I've started to make a habit of choosing the Sponsor Directory links resident here on MA to place on-line orders for parts and such, even when I know that links to those vendors exist in other Internet MINI-related forums. Trying to do my part to support the effort. :cornut: Is it safe to assume that the e-commerce tracking is clever enough to let the MA sponsors know that the transaction originated from MA? I've noticed that a subset have dedicated data fields in their shopping carts to ask the customer how they found the vendor, but perhaps its overkill nowadays with trackbacks and such.
I played with this on my website tonight and it looks like I can at least tell if you clicked on our link, but if you register on my site I can definetly tell you came from that click.
My site isn't smart enough and neither am I. I think there are ways to use the analytics accounts FES has to see how many come to our site from MA, but it doesn't tell me how many result in sales. If you really want FES to know, just shoot us an e-mail. This actually can be quite the issue. Say you visit the site from here but don't buy. Then you go back to the site after pondering your purchase and you do buy. These are two different visits and it gets hard to track. It's possible but gets more and more complicated. Matt
there are marketing firms that can do stuff like that. We use Pardot here at work to track what pages are being viewed and where the viewer is going after that. Marketing Automation and Lead Management by Pardot I know it has the intelligence to monitor multiple visits from the same person and track what they do. So the first time someone visits and downloads a whitepaper or webinar from our site they register. After that, they don't have to register again.
I suppose another complication is the fact that customers may have registered with a particular favorite vendor at some point in the past, prior to the existence of MA. Even if they purchase merchandise or services using the links on this forum, their original registration could reflect a continuing relationship with another site even though it (the relationship) may no longer exist.
All of the sponsors have access to Google Analytics, in fact anyone with a web site can sign up and insert a bit of code that over time will give you so much data it sometimes can be daunting. I use it here to gauge the amount of traffic and the source. It also tells me what O/S is used, browser version, screen resolution and the like. With that I can tailor the site to be most effective to the majority. But I can also use that data to determine when I need to update things as well. However, I cannot and do not want to track individuals as they navigate through the site. It is still a good idea when confronted with those where did you hear of us questions to reply with Motoring Alliance, just as it would be a good idea when calling a sponsor to mention you saw them on M/A.
We probably should add that field in our order process. It would be nice to know what sites are creating business and where we are flushing hard-earned cash down the toilet. As a vendor with a limited advertising budget, I would love to end sponsorships from dead sites (one in particular would be a pleasure to leave).