Email link tracking without using utm parameters?

Question

I would like to start tracking email visits to give them an email medium using GA campaign parameters

However I'm not happy with the long utm link parameters; they are unsightly and also prone to getting shared inappropriately, as many people won't take the time to remove them when copying and pasting a link after viewing a page.

Is there a way to track email traffic without having such a URL?

Answer 1

If long URL is your only concern, you could use http://wistia.com/blog/fresh-url to cleanup the URL once a visitor lands on your website.

It works with major analytics tools and won't affect your tracking.

Answer 2

You can user an url shortener service to shorten a link with parameters. Or you can use special landing pages that are linked only via you email campaigns (so you either recognize email campaigns via the landingpage or you make this a redirect that redirects with the proper utm parameters).

Edit: If as per your comment your worried what ends up in the browser bar you should still be able to use a special landingpage and send the campaign parameters by passing the url as virtual pageview. In Universal Analytics you might be able to set the campaign name via the "set" method, but I have not tested this.

Answer 3

Edit your .htaccess file to include the utm parameters on your redirect URL.

Redirect /awesomevanityurl http://example.com/marketinglandingpage.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=awesome%20keyword&utm_campaign=slogan