QR Code Analytics with Google Analytics
With recent updates a lot of statistics and tracking information does not get as specific as previously mentioned due to privacy however QR Code Analytics linked with the Dynamic QR Code Tracking is still a great way to measure what’s happening.
Here’s how it works.
- Sign up for a free Google Analytics account for the website you want to track. You can use your account for multiple websites.
- Visit Google’s Campaign URL Builder tool and create a custom URL with trackable parameters.
- Create a QR code using the URL built from Google’s Campaign URL Builder.
Let’s look a little further into step 2, since that’s likely what people are least familiar with.
Here’s what Google’s Campaign URL Builder looks like:
Let’s continue with our QR code example. We want to create a URL with this tool and then transform that from URL to QR code. The reason we create the URL with the Campaign URL Builder is because it appends trackable parameters onto the URL that Google Analytics recognizes.
We’ll first input the URL we want anyone scanning our QR code to see in the “Website URL” field. That’s the URL where our menu is published.
Then we’ll add a Campaign Source, Campaign Medium, and Campaign Name.
- Campaign Source: Where your traffic is coming from
- Campaign Medium: What kind of source the traffic is coming from
- Campaign Name: A campaign description
It would end up looking like this:
The scans come from QR codes (source), the QR codes are in the magazine (medium), and the content itself is the dynamic QR Code (campaign name). By generating this URL, we fix these campaign parameters onto it:
Google Analytics then logs user metrics every time the website is visited. And shows us those metrics for the different sources, mediums, and campaign names.
Now imagine doing the same thing with the custom QR codes for your website, your front door, your social media, and more. If they each have their own URL from the Campaign URL Builder, you’ll be able to track them individually. And, crucially, compare their performance to the others.
Side note, if you’re not using a dynamic QR code and still want to set up Google Analytics tracking, use a URL shortener on your Campaign URL Builder URL before creating a static QR code for it. That’ll speed up scan time.
