Efficiently investing in marketing is challenging and overwhelming. We get it. Increased ad costs, more competition, endless channel options, and tighter budgets have created the perfect storm for marketers. So what is the survival kit in this storm? It’s using data to know what works.
It’s no surprise then that companies who effectively use data to guide their marketing can increase sales productivity by 25%. With tight budgets and less to spend on marketing than ever, quality marketing insights are critical to maximizing your spend and return on investment (ROI).
Campaigns helps you understand campaign performance across channels and activities, helping to simplify and elevate your marketing data. And the best part? Campaigns is included in your Shopify plan.
With Campaigns, you can:
Organize all your marketing efforts by defining the UTM parameters you want to automatically track
Auto-generate links and QR codes that attribute traffic and sales automatically.
Understand campaign performance across channels and activities.
Let’s explore how to use Campaigns to get more out of your marketing budget.
Table of contents
Organize marketing efforts
Create a name for your campaign that is specific, using details like reason or timeframe, so you know exactly what the campaign is tracking. The campaign ID can be added to your ads as a parameter, so that traffic can be automatically attributed to the campaign you’ve created.
Add auto-match rules to specify which parameter values to track, so that incoming traffic with matching parameters will automatically be reflected in your campaign results. This can be especially useful when running ads across multiple platforms, but want to track them as part of a single initiative. To add campaign activities directly, you can browse your Campaign activities, filter to find relevant activities, and add them to your campaign with a couple of clicks. This gives you the flexibility to include specific activities in your reporting, no matter how they were created.
Auto-generate links and QR codes
A campaign can have multiple shareable links, each with its own shortlink, URL and QR code. Shortlinks and QR codes make it easy to share and track activities across marketing activities. Want to track an influencer partnership? Create a dedicated link. Running an in-person event? Generate a QR code for attendees to scan, and all traffic and resulting sales will show up in your campaign reporting in Shopify.
Analyze campaign performance
As traffic and orders start flowing in, your campaign dashboard will update with key metrics. Toggle between different time ranges to spot trends, or switch attribution models to understand how different touchpoints contribute to conversion. Attribution models are a powerful way to uncover when and where your buyers are converting, across the customer journey. They can also help you determine which assets (medium, channel, etc) are most useful at each stage of the journey, and guide investment in the most effective channels for your funnel goals. You can currently choose between five attribution models:
Last non-direct click: Gives 100% credit to the final channel clicked before conversion, ignoring direct traffic. This model helps identify which marketing channels effectively drove a conversion by focusing on recent channel influences. For example, if a buyer first interacts with a Google Ad, then a Facebook ad, and later on visits the website directly to make a purchase, the Last Non-Direct Click attribution model gives 100% credit to the Facebook ad.
Last click: Gives 100% credit to the final channel clicked before conversion, including direct clicks. Using the same example of a buyer who first interacts with a Google Ad, then a Facebook ad, and later on visits the website directly to make a purchase, the Last Click attribution model gives 100% credit to a direct online store visit.
First click: Gives 100% credit to the first channel the buyer interacted with before conversion, emphasizing the initial touchpoint's role in starting the customer's journey. Using the same example of a buyer who first interacts with a Google Ad, then a Facebook ad, and later on visits the website directly to make a purchase, the First Click attribution model gives 100% credit to the Google ad.
Any click: Distributes credit equally to each channel the buyer clicked, recognizing all interactions that contributed to the conversion. Using the same example of a buyer who first interacts with a Google Ad, then a Facebook ad, and later on visits the website directly to make a purchase, the Any Click attribution model gives credit equally to the Google ad, Facebook ad, and direct online store visit.
Linear: Distributes credit equally among each click in the buyer’s journey to conversion, offering a balanced view of each touchpoint's contribution. Using the same example of a buyer who first interacts with a Google Ad, then a Facebook ad, and later on visits the website directly to make a purchase, the Linear attribution model distributes credit based on how many clicks each touchpoint received.
The “sales”, “orders”, “average order value” and “sessions” cards give you a snapshot of key success metrics for the campaign. Below you’ll find a more detailed breakdown with details like sales by channel and how a campaign has performed for new versus returning customers.
The data you'll find here connects across devices, giving you a complete view of your customers' journey as they switch between laptops and mobile devices
An example of a cross-device customer journey:
- A customer clicks an ad on Instagram from their mobile device.
- Then, they browse your online store with their mobile device and provide their email, but leave without making a purchase.
- A few days later, the customer receives an email from your store.
- The customer opens the email from their laptop, visits your online store, and purchases a product.
Without cross-device data, the Instagram ad wouldn't get credit for purchases made on other devices. Understanding which channels drive your top purchase paths helps you optimize marketing spend and deliver the right message at the right time.
Let’s get to work
Log in to your Shopify admin now and discover the power of Campaigns to drive your business forward. Covert more, spend less, and do it all in one place—with accurate, insightful, and actionable marketing data.
