How To Track Offline Ads In GA4

In today's digital age, online advertising is often considered the go-to method for reaching potential customers due to the fact that all your efforts are effectively tracked. Since marketers, especially performance marketers are under pressure to deliver results based on metrics like CPA and CPC, they often tend to focus on online efforts because they can easily extract data.

But this can result in narrowing your budget into channels that are now starting to become less effective as you increase your spending. Eventually, marketing managers will have to accept that going omnichannel is the better way of spending the marketing budget, but justifying it is a hard sell.

Offline marketing efforts are still a valuable tool for businesses, as they can complement online strategies and contribute to overall growth, but when all your offline efforts are either attributed to organic or direct, it becomes harder to extract enough data to validate your offline efforts.

Tracking the effectiveness of offline ads can be a challenge, but with the help of GA4, it's possible to measure some of your offline efforts and use that as a way to justify a budget allocation towards certain mediums like magazine ads or flyers.

Types of offline marketing you can do

Offline marketing can be defined as any advertising effort that is not executed on the Internet.

Here are some common types of offline marketing:

• Print advertisements: Newspapers, magazines, and other print publications
• Billboards and outdoor advertising
• Direct mail: Flyers, postcards, and catalogues
• Radio and television commercials
• Event sponsorships
• Trade shows and exhibitions

Limitations of offline tracking

While offline tracking can offer valuable insights, it's important to be aware of its limitations:

Difficulty in capturing accurate data: Tracking offline marketing efforts can be more challenging than online campaigns due to a lack of direct data. Limited data points: Offline tracking often provides less data compared to online tracking, which can lead to less precise analysis. Potential for data discrepancies: Manually inputting data can lead to errors and inconsistencies.

Methods of tracking offline ads

It's important to note that these methods are only suggestions to guide the user; it doesn't mean the view of the ad would take the suggested action.

We have to accept that users who see your offline ad will still choose to search out your brand name via a search engine or social media app and then redirect to your site or use your domain URL directly to reach your site.

To limit this user behaviour, you can focus users on a trackable user experience. To track offline ads in GA4, you can use one or a combination of the following to drive users to your site and track them accordingly.

Custom URLs

Create a unique URL for each offline campaign, like nichemarket.co.za/magazine or /flyer. This can drive users to a unique landing page, and you can assume everyone who found this URL directly came from the specific campaign.

Custom short links

Generate short, customised links for each campaign using services like Bitly or TinyURL. This not only makes the URL more visually appealing but also allows you to track clicks and other relevant metrics. The issue with short links is you're often using another brand's domain, which can have some disconnect. If you are going to use a custom short link, it's best you purchase a shortened domain and use this instead.

For example, owning the domain ni.che or n.market would be far easier for users to remember or type into their device if seen offline, and you can attribute UTM tracking to that shortened domain and send the user to a landing page on your primary domain.

QR codes

Create QR codes for each campaign, which, when scanned by a user, direct them to a specific landing page on your website. This method is particularly useful for print ads or physical marketing materials. QR codes need to be simple landing pages; the longer your URL string, the more complex your QR code becomes, and you run a greater risk of the QR code failing to scan.

This becomes an issue, especially if you are trying to add UTM tracking to your QR codes. If you do want to add tracking to QR codes, it's best to create the URL with the UTM tracking and then use a branded or non-branded link shortener and embed that URL in the QR code.

So instead of making the QR code do all the work, it only sends the user to a short link, which you have customised to redirect to a landing page with the tracking you require.

Setting up your UTM tracking

This part you can set up as you like and use the naming conventions you prefer; as for my personal take on it, I prefer to collate all offline advertising sources as a single medium as follows.

• Source - Print, Newspaper, Magazine, Billboard, Flyer
• Medium - Offline_advertising
• Campaign - Name of source IE Forbes Magazine
• Ad Content - A description of the ad

This way, it makes it easier to compare all offline efforts, their return, and the performance of the overall channel month on month or year on year.

Finding campaign data in GA4

To access your offline campaign data in GA4, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your GA4 account and navigate to the "Reports" section.
2. Locate the "Acquisition" and then "Traffic Acquisition" report, which provides insights into how users find your website.
3. In the report, look for the "Source/Medium" or "Campaign" dimensions to view data associated with your offline marketing efforts.

Why you should track offline campaigns

Tracking offline campaigns is crucial for several reasons:

• Measuring effectiveness: Understanding which campaigns drive results will help you optimise your marketing strategy.
• Budget allocation: By identifying successful campaigns, you can allocate resources more effectively.
• Attribution: GA4 allows you to see the full user journey, including the impact of offline marketing efforts on online behaviour.
• Data-driven decision-making: Offline tracking provides valuable data to inform future marketing strategies.

Advertising offline doesn't mean flying blind.

While offline marketing may seem challenging to track, GA4 offers a range of tools to help businesses measure the success of their efforts. By using custom URLs, short links, or QR codes, you can gain valuable insights into the performance of your offline campaigns.

Remember to keep the limitations of offline tracking in mind and use the data to make informed decisions about your marketing strategy.

Contact us

If you want to know more about digital marketing or feel this entire GA thing is too much of a bother and you need it sorted by experts, then we’re happy to assist. Simply contact us, and we can sort out your data migration for you.

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If you require a more detailed guide on creating your profile or listing, we highly recommend you check out the following articles. 

• How to create a nichemarketer profile 
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Recommended reading

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Tags: GA4, Tracking, Data Analaytics