Clickthrough Tracking, Opens, and HTML Detection

Aurea List Manager offers several ways for you to track the success of your mailing using clickthrough tracking URLs, open rate tracking and detect-HTML tags.

 

Clickthrough Tracking URLs

The easiest way to include a clickthrough tracking URL is to create content, and use the Insert URL feature. See Content: Insert URL for more information.

If you would like to insert your URL manually, use the following format:

%%track {http://acme.example.com/products/anvils.html} -name {optionalname} -group {optionalgroup}%%

The -name and -group are optional, but may be helpful when viewing your tracking results in Reports: Mailing Reports: Tracking Statistics.

If you are not using the HTML editor, the tracking URL may be formatted more simply:

%%track http://example.com%% -name "name" -group "group"%%

When sent, the tracking tag is converted by Aurea List Manager into something that looks like this:  

http://your.listmanager.server/t/51/3/1/2

When the recipient clicks on this tag, they are redirected to the URL you specified when creating the clickthrough tracking URL. Information about clickthroughs can then be found in Reports: Mailing Reports: Tracking Statistics.

Tracking Without Cookies

Note that the [memberid], [memberidchar], [messageid], [urlid], [groupid], and [urltext] of a clickthrough can be identified without giving a user a cookie by inserting certain parameters into the URL. Curly brackets {} must be used around the tracked URL in order to accomplish this. The curly brackets {} must be added after the URL has been inserted into the document. Adding them before, in the URL dialogue window, results in a non-clickable URL.

Adding the curly brackets {} causes the ID to be stored as part of the URL. If a Web site receives one of these ID's, it can keep track of it, and pass it to Aurea List Manager in Action Tags, without the use of cookies. Use the following format:

%%track {http://your.destination.com?x=[memberid]&y=[messageid]}%%

The clickthrough logic automatically replaces the [memberid], [messageid], [urlid], [groupid], or [urltext] with the real ID in the destination URL, so the web server page can have these variables.

 

Using HTML to Disguise a Tracking URL

A tracking URL contains the URL for your Aurea List Manager server. If you are sending text messages, this URL cannot be disguised. However, if you are sending an HTML message, you may disguise this URL using HTML.

For example:

<a href="%%track {http://www.lyris.com} -name {homepage} -group {top of page}%%">click here</A>

The tracking URL is triggered when someone clicks on the words "click here".

An image may be made clickable as well:

<a href="%%track {http://www.lyris.com/read/some.htm} -name {yourname} -group {yourgroup}%%"><img border="0" alt="" src="http://www.lyris.com/read/yourpic.jpg" /></a></p>

This tracking URL is triggered when someone clicks on the image.

 

Tracking Rich Media

The syntax for tracking rich media is much like that for tracking URLs. For video:

%%track {http://www.lyris.com/read/b2b-route.mpg} -name {video}%%

For audio:

%%track {http://www.lyris.com/read/hibaby.wav} -name {audio}%%

 

Detect Opens - Invisible GIF

Tracking if emails have been opened can only be done in HTML or multipart-alternative messages with an HTML section. The easiest way to track is to select Detect Opens in Mailings: New Mailings: Tracking. Or, you may insert the following tag into your HTML message:

%%detect_open%%

Opens cannot be tracked for recipients who cannot see HTML; however, if a clickthrough is registered for a recipient for whom there has been no opens, an open is registered for that recipient.

 

Detect HTML

Detecting HTML capability of recipients can only be done in HTML or multipart-alternative messages with an HTML section. The easiest way to detect HTML is to select Detect HTML Capability inMailings: New Mailings: Tracking. Or, you may insert the following tag into your HTML message:

%%detect_html%%

 

Detect Both Opens and HTML

Tracking opens and HTML capability of recipients can only be done in HTML or multipart-alternative messages with an HTML section. The easiest way to detect opens and HTML capability is to select Detect Opens and Detect HTML Capability in Mailings: New Mailings: Tracking. Or, you may insert the following tag into your HTML message:

%%detect_both%%

When using multiple detect tags within the same email message, some tags may not work the way you expect them to. The detect_both tag essentially has the same functionality as the detect_open and detect_html tags put together. Therefore, to avoid mistakes where detect_both and one or both of detect_open and/or detect_html are used in the same message, Aurea List Manager keeps track of what is being tracked for a particular message and if a redundant tag is inserted, it is either ignored or, in the case of detect_both, modified such that you only get a single open and html tracking image in each message. The same applies to messages where detect_html or detect_open is used multiple times. The first one is kept, and the rest ignored.

 

Detecting Opens and HTML Using CSS

Aurea List Manager usually detects opens with an invisible gif. Since gifs are blocked by some email clients, Aurea List Manager provides an alternative method using cascading style sheets.

 

To detect an open using a style sheet:

%%detect_open_css%%

 

To detect HTML using a style sheet:

%%detect_html_css%%

 

To detect both using a style sheet:

%%detect_both_css%%