Marketing Channel Groupings in Google Analytics
The following list of channels are used to group UAMS web traffic in Google Analytics according to how users are led to the UAMS web properties. While some traffic is sorted into certain channels without any action taken on our part, the majority of web traffic needs specific URL parameters (text included at or near the end of a URL) which are set when creating marketing redirects and tagged URLs.
- Affiliate Marketing — an advertising model in which a company compensates third-party publishers to generate traffic or leads to the company’s products and services. The third-party publishers are affiliates, and the commission fee incentivizes them to find ways to promote the company.
- Collateral — physical media distributed directly to consumers to create brand awareness for UAMS products or services. Collateral can be considered a more specific version of out-of-home marketing. It covers items like brochures, cards, flyers, programs, stickers, guidebooks, tradeshow giveaways and others.
- Conversational Marketing — a form of inbound marketing/communication consisting of direct two-way interaction between businesses and customers on different available channels. This could be achieved via phone call, face-to-face meeting, live chat, chatbots, voice assistants, an email or short messages. (Use the “Phone Messages” channel for outbound telemarketing, one-way phone interactions or a blend of one-way and two-way phone interactions)
- Direct Mail — a mode of marketing/communication that uses the mail system for delivery
- Display Advertising — paid online advertising that consists of text, image and motion ads, which display on websites and apps. (Use “Social, Paid” for similar advertising)
- Email — a mode of marketing/communication that uses email to promote your business’s products or services.
- Out-of-Home Marketing — advertising experienced outside of the home. This includes billboards, wallscapes, and posters seen while “on the go”. It also includes place-based media seen in places such as convenience stores, medical centers, salons, and other brick-and-mortar venues. (See the “Collateral” channel for a more specific subset of out-of-home marketing)
- Phone Messages — marketing/communication happening during a phone call. This will cover outbound telemarketing (proactively reaching out to consumers). It also covers one-way communication that occurs when a consumer reaches out to us, such as intro greetings, voicemail and hold messages. If a single vanity URL is used for both one-way and two-way interactions, use this channel. (Use the “Conversational Marketing” channel for a more specific subset of phone messages involving direct two-way interactions in inbound marketing)
- Print Publications — paid or unpaid marketing/communications placed in a print publication.
- Radio and Audio Streaming — paid or unpaid marketing/communications aired on a radio station or on an audio streaming platform.
- Referral — links to our web properties from other websites that are not social media or search engines, and are not part of any paid advertising.
- Search, Organic (Free) — unpaid traffic coming from search engines. This consists of normal search results as well as Google My Business cards.
- Search, Paid — sponsored ads that appear at the top of and on the side of search engine results pages to gain more visibility and prominence than the organic results
- Social, Organic (Free) — unpaid marketing and communication placed on social media.
- Social, Paid — paid marketing and communication placed on social media.
- Text Messages (SMS) — one-way marketing/communication happening via text message. This will cover automated text notifications. (Use the “Conversational Marketing” channel for direct two-way interactions)
- TV and Video Streaming — paid or unpaid marketing/communications aired on a television station or on an video streaming platform. (Use one of the “Social” channels for YouTube, as that is a social media website, even though its content is streaming video )
- Other — all marketing/communication not covered by any other channel