How does the floating action button automatically capture UTMs/GCLIDs?

Modified on Wed, 3 Apr at 11:40 AM

This article will help you understand capturing UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) and GCLID (Google Click ID) parameters to understand marketing campaign conversions better.

The Vetstoria platform now captures the unique UTM and/or GLCID parameters that are passed along with the website URL. These parameters will be stored with Vetstoria data and then exposed back via the Corporate Reporting API.

How the UTM/GCLID codes are captured?

When a pet owner navigates to a page from an ad campaign that uses UTM and/or GCLID parameters, the Vetstoria floating button will capture these and store them in a cookie on the local device.

Note: this function is dependent on the website having the floating button functional across all pages.

The following parameters will be saved in the cookie based on its availability:

Attribute
Description
utm_source
Used to identify a search engine, newsletter name, or other source.
utm_medium
Used to identify a medium such as email or cost-per-click.
utm_campaign
Used for keyword analysis. Used to identify a specific product promotion or strategic campaign
utm_id
Used to identify which ads campaign this referral references. Used to identify a specific ads campaign.
utm_term
Used to identify which ads campaign this referral references. Used to identify a specific ads campaign
utm_content
Used for A/B testing and content-targeted ads. Used to differentiate ads or links that point to the same URL.
gclid
Google click ID: to identify the campaign and other attributes of the click associated with the ad for ad tracking and campaign attribution
impression_time 
first_seen_time when the cookie was generated
impression_id 
Unique count which can be utilised to count the numbers of times a session was initiated from this device.
gad_source
Website URL, used to identify the source of the ad.

Attribute	Description
utm_source	Used to identify a search engine, newsletter name, or other source.
utm_medium	Used to identify a medium such as email or cost-per-click.
utm_campaign	Used for keyword analysis. Used to identify a specific product promotion or strategic campaign
utm_id	Used to identify which ads campaign this referral references. Used to identify a specific ads campaign.
utm_term	Used to identify which ads campaign this referral references. Used to identify a specific ads campaign
utm_content	Used for A/B testing and content-targeted ads. Used to differentiate ads or links that point to the same URL.
gclid	Google click ID: to identify the campaign and other attributes of the click associated with the ad for ad tracking and campaign attribution
impression_time	first_seen_time when the cookie was generated
impression_id	Unique count which can be utilised to count the numbers of times a session was initiated from this device.
gad_source	Website URL, used to identify the source of the ad.

Cookie Classification and Expiry

Cookie name = vs_campaign_tracking
The cookie should be classified by the website provided as a ‘marketing’ cookie and can be option to accept for the user.
The cookie will be valid for 30 days.
The cookie will not be regenerated unless it’s either expired or the stored parameters are different to the parameters loaded in the URL. (except for the impression_id and impression_time)

How are the UTM codes saved ?

When the pet owner opens the booking tool via the floating buttpm, the information saved in the cookie will be be retrieved by Vetstoria and saved to the Vetstoria database.

Upon saving the cookie information, a validation will be performed to allow alphanumeric and selected special characters which are mentioned below.

Underscore ( _ )
Dash ( - )
Period ( . )
Plus sign ( + )
Colon ( : )

UTM/GCLID parameter values with special characters that are not specified above, will not be saved to the database.

Exposing the UTM codes via Reporting API

The data captured and saved in the Vetstoria database will be consumed by users of the Corporate Reporting API.

Please see updated RAPI documentation for detail on exposed endpoints.

If you have any questions or if you need further help, please login to Vetstoria to chat with our team or use the Contact Support form linked at the top of this page.