With the rise of walled garden listing sites that block you from guests, more owners are doing direct advertising through other means, such as Facebook Ads, Google Adwords, and ads on other channels like Craigslist etc.
With ads driving traffic from various locations, you need to be able to track what ads are leading to sales. The best way to do this is using analytics tools like Google Analytics or Facebook's Tracking Pixel.
When you configure either of these in your OwnerRez account, we'll send them information every time a guest interacts with your website (if you're using our hosted websites), widgets on your own site, or the quote checkout process.
With the Facebook Tracking Pixel, you can drive ads that are targeted directly to your audience. You can also target ads to people at certain stages in the buying process. For example take people that have gone on your website and submitted an inquiry but not yet booked. Facebook allows you to target an ad campaign directly to those guests.
We've had Google Analytics for awhile, but we were just tracking pageviews. Now we've added eCommerce to that so you can track booking value and see what sources sent what bookings:
To set up analytics tracking, go to the Analytics Tracking section in your profile. We've also prepared a support doc on setting up analytics tracking.
24 Comments (add yours)
Great, thanks. i already have GA, will try pixel
How do you add pixel if you have more than one facebook page? Like I have separate facebook page for each property?
I believe you can create one pixel that is for all of your FB pages. Are you seeing an indication somewhere that each FB page has its own pixel?
Honestly I am not sure,. Every time I look at FB ad manager, the interface changes, so I am thoroughly confused! Maybe it is one....
I have enabled ecommerce in GA for the tracking ID I have assigned to OR, but still see no events listed under ecommerce? GA has 3 default GA categories with 0 in all of them. Or I should wait longer for GA to accumulate data?
BlueMtnCabins said:
I have enabled ecommerce in GA for the tracking ID I have assigned to OR, but still see no events listed under ecommerce? GA has 3 default GA categories with 0 in all of them. Or I should wait longer for GA to accumulate data?I cannot see the below in my GA:
Widget -> BookingStarted event on "book now" button click in book now widget (with event value of quote total)
Widget -> InquirySent event on "send inquiry" button click in book now widget (with event value of quote total)
Quote -> BookingStarted event on view of the initial quote checkout page (with event value of quote total)
Booking -> Booked event on booking complete (with event value of booking total)
Ecommerce transaction on booking complete
Usually it will take a day or two for the items to accumulate once you turn it on. Are there events from a couple days after you've turned it on that are a couple days ago?
Chris Hynes said:
Usually it will take a day or two for the items to accumulate once you turn it on. Are there events from a couple days after you've turned it on that are a couple days ago?It has been 48 hours since I turned on an all I see is GA default categories:
Under GA Conversions -> eCommerce -> Overview ->
Top Revenue Sources
Product
Product SKU
Product Category
Source/medium
Am I looking in a wrong place?
That's the right place, but have you had bookings since you turned it on? The last booking I see in your account was 3/26.
GA only captures events going forward, so you'd need a new booking to come in to trigger it.
Oh, i see. no I have not had a booking yet, I thought the quote will trigger it (when person does quote on the website via widget), I guess i will wait till after a booking! Thanks
I have had bookings 4/5, 4/8, 4/11. Still see nothing under GA> Ecommerce> overview. Only see 3 default GA categories :(
Are you seeing page views or events under Behavior? Or no data at all from OwnerRez?
It looks like the tracking setup is working and I've checked it on a couple other sites and the ecommerce is tracking.
Can you double check the google tracking id you have (with the -5 suffix) is the correct one for the site you've enabled ecommerce on? Sometimes you can have multiple different sites set up in GA and you've got to drill into the right one to see the data.
It is correct because I see when someone accesses quote widget in "real time". I also see bunch of 'widget" links entries under behavior>overview
But nothing but standard GA entries under Conversions> Ecommerce> overview
We tracked down an issue where the new FB tracking pixel code was conflicting with the GA eCommerce code for certain total booking amounts. This should now be solved, and I retriggered those bookings to be recorded in GA eCommerce.
Let me know if you see the values once you get another booking.
It appeared but looks kind of funny; here is athe list of "products".
Product Quantity % Quantity
1.
Refundable Security/Damage Deposit (non taxable) based on $300.00 per stay
3 33.33%
2.
Cleaning Fee based on $150.00 per stay
2 22.22%
3.
2 nights (11/17, 11/18) during Holiday at $389.00 per Night
1 11.11%
4.
4 nights (7/14 - 7/17, departing 7/18) during Summer peak at $219.00 per Night
1 11.11%
5.
6 nights (11/20 - 11/25, departing 11/26) during Thanksgiving at $389.00 per Night
1 11.11%
6.
Cleaning Fee based on $115.00 per stay
Is that the overall products or in one transaction? The way its set up now, each charge in the charges list is a separate "product".
overall products. Transactions look fine. It looks like every date range is a "product", so is cleaning fee, deposit and tax.
Hmm. How would you categorize it instead? Perhaps there should be one "Rent" product with the property name vs. including the dates? But I'd assume you want cleaning fee et. al. to break out as well? Or would you only want the Rent as a product?
Yes, products like:
Rent
Tax
Cleaning fee
Without dates, else we'll have different rent "product" for each set of dates booked.
Even better if it is:
<Property> rent
<property> tax
<property> cleaning fee
But if not that is great too because I can see the "transaction" for each booking that I can relate to a property.
TIA
Silly question, but where can I view Pixel results? I can see GA conversions in GA, but where can I see the pixel conversions? is in in FB settings someplace? TIA
OK, I've cleaned that up a bit. You'll now see "Rent for <Property>" in the rent line items. I left the surcharges as a simple description without the property name because they can apply to multiple properties.
This won't update the existing data in GA, unfortunately, but it'll apply for new bookings.
Just FYI, it looks better, but not catching all the rent items per transaction. such as, I had booking ORB924172:
Rent 3 nights (9/9, 9/10, 9/14) during Low season - Fall at Weekend Night rate at $245.00 per Weekend Night 735.00 $735.00
Rent 3 nights (9/11 - 9/13) during Low season - Fall at Weekday Night rate at $195.00 per Weekday Night 585.00 $585.00
"rent for Blue Mountain Lodge" under Ecommerce>Transactions>ORB924172 only shows the "rent $585.00"
The $735.00 is not listed.
Tax and cleaning fee are OK.
Not crucial for me, but may be crucial for someone who processes a lot of transactions.
Hmm. I wonder if they only record one item per sku. We'll try combining all rent into one line item.
Just released a hotfix to combine the rent items into one total item by type. You'll get one for rent and one for each type of surcharge or tax.
Let me know if this solves the way its showing up in the GA eCommerce for you.