Aweber Click Tracking – How Not To Do It
Every business has it’s own unique set of tools to perform various tasks each day required to keep it moving forward. One of the most important tools of an Internet Marketer is some kind of email marketing software such as Aweber. This software tool is also know as an Autoresponder.
A most important feature of this software is click tracking. This feature keeps track of how many times a link is clicked and who clicks it.
The other day I sent out a broadcast message to my subscribers the same way I’ve been doing it for quite a while. The only difference this time was that I really needed to know how many people actually clicked on the links I had placed in the email and were taken to the predetermined destination I had picked out for them.
The next day I went into Aweber to check my stats only to find that no one had clicked any of the links I had put in the email. Well I knew this was not the case because of some of the results I was getting due to people clicking on my links.
Something was askew and I had to find out what it was. Watch this video to see what I found out.
til next time…
Jeff Sargent
Tagged with: aweber • click tracking • email marketing software • internet marketer
Filed under: Videos
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Hi Jeff,
I love Aweber but what you show on your video is something that I wasn’t aware of.
You’d think that every URL would be recognized as a link as it is in emails.
But Aweber doesn’t do that. It is therefore like Word Press where you also have to make a link live the way you show in the video. Otherwise it won’t show as and be a clickable link.
The video is very helpful and for that reason I’ll re-tweet your post so others can benefit from it.
Vance
.-= Vance Sova´s last blog ..Alex Jeffreys Marketing With Alex Las Vegas Workshop 2010 =-.
Hey Vance,
Nice to see you back here. Thanks for re-tweeting my post.
You WOULD think that every URL would be recognized by Aweber and counted but as you could see in my video that’s not the case. I mostly use anchor text in my emails that’s why I didn’t pay much attention when every now and then I had zero clicks.
I just figured something went wrong and Aweber didn’t count the link being clicked. It wasn’t until I really needed to know how many clicks I had in a certain email blast I sent out and had zero clicks that I realized there was a problem and I needed to fix it.
I had no idea it was because I wasn’t selecting the URL I had in my text and not inserting the same URL as the destination URL. You get the point better watching the video.
I have a feeling there’s a lot of people out there making the same mistake I was and are just forgetting about it. This business is all about testing and tracking and if you don’t have accurate results you will never be able to if your business profits are up or down.
Later,
Jeff Sargent
AWeber recognizes URLs in messages automatically, the problem you encountered was due to creating a message in HTML vs. plain text. Your email program may make that URL embedded in an HTML document clickable, but for many recipients it’s not. The only way it’s truly a valid link is if you make it a link using the link builder or embedding the “a href” text in the raw HTML. That’s just the nature of HTML. If you pasted that URL into a plain text document it would automatically be recognized. This is the same behavior as if you pasted a URL into the text section of a webpage, your web browser only makes it a link if it has the proper “a href” link properties in the HTML.
Another thing to note, when creating HTML messages I strongly discourage making a raw link like that clickable. You should always make a link clickable by using words that describe what the link is. The problem is, when you have a display URL as “example.com” and then a click tracker changes the link and it actually goes to “tracking-example.com” then most email programing anti spam filters or phishing detectors will flag that email as suspicious.
Hey Tom,
Thanks for the great info in your comment.
Your comment about discouraging against making raw links clickable is an interesting one to say the least. I know I had no idea and I’m willing to bet not many people out there are aware of this. As email marketers we have enough problems with spam filters now and we certainly don’t want to be raising any more flags that our emails may be suspicious and then get tossed into the spam folder.
I know I see more and more emails everyday get thrown into my spam folder from reputable marketers I’ve been receiving emails from for years. Since you left this comment I’ve been checking and most of them are because of using a raw link as the clickable link as opposed to using contextual links.
Just to make sure everyone here understands the difference I will give an example.
Just as I mentioned in the video what I was doing wrong make sure you don’t make the same mistake here. After you type your display url you need to highlight it and then a little window will pop up asking you to enter the destination url.
RAW link: http://sargentmarketing.com/blog/videos/aweber-click-tracking-how-not-to-do-it/
Contextual link:
For more information on how to properly use links in your email marketing you might want to read my blog post on Aweber Click Tracking
I hope everyone gets the point here Tom so we all can stop feeding the spam folders and start getting more emails read by our subscribers.
Thanks,
Jeff Sargent
Hi Jeff,
I already got into the habit of doing that from the start, mainly because I wanted to make sure my links would be clickable for sure in my emails…
I only found out a couple of weeks ago that it didn’t track the links if you didn’t make live, but I actually didn’t expect it to, so I wasn’t surprised by it.. I didn’t want it to track this particular link, and that’s why I didn’t make it live.
But I just learned something very interesting from Tom’s post above, who is from Aweber I see, about turning your links into words to help stop it being filtered as spam… I’ll have to start doing that in my future mails that I set up.
Nice post and video Jeff, I’m sure many people aren’t aware of that factor so it’s good to make people aware of it.
Speak soon,
Paul
.-= Paul Lear´s last blog ..My Goals For 2010 =-.
Hey Paul,
Glad to hear from you again.
I know many people aren’t aware of the things said in Tom Kulzer’s comment and that’s why we all have to stick together and pass the word around about stuff as important as this. Now’s the time when I wish I had 1,000 visitors a day to my blog so everyone could learn about this.
I know you’re following what he said because I see you doing it in your emails.
Later,
Jeff Sargent
Yeah ever since I visited your blog and read that comment, I’ve been making my links into text, usually a call to action as you may have noticed.
Thanks for your comment on my recent blog post.
Paul
.-= Paul Lear´s last blog ..How I built my List from 50 to 2000 in around 15 weeks! =-.
Great post Jeff,
I wasn’t aware of this so thanks for taking the time to share the info!!
Very interesting point that Tom makes and definitely something I’m going to start doing straight away.
Rob
.-= Rob Bradley´s last blog ..Vegas… =-.
Hey Rob,
Thanks for your comment.
Yes, I’m sure glad Tom Kulzer stopped by and left that comment. Certainly if we should listen to anyone we should be listening to the CEO of Aweber Communications. We just need to get the word out to as many people as we can about what he says here.
Later,
Jeff Sargent
Hey Jeff
You alright mate? sorry I have not been over for a while.
Great video and it outlines yet another thing I didnt know.
There is just so much stuff to learn, plus im not techie so it makes IM just a little more complicated for me.
Well im sure we shall meet soon.
Cheers
Marcus
.-= marcus passey´s last blog ..Las Vegas JAN 2010-Internet Marketing Seminar-Alex Jeffreys-Mike Filsaime & Grey goose Vodka! =-.
Hey Marcus,
Nice of you to stop by. Where have you been hiding?
You see, if you stop by here more often you will learn all kinds of things you didn’t know. lol! No, just kidding Marcus. But the comment left by Tom from Aweber should open a few eyes. I know it opened mine and I’ll be doing my links differently from now on.
You never want to stop learning.
Later,
Jeff Sargent
Hi Jeff,
Thank you for sharing your experience. I wasn’t aware of the difference. Partly because I though you must explicitly attach a link code the a text (even if it’s an URL) when your are working with the HTML format in Aweber. Now I’m aware that this is the way you it have to be done and I can avoid doing the mistake you’ve shown for us.
Great video
Estani
.-= Estani Chapel´s last blog ..List Building With Giveaway Events – 2 =-.
Hey Estani,
Thanks for the comment. I don’t have any problem showing mistakes that I’ve made as long as it will help others not to make the same mistake. After all, click tracking is a very important part of our business and if we’re doing it wrong what’s the point.
Glad to be of help.
Later,
Jeff Sargent
Hi Jeff
Just came visiting your site and found some good information. Thanks. I love reading other people’s blogs and getting any tips I can.
As you see my name is Sue McDonald and I live in Australia. I am at present doing the Newbie course with Mark Terrell who originally did the course with Alex a few years ago.
It’s interesting learning and like everyone that starts these types of courses we all want to make money and have more time to ourselves. I hope you are making a great living and if you have time over the next few weeks and you could take a look at my blog and leave a comment, I would certainly appreciate it.
Kindest regards
Sue
.-= Sue McDonald´s last blog ..The Newbie Learning More =-.
Hey Sue,
Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment.
I see you’re taking a course with Mark Terrell. I believe he was in MWA1.0 with me. I know he went through the same coaching just can’t remember if he was in my class. There are so many Alex Jeffreys students now it’s getting harder and harder to keep track of them.
You ask here if I have time if I could visit your blog and leave a comment. Of course, that’s what I do. I make mention of that in one on my posts that I try to reply to each post on my blog and then try to return the favor by visiting your blog and leaving a nice comment. This is one of the ways you get traffic to your blog.
Off to your blog now.
Later,
Jeff Sargent
Hi Jeff,
thanks for this valuable post and extra information in your comments. Although I’ve been using Aweber I was not aware of that problem.
I have encountered another problem as well. Sometimes it is really hard to change the affiliate link hidden under anchor text in Aweber in html version of a message. It simply didn’t work and required many attempts to change it. It was strange. I had this problem a couple of times and I was glad I tested the links through sending the message to my own email address.
.-= Justyna Bizdra´s last blog ..5 Best Creative Thinking Techniques to help your business thrive =-.
Hey Justyna,
Thanks for stopping by.
I’m glad you got something from my video.
I have also encountered the same problem you mention here about having trouble at times changing the links that anchor text points to. What I have done in the past is to logout out of Aweber and log back in and it solved the problem. I’m not sure what causes that issue but it’s a simple fix so I don’t spend too much time worrying about it. It may even be my computer causing it but don’t know.
Later,
Jeff Sargent
great advice a lot of people don’t seem to know that… the also Aweber (and other autoresponders) track open rates from placing an image in your email and many people have images turned off… so that’s usually an underestimate… just thought I’d let everyone know
.-= Jeff Bode´s last blog ..Your Online Business =-.
Hey Jeff,
Thanks for your comment.
You’re right about how Aweber uses an image to track open rates…in fact it’s a one pixel image that you won’t see. And yes many people have images turned off so it doesn’t get reported as an opened email. These facts I’m certain of.
This fact I’m not positive about but pretty sure. A lot of people have a split window or preview pane on their email clients. If you have this setup even though you didn’t actually open your email Aweber thinks you did because that one pixel image showed up in the preview pane (of course that’s if you have images turned on). These are just a couple of things that may throw your results askew a little.
Later,
Jeff Sargent
Hi everyone
everyone who has a blog, sooner or later will become a little despondent at how little exposure or how little traffic is coming your way.
.-= self defense weapons´s last blog ..Workplace safety tips- for both employees and business =-.
I have been doing this as well as a normal rule but lately I have to admit I havent always taken care this way.
I will be more careful in future.
Thanks for the post!
.-= Peter Davies´s last blog ..Internet Marketing Or Internet Selling? =-.
Hi Jeff,
I’m going to save your video in case I need it, but I have to tell you, I got really excited when you told me it would take 53 seconds to read your post…wow…someone who values my time… and then let down when I found out the video is 8 minutes…I’d rather know the truth the first time round…don’t let your readers down…we get too much false advertising as it is!
I’m learning blogging from Mark Terrell, checking out blogs including yours, and you can post on mine if you wish.
But I will save your video for when I need the information.
Thanks.
Cheryl Jones
Hey Cheryl,
Thanks for visiting my Blog and leaving a comment.
First off, I do value your time. But do you really think you were going to get much information on Aweber click tracking in 53 seconds. Sorry but I have no control over the estimated reading times that WordPress sticks in when using the “Read More” feature.
You’re going to see that same exact thing on everyone’s blog, including yours, if using the “Read More” feature.
Back to the value your time issue. That’s why I created this video so you wouldn’t be wasting your time making the same mistakes I was making using Aweber.
I’m sorry if you feel you were mislead with false advertising and that you feel I let my readers down, but I thought I created a very good and useful video for my readers to try and help them. If you read all the other comments here I think you will see that everyone else liked the video as well.
I hope you enjoy the video..
Later,
Jeff Sargent
Hey Jeff,
Great video, whenever I post out the url I always go over it to link it anyway.
Always have especially if I have more than one link as they need to be set to open in a new window.
I am a bit slack on the testing of the emails though and is something I will be doing from now on.
Great comments from Tom up there really helpful.
All the best,
James
.-= James Howard´s last blog ..Offline Internet Marketing Workshop =-.
Hi Jeff
I was reading something earlier and the word “Autoresponder” was mentioned.
I haden’t got a clue what that was and then I started to read this post and there it is…. Autoresponder, so I read on.
I’m not totally with it but at least I’m a little wiser now.
BTW – well presented and easy to follow video.
Hey Jeff, thanks for this video, I am going to double, triple check my links in aweber emails in future, Sally
.-= Sally Neill´s last blog ..In It To Win It And Need YOUR Help =-.
Hey Sally,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
I’m glad you enjoyed the video.
I just came from your blog and learned how much you love going to the dentist. haha! It’s nice to meet another Alex Jeffreys’ student. It’s quite a group of people and I’ve made many friends over the last two years from that coaching class. Networking and making contacts are very important in this business and we certainly have an advantage with all of his students.
Good luck in your traffic contest.
Later,
Jeff Sargent
Hi Jeff
Thanks a lot for this video, I confess I was assuming that the full url in the emails was tracked. But you showed us it is not, so I must take care with that.
Anyway, I’m developing the habit to always put the link behind a phrase, like “Click here for this and that” or something similar.
Thanks for this advice.
Cheers
Jorge
.-= Jorge´s last blog ..Marketing With Alex… =-.
Hey Jorge,
Thanks for stopping by and I’m glad you enjoyed the video on Aweber Click Tracking. You will find that you’ll get more clicks by using anchor text instead of those ugly links. It will also assure you that more of your emails get through the spam filters and actually make it to your subscribers.
You will quickly find that if you don’t track everything that you do you’ll never know what is working and what is not. If you have something such as emails in your autoresponder that are not performing well and you’re not tracking opens and click through rates, how are you supposed to improve on them.
Later,
Jeff Sargent
Hey Jeff,
Really great tip. Thanks! I’m just getting started out so there are lots of little mistakes like this that I will probably do. Thanks for the help!
Peace,
Darren L Carter
.-= Darren L Carter´s last blog ..Want To Know My Exact Strategy For Going From Zero To Internet Success? =-.
yo jeff
as a newbie with techphobia i was a bit lost
what you were explaining, but got there in the
end.. i shall be back when i need to set my next
aweber system up.. great tho, really useful..
thanks for the comment you left..
yes im hooked on the mountain stuff, although this
marketing is taking over for now.. but when the money
starts to flow, i will have my pick of any peak i guess..
who knows, you could take me out fishing 1 day
chow 4 now jeff my man…nicky
.-= nicky´s last blog ..I DON’T CARE ABOUT TRAFFIC! =-.
I’ve experienced the same problem already a couple of times, when I sent test emails from Aweber account to my Gmail address.
I’m glad you stopped by, now you can correct the problem after watching the video.
Thanks for the comment.
Later,
Jeff Sargent
Jeff, you’re an absolute star!
I have spent the past 24 hours pulling out my hair (not good!) wondering why on earth I am getting such low and non-existant click throughs from my emails, particularly when I could see I was getting referrals.
I had been writing a plain text email then just cutting and pasting it into the HTML version so that I could track opens. Of course it was tracking opens but not click throughs.
You have saved me many hours .. big thanks!
Am off now to amend each of my follow up messages.
Thanks, Graeme
Hey Graeme,
I’m glad you found my site and found out your problem. I’d hate to see that you’ve pulled out all your hair.
That’s what this blog is all about, helping people so they don’t make the same mistakes that I’ve made. Glad I could be of help.
Later,
Jeff Sargent
I have a virtual lockjam when I send emails from Aweber account to my Gmail address.
Things should be a lot easier now Aweber have opened up their API and their first application is the Aweber to WordPress API which should make the whole thing a lot easier.
Aweber is dead easy to connect with WordPress anyway using the Aweber Integration plugin.
i’ve exerpeicned this problem quite a few times.
I wasn’t aware that I was not doing it correctly until I read this article…I really appreciate you highlighting this issues