Google Analytics vs. MKTO Tracking

[Anonymous]

So I have run into issues with GA and MKTO Tracking not willing to work well together. I have had to turn off the MKTO tracking in order for things to work. With that being said it seems that when I turn off the MKTO tracking links i dont really get an accurate count on my CLICKS or CTOR. Does anyone know of a work around? Right now I am using GA to look at Users and Sessions to get an idea of how the email is performing specifically CLICKS and CTOR.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Like I said, can't watch the video. Please post the rewritten URL here.

[Anonymous]

Its not a video, its an image.

[SanfordWhiteman]

I need the text here, on the thread, to test. An image just means I need to transcribe it.

[SanfordWhiteman]

So I have run into issues with GA and MKTO Tracking not willing to work well together. I have had to turn off the MKTO tracking in order for things to work.

Not clear what you mean by this. Marketo click (Clicks Email activity type) tracking? Or Marketo pageview tracking?  What are you "turning off" and how?

There's no known conflict between Marketo click tracking and subsequent GA pageview tracking. You'll have to explain your setup in complete detail.

[Anonymous]

The issue was that when i had both the GA tracking link applied to my links and the MKTO tracking links turned on when i would sends a test email or a received a copy of a live email i sent out and i would click on the links in the email it would send me to a error page. The only way to fix it was to turn off the MKTO tracking link option. I sued to have the same issue at my previous employer as well. When speaking to support i was told that there is an issue with having both applied to an email. I hope that is more clear?

[SanfordWhiteman]

The issue was that when i had both the GA tracking link applied to my links and the MKTO tracking links

Like Drew said.. specific examples, please.

UTMs don't break tracking, if that's what you're talking about. If they did then there would be countless unhappy customers.

[Anonymous]

Sanford Whiteman 2 (FigureOne)​ Drew Smith​

Please click on this link and see what happens when i have the GA UTM tracking and the MKTO tracking applied to a link in an email:

https://www.screencast.com/t/RZHdGBvIXFon​

[Anonymous]

Hi Angel,

Thanks for sharing that. Can you provide the destination URL, with the UTM parameters applied to it?

Thanks!

Drew

[Anonymous]

https://www.halocigs.com/?utm_source=inhouse&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2017halohumpday&utm_term=...​

[Anonymous]

Very helpful, Angel.

The link works just fine when clicked natively, which you probably already knew.

I created a test email and added this URL to a link in the email to test. I sent a sample to myself without tying it to a lead and a sample tying it to a lead. Both samples worked properly. You can see a quick video of this test here.

Without knowing any more about your setup, I would check to ensure your email branding domain is set up properly. If everything is set up properly there, you may need to call Marketo Support and ask to escalate to a higher tier of support.

Always feel free to let me know if you have any other questions. You can always reach me at drew@leadmd.com as well.

Thanks!

Drew

[Anonymous]

Drew thank you so much for the help. How would I go about checking the email branding domain?

[Anonymous]

I just checked the branding domain (em.halocigs.com) and everything appears to be good there. You can check this at https://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx?action=mx%3aem.halocigs.com&run=toolpage​. That means we should be able to rule that out as a potential cause.

I did notice that when I visit your page using the native link with the UTM parameters, the page appears to redirect, stripping the UTM parameters from the URL. Do you have some sort of a site redirect going on for home page visits that have URM parameters?

[SanfordWhiteman]

I just checked the branding domain (em.halocigs.com) and everything appears to be good there. You can check this at https://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx?action=mx%3aem.halocigs.com&run=toolpage. That means we should be able to rule that out as a potential cause.

Looking up the MX record for a hostname doesn't shed light on the web side, actually.

And in this case, the lookup in MX Toolbox isn't successful from an MX perspective.  It shows the domain is an alias -- as required for Market-hosted branding domains -- and can't appear as the label of an MX record for exactly that reason.

A successful MX lookup and a successful CNAME lookup are basically mutually exclusive for today's purposes.

In general (outside of Marketo's environs) an MX lookup doesn't say anything about whether a hostname is set up correctly to receive web traffic. If I have an MX record for www.example.com that doesn't mean http​://www.example.com will work, let alone http​s://www.example.com.

[Anonymous]

Its not a redirect. After the page loads we use javascript code to strip the UTM parameters from the URL.

[Anonymous]

This javascript is likely the culprit then. I've seen this exact issue happen with redirects as well. It's possible that your javascript is interfering with the page loading properly. I would recommend creating a test page without the javascript and seeing if you get the same error. If you don't get the same error, there's your culprit.

[SanfordWhiteman]

No, that's not it. It's not JS-related, GA-related nor even directly Marketo-related.

Angel​ the problem is you have HSTS enabled on your main domain (www.halocigs.com) and that site's webmaster​ has unfortunately forced SSL connections for all subdomains of halocigs.com.

This was a really poorly thought out move, because em.halocigs.com is such a subdomain, yet you don't -- though you certainly may, and IMO should -- have an SSL cert on your Marketo-hosted site(s).

Thus your branding domain doesn't support SSL, but anyone who visits your main domain is told that they may only connect over SSL to that same domain. This is a clear conflict, and HSTS always wins in this situation. So the browser throws an error.

[SanfordWhiteman]

If your tracked links work at all, it's very unlikely that you have anything wrong with your branding domain.

What I'd like to see and don't see explicitly in this thread (I can't watch the ScreenCast as it reqs Flash) is exactly how this URL appears once rewritten to go to the branding domain, i.e. go.example.com/294hdueidk83jduwhdhj8383....

[Anonymous]

When I apply this link
https://www.halocigs.com/?utm_source=inhouse&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2017halohumpday&utm_term=...​

and turn on the MKTO tracking and I send myself a test email and click on the link, this happens:

(Please see this image not video): https://www.screencast.com/t/1FJy8Rnd​

I hope this clears up any confusion?

[Anonymous]

Hi Angel,

Just to clarify, are you referring to using URLs with UTM parameters on them when you talk about applying GA tracking links to your links? If that's the case, you should still be able to click through on those links, even with the MKTO tracking link option enabled. Can you send over a sample URL perhaps to verify?

Thanks!

Drew