Track which blog posts get you the most email subscribers.

You might have noticed in my Google Analytics screenshots that I have a column that you probably don’t have called Newsletter Subscriptions. Today I am going to show you how to track your newsletter subscribers with Google Analytics.

Why track your Newsletter sign ups in Google Analytics?

If someone is willing to let you into their inbox, it’s a big deal. I usually only subscribe to a newsletter when I am very interested in what the site has to say/offer. I assume that most people are the same. Here are the benefits I notice from tracking my newsletter subscribers:

• The type of content my subscribers are interested in
• What posts are performing better than others
• Which marketing platforms result in the most subscribers

For this tutorial you will need a newsletter service (this tutorial uses MailChimp) and Google Analytics.

First I will walk through setting up custom thank you and confirmation pages for your newsletter campaigns.

After that, I will show you how to set up goals in Google Analytics to track your email subscriptions.

Create custom thank you and confirmation pages for MailChimp.

Before we head over to MailChimp you will need to create two new pages on your blog.

One is the Thank You page. This is the page your readers will see after they input their email address and click submit. The second page is a Confirmation page. This is the page that readers will be directed to after they confirm their email address.

Now that you have those pages set up, you need to tell MailChimp to direct them there.

Direct MailChimp to your newly created page.

From your MailChimp dashboard navigate to Lists > the list you want to track > Settings > List name and defaults.

In the blue box titled, “Want to change your signup form title?” click signup form editor.

From the drop-down box select Signup “thank you” page.

In the Build it tab, add the URL to your newly created thank you page in the box under “Instead of showing this thank you page, send subscribers to another URL”.

Hit Save

Now repeat those steps with the Confirmation “thank you” page.

Everything is set up with MailChimp, now it is time to set up the goals in Google Analytics.

Create a goal to track email subscribers.

Head over to your Google Analytics account.

In your Google Analytics dashboard navigate to Admin > View > Goals.

 

Once your goals screen is up click the NEW GOAL button. Then select Create an account and Next step.

 

Next give the goal an appropriate name in the name field. I named mine “Newsletter Subscriptions”. Click Destination for the type and Next step.

 

On this screen all you have to do is make sure the destination drop-down says Equal to and put in the URL of whatever page your blog/website navigates to when someone has submitted for an email subscription in the URL field. Now click Create Goal!

 

I also set up a second goal under the name “Newsletter Completions” to track how many of those subscriptions confirmed their email address by putting in the URL of my “thank you for your confirmation” page.

Remember that all new filters/goals are not retroactive and you will only see future goal completions in the reports.

Now when you are in the Reporting tab of Google Analytics you can click Conversions > Goals > Overview and see a history or your goal completions.

How to tell which landing pages get the most Newsletter subscribers.

Now the part that you’ve all been waiting for. Every time you get a new subscriber you will now be able to see what page they first landed on before signing up for your newsletter (assuming their cookies are enabled).

In my post on what to look at in Google Analytics, I talked about how I like to look at the Landing Pages and All Pages. One of the things I look at there is my newsletter subscriptions.

Navigate to Behavior > Landing Pages and then sort by Goal 1 Completions.

How to tell which source brings you the most newsletter subscribers.

You can also see where people who subscribe to your blog are coming from. You can view the source pages from the Goal tab, but since I am regularly in the Acquisition tab, I usually check there. Navigate to Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium and then sort by Goal 1 Completions.

You can also do the same thing in the Referrals section.

 

I hope this tutorial helps you discover which posts and social platforms are working best for your Newsletter subscriptions and that you are able to see what type of content your subscribers like best.