LISTSERV Maestro 8.2-2 Help

Click-Through Tracking Definition

On this page, you define which links in the message body shall be tracked.

LISTSERV Maestro is able to track all Internet links that have URLs that start with the "http://" or the "https://" protocol.

To format tracked links in plain text messages and the text alternative associated with HTML messages, enclose them with quotation marks <"> like this: "http://www.lsoft.com" The quotation marks are removed from the message before it is delivered.

HTML messages must include links as the standard <a href="URL"> tag. Note that even here, the URL must appear in quotation marks behind the "href" attribute. These quotation marks are not removed prior to sending.

The page is divided into four separate frames:

• The top frame has several general options:
  
  
  • Highlight the tracked links - If you select Highlight tracked links, then all links that are currently marked for tracking are shown in the center frame with a bright yellow background in the message body. This makes it easier to see which links have already been selected for tracking. Images that are links are shown with a bright yellow border when they are selected for tracking.
    
    
  • Do not highlight the tracked links - If you select Do not highlight tracked links, then no yellow background or border appears around the tracked links. This option also turns off the highlighting for any previously highlighted items. Turning off the highlighting does not affect whether a link is tracked or not. Since this frame makes the images a bit larger, it may impact the overall page layout. Switch off the link highlighting to restore the original layout.
    
    
  • Show HTML Page - The Show HTML Page link appears at the right side of the top frame if an HTML message with a text alternative has been defined. Clicking this link displays the HTML message in the middle frame.
    
    
  • Show Text Alternative - The Show Text Alternative link appears at the right side of the frame if an HTML message with a text alternative has been defined. Clicking this link displays the text alternative in the middle frame.
    
    
  • The [OK] button submits all changes and returns to the Tracking Definition wizard.
    
    
  • The [Cancel] button returns to the Tracking Definition wizard without saving any changes.
  
  
  
• The middle frame displays the body of the message. Links in the body (text links and image links) that can be tracked are clickable.
  
  
  • If the message body is HTML, then it contains the same links as the HTML message would.
    
    
  • If the message body is plain text or a text alternative of an HTML message, then all links that were enclosed in quotation marks (and also start with "http://" or "https://") become clickable links (and the quotation marks have been removed).
    
    
  • Clicking on a link selects the link in the bottom frame for tracking (see below).
  
   
• The bottom frame displays the details of the selected link and allows you to choose the the link for tracking. This frame always shows the details of the link that was selected most recently, either by clicking on the link in the center frame or by clicking on one of the Select Link links in the right frame.
  
  
  • Each link shows its actual target URL, label for reporting, alias, and tracking status.
    
    
  • Click the target URL to open it in another window.
    
    
  • If the link is currently not being tracked, click [Track this link] to add it to the list of tracked links, appearing in the right frame.
    
    
  • If the link is being tracked already, click [Do not track this Link] to remove it from the list.
  
  For more about aliases, see below.
  
  
• The right frame contains the Track all Links link. When clicked, all URLs in the message are registered as tracked. Below this link is a list of all links that are currently selected for tracking.
  Each link is shown with the following information:
  
  
  • Label for reporting (may be "<No Label>")
    Labels for reporting are used to assign meaningful texts to links with long or complicated URLs. Labels are shown in addition to the URL, to make link identification in reports easier. (more about reporting labels below).
    
    
  • Link alias (may be "<No Alias>")
    Aliases are used to distinguish between different links that go to the same URL, or to assign a shared category to links that go to different URLs. (more about using aliases below).
    
    
  • Link URL
    This is the URL the link targets. Click the link to open it in a new window.
    
    
  • Select Link
    Click here to select this link in the bottom frame (see below). This has the same effect as clicking on a link in the body shown in the center frame.
    
    
  • Main Body / Text Alt.
    This information tells you where the link is located, either in the main body (of plain text mail or HTML mail) or in the text alternative (of HTML mail).
  
   

Link Aliases

A link alias gives each tracked link an additional identification that distinguishes it from other links, even if they go to the same URL. This becomes significant if there is more than one link to the same URL in a message, and it is important to find out which link or links has been clicked.

If aliases for tracked links are not defined, (which is possible, since aliases are optional), then LISTSERV Maestro is only able to find the URL of the link in the tracking data. This is adequate if each URL appears only once in the message, or if there is no need to track which of the several instances of the URL were clicked. Without aliases defined, if the same URL appears in several links in the message, then it is impossible to tell which of the links was actually clicked.

For example, a company sends out a message that has both an image link and a textual link in the running text body, both of which go to their homepage. The company wants to know if more people click on the image link or on the text link. To get this information, both links are marked for tracking and given different aliases. LISTSERV Maestro is then able to report which of the links was clicked when reviewing the tracking data.

Other examples include finding out if links at the top of a message are clicked more often than those at the bottom, or if animated GIFs motivated more people to click on a link than static images. Aliases can also be used to group links with different target URLs together. For example, all image links in a message can be given one alias, and all text links in a message can be given another to determine if people click on image links or text links more often.

Link Texts

LISTSERV Maestro detects link texts in HTML by looking at the link text or image. In automatically generated reports, this is used to assist you in identifying the URL.

Note: Contrary to link aliases, link texts are purely visual and affect LISTSERV Maestro's repository of tracking data in no way.