Please note that this documentation is for the most recent version of this extension. It may not be relevant for older versions. Related documentation can be found in the documentation directory of the extension.
Campaign Tracking via URL Parameters for Orders
When you link your products or shop pages on external websites, in newsletters, in social media posts, or in advertisements, you often want to be able to trace later which source and which campaign led to an order. For exactly this purpose, the shop supports the transfer of UTM parameters into the order.
What is this good for?
In many cases, different channels lead to the same product pages. Without additional labelling, it is later hardly possible to tell whether an order came about via LinkedIn, a newsletter, or a partner website, for example. With UTM parameters, you can extend external links so that the origin of the visit is recorded when entering the shop and later saved in the order.
This allows you to evaluate, among other things:
- which campaigns generate the most orders
- which external sources work particularly well
- which marketing measures are worthwhile
- through which channel a customer originally came to the shop
Which parameters are supported?
For a simple start, these two parameters are sufficient in many cases:
utm_sourceutm_campaign
utm_source describes the source of the visit, for example linkedin, newsletter, or partnerportal.utm_campaign describes the associated campaign, for example spring_sale, product_launch, or black_friday.
Example
A product link can be structured like this, for example:
https://www.example.com/my-product?utm_source=linkedin&utm_campaign=spring_saleIf the shop is accessed via such a link, the system takes over this information and saves it for the further order process.
How does this work in the shop?
As soon as a visitor reaches a product or shop page with corresponding UTM parameters, the values are stored internally in the session. If the visitor later places an order, this information is transferred to the order record.
This keeps the origin of the order traceable, even if several further pages were visited between the first page call and the actual checkout.
Typical use cases
The function is particularly useful when you place links to your products or categories in various places, for example:
- in newsletters
- in social media posts
- in advertising campaigns
- on partner websites
- in blog articles
- in email signatures
- in QR codes or PDFs
Why should you use this?
Without campaign parameters, you can see that orders are coming in, but often not why or from where. With clearly named campaigns, you can compare and optimise your measures much more effectively. Especially with recurring promotions or multiple advertising channels, this helps to keep track of things.
Recommendation for naming
To ensure that the data remains easy to evaluate later, utm_source and utm_campaign should be assigned as consistently as possible. Short, clear values without spaces are recommended, for example:
utm_source=linkedinutm_source=newsletterutm_campaign=summer_saleutm_campaign=shop_coupon_launch
Note
The function is used for the internal assignment of orders to campaigns and sources. For the values to be evaluated meaningfully, external links should be structured deliberately and consistently.
TYPO3 Shop by coding.ms
An extensive shop for TYPO3 for realizing Webshops, Online-Shops or Payment-Subscriptions, comparable with tt_products, Cart or Aimeos. It includes PayPal, PayPal-Checkout, Klarna, Stripe, Bookmarks, UPS-API, invoice generation, a backend module, compare feature, graduated prices, plus product variants, filters, and tax and shipping logic for practical shop operations.