Not entirely sure what QR Code analytics is? Or how you can create a QR Code with analytics?

No worries—we’ve got you covered! 

If you’re new to QR Codes or haven’t tinkered with the technology before, we understand completely. Prior to the QR Code resurgence that we’ve seen these past few years, most people didn’t know much about this super-effective Phygital tool either.

For the same reason, we have created this simple-yet-detailed guide on all things QR Code analytics. We will dive into the different kinds of data that QR Codes allow you to collect, as well as how a QR Code generator with analytics can help you fine-tune your QR Code campaigns and maximize ROI.

Let’s dive in!

Table of Contents

1. 1. Can you get analytics from a QR Code?
   2. Note: only dynamic QR Codes allow you to collect QR Code traffic data
   3. What analytics can you get from QR Codes?
   4. Integrate with Google Analytics for more detailed information about your audience
   5. Export your QR Code analytics data and turn it into actionable strategies with integrations
   6. Beaconstac: QR Code generator with analytics
   7. Retarget on Google and Facebook with Beaconstac
   8. Leverage Beaconstac’s dynamic forms to build leads and get specific user information

How to know QR Code metrics

When you deploy QR Codes for a particular use case—you want as many people to scan. QR Code analytics gives you information on how your QR Codes are performing in this regard. These include metrics like the total number of scans each QR Code has received, unique visitors (to avoid double-counting of visits by the same user), the device used to scan, location, scan by the time of day, and so on.

Note: Only dynamic QR Codes allow you to track QR Code traffic data

1. Keep in mind that there are two types of QR Codes: static and dynamic.

   Static QR Codes—as the name would suggest—cannot be changed after you create them. They can’t be altered once generated. This applies to both the QR Code design and the encoded content as well. With static codes, you lose the ability to implement changes on the backend after you deploy them.

   For the same reasons, the ‘static’ nature of static QR Codes does not allow you to collect any data pertaining to scans, location, device, etc.

   If you wish to create a QR Code with analytics, you require dynamic QR Codes. This QR Code type gives you exhaustive customization capabilities, real-time QR Code analytics data, integrations with other software tools, retargeting capabilities, and more. 

   Explore our Static Vs Dynamic QR Codes page to understand the differences between the two QR Code types.

   What kind of data can you get from QR Codes with analytics?

   These are the data metrics that QR Code tracking enables you to collect:

   1. 1. Number of QR Code scans
      2. Number of unique visitors
      3. The device used to scan the QR Code
      4. Exact GPS location
      5. City of scan
      6. The time-of-day of scan

   Let’s take a deeper look at the kind of tracking data that a QR Code generator with analytics allows you to gather.

Number of QR Code scans

When you deploy a QR Code for a given campaign, they are bound to receive scans. This metric simply tells you about the total number of scans that a QR Code has gotten. Bear in mind that scan data alone cannot tell you about unique users—they just keep a tally of the number of scans a QR Code has received. 

With a paid QR Code solution like Beaconstac, you have different options for how you utilize this metric. If you’re leveraging multiple QR Codes for marketing purposes or other use cases, our dashboard overview will show you the total number of scans received across all your codes or the ones that you select.

Our organization and sorting features—custom labels, multiple users, and access management—lets you stay on top of how you view and utilize QR Code scan data.

Scans by exact GPS location

This metric gives you information about the exact GPS location of a QR Code scan. You can leverage this data to see where scans are coming from, and optimize your QR Code campaign strategy accordingly.

Number of unique users

We mentioned earlier that the QR Code scan metric keeps a tally of the number of times a QR Code has been scanned.

Double counting is inevitable here. The same user can scan your QR Code multiple times. This could be due to scannability problems, or other issues at the user’s end. While it gets captured under the total number of scans, it cannot tell you about the number of unique users that you have reached, a more reliable measure of campaign efficacy. 

This is where the number of unique users metric can be incredibly useful for measuring how your QR Codes are doing.

Scans by city

Although solutions like Beaconstac provide exact QR Code location tracking, for having a quick overview of where QR Code scans are coming from, you can use the scans by city metric.

Top-performing QR Codes

To quickly get a sense of which QR Codes are performing the best across all your campaigns, you can use a metric like top-performing QR Codes. This will help you tease out insights about why certain QR Codes are performing better than others and implement the same strategy across all your campaigns.

Scans by time-of-day

The daily cadence of when your QR Codes are receiving scans can be understood through the scans by time-of-day metric. It gives you a general picture of when scans take place within a day in hourly chunks. You can then use this campaign data to further enhance your marketing strategy and planning.

Scans by device

Knowing which devices are used by users to scan your QR Code tells you a lot about your marketing audience. Are they primarily iPhone users or do they lean more towards Android? Apart from yielding specific campaign-related insights, this metric can also give you a general sense of who your core customer base ought to be—especially given that QR Codes are excellent indicators of intent in the physical world.

1. How to track QR Code scans in Google Analytics

   

   As we’d discussed earlier, you can zero in on user attribution more with a QR Code solution that directly integrates with Google Analytics.

   You can glean precise data about users like—

   1. 1. 1. End-user demographics: age, gender, native language, country, city, and more.
         2. User interests captured by Google
         3. Monitor user engagement level: time on page, clicks, page views, bounce rate
         4. Mobile/Computer OS and internet browser used
         5. Service provider information 

   Google Analytics is one of the most widely used tools for monitoring digital traffic and engagement on websites. By pairing Google Analytics with QR Codes, you can understand your audience more clearly for better targeting and personalization. 

   With Beaconstac, you can directly bring in important end-user behavior data from Google Analytics into the dashboard!

   Export your QR Code analytics data and turn it into actionable strategies with integrations

   

   Now that you have this valuable QR Code analytics data at hand—it’s important to be able to leverage it maximally without any hassle.

   For doing this, you need a QR Code Generator with analytics that seamlessly integrates with other software that you use.

   As an example, you might want to export all the important QR Code data you’ve collected as an Excel or Google Sheets file. With a QR Code solution like Beaconstac, you can export any component of your analytics data as a CSV file. 

   More importantly, we also allow you to integrate with 4,000+ applications through our integration with Zapier. Seamlessly integrate Beaconstac with popular tools like Gmail, Slack, Mailchimp, Salesforce, HubSpot, Typeform, and more. In the case of the above example, you can export the CSV directly into an application like Google Sheets and share it with relevant team members. 

   Beaconstac: QR Code generator with analytics

   

   Remember that in order to obtain important QR Code analytics data, you have to invest in a paid QR Code solution.

   Beaconstac is a QR Code generator with analytics that bundles all the metrics and data that we’ve discussed thus far with extensive customization, scalability, best-in-industry security, integrations, plugins, and more. 

   Specifically, within QR Code analytics, we have important organization features like custom labels and filters that help you sort your QR Codes easily for reporting. We also provide multiple users and team functionalities that allow you to manage access to the dashboard.

   Retarget on Google and Facebook with Beaconstac

   

   When a user scans a QR Code you’ve deployed for your business/organization, it is a reliable indicator of high intent. They’re more likely to convert to leads or paying customers than others. 

   With Beaconstac, you can exploit this fact through QR Code retargeting. Now that you have all this valuable first-party data from users, you can leverage it for retargeting them on platforms like Google and Facebook. The process is quite simple too: you can do this directly from the Beaconstac dashboard with your Facebook Pixel or Google Ads ID.

   Leverage Beaconstac’s dynamic forms to build leads and get specific user information

   

   Beaconstac’s dynamic forms feature enables you to link a QR Code to an interactive form that updates questions based on the user’s answers. You can create a form QR Code easily and define its settings on the dashboard itself. 

   A form QR Code has numerous applications: ask your customers to give user feedback, email and contact info, leave reviews and ratings, provide use case-specific data, and more. You can also integrate this feature with other tools of your choosing. For instance, as soon as a user submits a form response that contains their email address, add them to your email lead lists or update this data within your Mailchimp account.

   Read this Rose Marketing Solutions case study that dives deep into how they leveraged Beaconstac’s dynamic forms feature for building mailing lists. 

   FAQs

   What is the difference between the number of scans and unique users?

   Simply put, the number of scans metric simply takes into account the total number of times a QR Code has been scanned. It does not consider who is scanning the QR Code.

   On the other hand, the unique users metric tells you about the number of unique scans that your QR Codes have received. Here, double-counting of scans by the same person is eliminated. It is a more reliable indicator of how your QR Codes are performing. 

   Does collecting QR Code analytics mean that I’m live-tracking users?

   If you’re gathering any analytics for your QR Codes, all it means is that you’re collecting scan data at the QR Code touchpoint. There is a common misconception regarding this—namely that upon scanning a QR Code, users allow the creator of the QR Code to live-track them. This isn’t accurate.

   Can I get the phone number, name, and address details of a user who scans a QR Code?

   Users can rest assured that they’re not giving up their personal information by scanning your QR Code. This may include details like their phone number, email ID, physical address, and so on. 

   To reassure them further, it’s important to highlight that you’re using a GDPR compliant and SOC-2 certified QR Code solution. 

   So yes, that’s it from our end! We hope that this guide has given you a better understanding of all that is possible with QR Codes from an analytics standpoint. If you’re interested in our product you can schedule a demo or start your 14-day trial.

   • Author Details
   
   Author Details
   Arpith Arun
   Content marketer at Mobstac. When I am not writing, I mostly just play the guitar or watch MMA highlights. Connect with me on Linkedin!
   https://www.beaconstac.com
   [email protected]