Dustin Ratzlaff discusses tools that can help track return on investment for digital marketing campaigns, including call tracking, UTM parameters, event tracking using Google Tag Manager, and Hotjar for visual analytics. These tools allow marketers to better understand user behavior and connect data to campaign objectives identified through a COS (Challenges, Opportunities, Strengths) analysis with clients. The presentation provides examples of how each tool can be implemented and the insights they can provide to improve campaign performance and measure results.

1. Defining Expectations
& Providing Value
Through Metrics
A Guide by Dustin Ratzlaff

2. What will you get
out of this talk?
● Know which tools help with Return on Investments (ROI)
● Learn how to better engage in strategic conversations
with you clients

3. But before we get
into all of that,
let’s talk about me.

4. Hey, I’m Dustin!
● Loud, bold entrepreneur
● Founder of unINK Marketing & Creative Agency
● 10 years experience in Digital Advertising & Marketing

5. How did it all start?

6. “What would you do
with a million
dollars?”
“Buy a Gas Station, because everyone needs gas!”
- Dustin at 5 years old

7. Where did it all
begin?
I started my first company and found my love for design and
entrepreneurship...
in my mother’s garage.

8. Corporate Hustle at
Autotrader(.ca)
5 years of transition & growth

9. Where I’m at right
now.
Founder & CEO of unINK Marketing & Creative Agency

10. unINK

11. My daily?
● Provide context to reporting for our clients
● Challenging clients on strategy
● Defend the work of my coworkers (in a good way)
● Put out fires
● Read a ton of emails

12. Most importantly, I
provide clients with
data to help them
make better business
decisions.

13. Because tracking
campaign ROI helps
build more trusting
relationships.

14. Let’s get to it.
Here are the tools I’ll go
over:● Using the COS system in meetings
● Call Tracking
● UTM Parameters
● Event Goal Tracking using Google Tag Manager
● Visual Analytics using HotJar

15. Why?
Because Digital
Marketing needs ROI
and ROI needs data
collection.

16. In the not so distant
past:
● The Starphoenix only sold physical newspapers
● Social Media Managers were nieces and nephews
● Radio, TV and Print controlled the majority of ad
budgets
● Websites were static

17. Nowadays, we all
have digital ad
budgets,
and those budgets are likely growing.

18. ● Search Marketing
● Social Media
● Video Advertising
● Billboard Advertising (slightly)
● Magazine Advertising
● Radio Advertising
TV advertising growth has become stagnant

19. What does this all
mean?
Digital advertising is getting more crowded, using tools to
track your campaigns will help with realising a Return on
your Investment.

20. By using these tools:
● COS structure
● Call Tracking
● UTM Parameters
● Google Tag Manager
● Visual Analytics

21. You’ll be able to:
● Conduct a more strategic conversation with key
stakeholders
● Measure ROI
● Understand User Habits
● Build Audience Segments
● Identify the Creative that Converts

22. Tracking the results of user
activity allows for a more
fluid approach to campaign
management.

23. Proving ROI
Connecting the dots
in our data
In a sea of CPCs, CPMs, CTRs, Time on Sites, Bounce Rates…...

24. Proving ROI & ad
spend Transparency
are different
If your reporting doesn’t give you something actionable,
what’s the point?
It’s hard to connect CPCs, CPMs, CTRs, Frequency to real
world objectives.

25. What we’re shooting
for is to connect our
data to our
objectives.
Campaign objectives should be a key driver.

26. Disclaimer:
It’s not an exact
science

27. Objectives are often
related to leads:
Calls
Emails
In-store traffic

28. Hard things to be
accountable for if
expectations aren’t
realistic.

29. Now, let’s cut
through the BS with
our key stakeholders
and help align
expectations!

30. How do we get
there?
I use two ways to engage in strategic conversation with my
clients.
1. COS Analysis
2. Data Collection & Interpretation

31. 1. COS Analysis
A 20-minute activity, done formally or informally that breaks
down barriers and provides insight and context to help us
connect our expertise.
Challenges. Opportunities. Strengths.

32. Challenges to be
eliminated:
What keeps you up at night?
(CONCERNS/WORRIES)

33. Opportunities to be
captured:
What gets your juices flowing?
(EXCITEMENTS)

34. Strengths to be
maximized:
What do you believe about your
organisation?
(CONFIDENCE)

35. Why COS?
● Great way to cut through the BS and get real with
yourself/clients
● Allows for an emotional connection to your clients

36. Group Breakout
Session!
20 min

37. 20-min Professional
COS activity.
This is an opportunity to review and reflect on your
organisation’s:
● Challenges
● Opportunities
● Strengths

38. Based on your COS,
what objectives
would you focus on
in your next
campaign?

39. Second:
Data Collection
For the purpose of conversion tracking, improving ROI and
future proofing our organisations.

40. The importance of
data collection
We all understand the value of customer data to companies
like Facebook & Google.

41. Consider the cost of
not collecting data.
Efficient marketing paves the way for bigger budgets and
eventually, and more confident ad buys.
Let’s make sure we’re figuring it out, because our
competitors eventually will.

42. What data collection
activities we are
discussing?

43. ● Identifying calls by medium or source
● Identifying traffic sources across the web
● Tracking form submissions
● Filtering & watching valuable sessions for context
● Tracking ad performance

44. Let’s start with Call
Tracking

45. Track your calls
using call tracking
and dynamic call
tracking.

46. How?
I use NinjaCats but
you’ve got options.
A Google search will provide you with plenty.

47. What does Call
Tracking look like?

48. Direct traffic gets

49. Google referral gets

50. Google my business gets

51. Facebook
gets

52. Bing gets

53. Then, I get a
detailed report.

54. I also get
● Local and toll-free numbers
● Ability to track any online/offline channels (AdWords,
Facebook)
● Free porting of existing numbers (with zero downtime)
● Integration with Google Analytics & Google AdWords

55. Calls can sync to Analytics

56. So, how hard is Call
Tracking to set up?

57. First, pick a number(s) that will
need to be replaced

58. Choose what you want to track

59. Choose your new local or toll-
free number

60. Type in or upload your greeting

61. Determine your conversion

62. Finally, Copy/Paste the Code

63. Now you can track
every call from any
source!

64. UTM Parameters
Urchin Tracking Module Parameters

65. UTM parameters in a
URL identify the
marketing campaign
that refers traffic to
a specific website.

66. Why use them?
They tell you which
posts, ads or emails
drive traffic and leads
to your website.

67. What do UTM
parameters look like
and where do they
go?

68. Add this to the end of your URL:
?utm_campaign=&utm_medium=&utm_source=&utm_conten
t=&utm_term=
It’ll look like this:
www.unink.ca?utm_campaign=&utm_medium=&utm_source
=&utm_content=&utm_term=

69. There are 5 key
parameters:
● Campaign Source
● Campaign Medium
● Campaign Term
● Campaign Content
● Campaign Name

70. Google auto tracks
traffic, but it has
gaps.

71. Making & keeping
track of parameters.
I recommend Google Sheets!

72. Here’s mine!

73. View the
results in
Google
Analytics.
Source/Medium Report

74. Create custom
segments or “groups”
of users by filtering in
analytics.

76. Review by region

77. Or by medium

78. Speed things up
using dynamic
parameters.

79. Shared library
{lpurl}?campaign={campaignid}&content={creative}&keyword={keyword}

80. Why use UTMs? They
tell you which posts,
ads or emails drive
traffic and leads to
your website.

81. Google Tag Manager
(GTM)
Track important events using GTM.

82. What is GTM?
A management system for all the marketing pixels and
marketing tags you will need to run more intelligent
campaigns all in one place.

83. Why?
Using GTM You’ll be able to track event goals that help you
accomplish your campaign objectives and measure ROI.

84. Example: I want to
know when people
are signing up for
my event.

85. Let’s have GTM
listen for these
events using a tag,
then, import it to
Google Analytics.

86. How? First,
Configure
your event
in Google
Tag
Manager.

87. Now, let’s add it as a Goal
in Google Analytics.

89. Check out your
event goals in
Google Analytics,
under Behaviour.

90. Here are our event
categories.

91. Our event goal “Registration
Initiation” lives under the
“Interactions” category.

92. Now, we can review how
many times someone
signed up for our event by
using a huge range of
different audience
segments.

93. Segments can be
based on areas such
as:
Gender, traffic sources, location, age, etc.

94. For example, here’s how many
signed up for an event sorted by
gender:

95. Now you are able to
track and compare
objectives by your
audience segments.

96. The legal stuff & the
GDPR.
● Make sure you have a clearly stated terms of service/
privacy policy - Most data collection tools require it
● The provisions of the GDPR apply to any organization
that processes personal data of individuals in the
European Union, including tracking their online
activities, regardless of whether the organization has a
physical presence in the EU.

97. HotJar (this is super
cool)
Visual Analytics

98. Visual analytics can
help provide more
context to how
people use your
website.

99. Session recording

100. Good ol’ fashioned
polling

101. Click
Mapping

102. Heat
Mapping

103. Conclusion
● Tracking ROI isn’t an exact science
● Data collection can help improve campaign effectiveness
over time
● Using data, we can better understand our audience and
their habits

104. Consider the
Campaign Objectives
you identified during
the COS exercise.
How can you use the data collection tools we’ve discussed to
track and measure ROI?

105. 1. Call tracking
2. UTM parameters
3. Events tracking using Google Tag Manager
4. Hotjar (visual analytics)