How to track link clicks in Outlook

Apr 14, 2021 | Email Marketing, Email production, Online Marketing

Tracking clicks in your email newsletters and other campaigns can help you measure engagement.

Donna Warnett

You’re probably already tracking clicks in the campaigns you send from email sending platforms such as Mailchimp, as click tracking is generally enabled by default. But have you ever wondered how to track link clicks in your Outlook emails? This can be especially useful if you’re sending an html email from Outlook, or if your email includes a branded signature or promotional banner. For example, you might want to see if the banner in your email signature is generating traffic and registrations for your upcoming webinar. If you’re using Google Analytics to measure your website traffic, tracking clicks in Outlook emails is quick and easy.

Step 1: Generate new URLs using Campaign URL Builder

Google provides a free tool to add tracking information to the links in your emails. Visit Campaign URL Builder and fill in your URL, along with the other required fields.

Here are the parameters that can be added in Campaign URL Builder:

Campaign source: Where the traffic came from. For example, email_signature.

Campaign medium: In this scenario, the medium would be email.

Campaign name: Give your campaign a name. For example, May_webinar.

Campaign term: This is used for paid search rather than email, so leave it out.

Campaign content: This can identify different links in your email. For example, text_link or logo_link.

Generate new URLs using Campaign URL Builder
As you add parameters, Google will generate a long campaign URL with UTM tags (tracking tags).
Campaign URL Builder
You can then link to your new URL, instead of the original, in Outlook. If the full URL will be visible in your email and looks untidy, you could use bit.ly (or another URL shortener) to create a compact link and hide the UTM codes.

Once users start clicking on the links in your email, detailed results will appear in Google Analytics.

Step 2: Analyse the data in Google Analytics

Log in to Google Analytics and navigate to Acquisition > Campaigns > All Campaigns. You’ll see the campaign name you chose in Campaign URL Builder, along with key metrics such as the number of users and goal completions.

Analyse the data in Google Analytics

And that’s it! Happy tracking.

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