however, you still want to understand the drop-off, know the users who didn’t follow through, and zero in on their interests.
This is where the second way of tracking QR Code campaign performance on Google Analytics comes in.
2. Add QR Codes directly as a unique property (first-party data source on Google Analytics)
This is exactly what paid QR Code solutions like Uniqode help you do. Here’s what the process looks like:
- Create/Sign-in to your Google Analytics account.
- Create a new property for tracking your QR Codes. You can do this by going to Admin —> Account (select the account to which you want to add new property) —> Create Property.
- Enter your website and the URL for your QR Code campaign in the Website URL field.
- Copy the Tracking ID and enter it into your Uniqode account. Go to Uniqode —> Account —> Organizations and enter the ID in the GA Code field. You will automatically start seeing QR Code campaign metrics on your Google Analytics dashboard!
That’s it — you have now linked your QR Codes with Google Analytics — the easy and hassle-free way! You no longer have to create unique UTM links for each QR Code you print.
Uniqode’s integration with Google Analytics allows you to collect information all the way from the point of the scan to the website visit. In a data-driven marketing world, this can be extremely beneficial!
What QR Code metrics can you track in Google Analytics
When you connect your QR Codes to Google Analytics as a source of web traffic, you can track the following:
User Behaviour:
- Gauge the interests of users who has scanned your QR Code
- Discern returning users from first-time visitors
- Clearly understand the level of engagement with your QR Code content with metrics like session duration, click-through rates, bounce rates, page views, and so on.
End-user demographics:
- Native language spoken by users
- Country of residence
- City/specific location
- Age of users
- Gender of user
The system used to scan the QR Code:
- Browser used
- Operating system used
- Service provider
Mobile used to scan the QR Code:
- Operating system used
- Service provider
- Phone screen resolution
Frequently asked questions
Can you use Google Analytics to track QR Codes?
Yes, you can track all the QR Codes that link to a webpage, using Google Analytics. Whether the page is created with a custom CMS, WordPress, Shopify, or any other platform, Google Analytics can track the traffic based on the UTM parameters.
However, it’s essential to remember that the tracking relies on users clicking on the link and visiting the specified URL. If the page is built using a tool that prevents the execution of JavaScript or analytics scripts, some tracking data may not be captured.
What are the different ways to track QR Codes?
If you’re using Uniqode’s QR Code generator, there are two to track your QR Codes:
1. Use Uniqode’s in-house analytics to track metrics such as total scans, device type, location, unique visitors, and scans by specific date or time.
2. Add QR Codes as a property in Google Analytics, copy the Tracking ID, and enter it into Uniqode for easy and hassle-free QR Code tracking.
Can you get analytics from a QR Code?
Yes. When you use a dynamic QR Code over a static one, you get analytics data such as the top/worst-performing campaigns, total and unique number of QR scans, scans by location, time, and the device used.
To get more QR Code analytics data, you can integrate Google Analytics with Uniqode’s dynamic QR Code generator. This data includes user behavior metrics and end-user demographics.
How do I connect my QR Code to Google Analytics?
There are two ways to connect a dynamic QR Code to Google Analytics:
a. If you need to track a single URL, follow these steps:
- Go to Google’s Campaign URL Builder tool and enter UTM parameters for the URL you wish to track.
- Head over to Uniqode’s QR Code maker and create a URL QR Code using the link with the UTM parameters.
- Enter the URL and customize the QR Code.
- Test, save, and download the code.
- Go to Google Analytics —> Acquisition —> Campaigns —> All Campaigns, and check if analytics data is being collected.
b. If you need to track multiple QR codes on Google Analytics, follow these steps:
- Create/Sign in to your Google Analytics account.
- Create a new property to track your QR Codes. Go to Admin —> Account (select the account to which you want to add new property) —> Create Property.
- Enter your website and the URL for your QR Code campaign in the Website URL field.
- Copy the Tracking ID and log it into your Uniqode dashboard.
- Go to Integrations —> Google Analytics and enter the ID in the UA Tracking ID field.
- You will now see QR Code campaign analytics on your Google Analytics dashboard!
How do I track an analytics QR Code?
- Log in to the Uniqode dashboard.
- Navigate to the Analytics section from the left panel.
- Here, you can view QR Code analytics data such as top-performing campaigns, the total number of scans, unique users, scans by location, time, and the device used.
Is there a way to track how many people use a QR Code?
Yes. With dynamic QR Code analytics, you can track the total number of QR Code scans and the number of unique users who have scanned your code.