How to Connect Google Analytics to Your Events

Does your organization use Google Analytics? Did you know you can use it to track traffic to your ShowClix event listings?

With the right setup, we can help you better understand your audience and your customers by plugging your events into the massive power of Google Analytics.

First, you’ll need a Google Analytics (GA) account (which is free!), so go here to do that if you haven’t already. Once you have an account, you can check out the rest of this how-to tutorial.

Estimated time: 5-10 minutes

Set up cross-domain tracking.

• To get started, you’ll need to add the cross-domain tracking code to your website. This code allows you to see a visitor’s entire online path to their ticket purchase.
• Sign in to Google Analytics and click Admin. Go to  Property > Tracking Info > Tracking Code > Copy code under Website Tracking. 
• Then, add the tracking code to all pages on your website.

Add your cross-domain tracking code.

• Now that your tracking code is on every page on your website, you can use our simple tool to add it to your event listings.
• Just sign in to your ShowClix account and visit the Marketing section. Click Marketing Accounts and scroll down to the Google Analytics section.
• Enter your UA Tracking ID in the field provided and click Save.

Create a new Google Analytics goal.

• Return to your Google Analytics account and click Admin. Then click View [your profile name].
• Click Goals and select New Goal. Now you’ll need to follow the instructions until you are prompted to select a destination.
• Select the Regular Expression option, and enter /receipt.* in the space provided. (Note: You must enter that phrase exactly as written here, including the slash, asterisk, etc.)
• Click Save.

Activate E-Commerce reporting.

• Now it’s time to turn on e-commerce reporting in GA, which will allow your GA account to gather your ticketing revenue from transactions.
• In your Google Analytics account, click Admin and then select Ecommerce Settings.
• Toggle the Enable E-Commerce to the On position. Then click Next Step and finally Submit.

Remove ShowClix referral traffic.

• Remove four website referrals, showclix.com, www.showclix.com and your two website URL versions (ex.www.winefestival.com and winefestival.com) as referral traffic sources to properly track where website traffic is coming from:
• In Google Analytics, click Admin and then select Tracking Info. Select the Referral Exclusion List.
• Now click +Add Referral Exclusion and enter showclix.com in the field provided. Click Create to save your changes.
• Again click +Add Referral Exclusion and enter www.showclix.com in the field provided. Click Create to save your changes.
• Again click the +Add Referral Exclusion and enter your website URL > Create
• Again click the +Add Referral Exclusion and enter your www.website URL > Create
• And that’s it! Your Google Analytics setup is complete.

Now that you’ve connected ShowClix to your GA account, why not build some campaign URLs using their URL builder?

These simple tracking codes can be attached to the end of any URL you use for online marketing initiatives. They’ll enable GA to report on specific campaigns based on names your provide. Now start digging into your traffic data!