Configuring Contact Form 7 event tracking is an effective method for obtaining important information and understanding your online audience. This tutorial will walk you through the steps of setting up Contact Form 7 event tracking and also offer my own commentary throughout the process.
Before we dive into the technical details, let me share why event tracking is important. As a website owner, it’s crucial to understand how users interact with your website, especially when it comes to form submissions. Event tracking allows you to track and analyze these interactions, providing you with valuable data that can help you make informed decisions to optimize your website’s performance.
Step 1: Install Google Analytics
The first step in setting up Contact Form 7 event tracking is to have Google Analytics installed on your website. If you haven’t done this already, don’t worry. It’s a straightforward process. Simply sign up for a free Google Analytics account, generate a tracking code, and add it to the header section of your website. Once you’ve completed this step, you’ll have access to all the necessary tools for event tracking.
Step 2: Install Google Tag Manager
Next, we need to install Google Tag Manager on our website. Google Tag Manager is a powerful tool that allows you to manage and deploy various tracking codes without modifying your website’s code directly. It makes the process of adding and managing event tracking codes much more streamlined and efficient.
Once you’ve signed up for a Google Tag Manager account, you’ll need to add the provided container code to the header section of your website, just like you did with Google Analytics. This code enables Google Tag Manager to function correctly and start capturing event data.
Step 3: Create a Trigger
Now that Google Tag Manager is installed and set up on your website, it’s time to create a trigger that will capture the events generated by Contact Form 7. In the Google Tag Manager dashboard, navigate to the “Triggers” section and click on the “New” button to create a new trigger.
To set up the trigger for Contact Form 7 event tracking, select the “Form Submission” trigger type. Then, give your trigger a descriptive name and optionally provide a comment to help you remember its purpose.
Step 4: Configure the Trigger
Once you’ve created the trigger, it’s time to configure it to work specifically with Contact Form 7. In the trigger configuration settings, select “Some Forms” and click on the “Form ID” field. Here, you’ll need to enter the ID of the Contact Form 7 form that you want to track.
To find the form ID, go to the Contact Form 7 settings in your WordPress admin dashboard and locate the form you want to track. In the form editor, you’ll find a “Form ID” field. Copy the ID and paste it into the “Form ID” field in Google Tag Manager.
Step 5: Add Google Analytics Event Tag
Now that the trigger is set up, it’s time to create the event tag for Google Analytics. In the Google Tag Manager dashboard, navigate to the “Tags” section and click on the “New” button to create a new tag.
Choose “Universal Analytics” as the tag type and configure it to fire on the trigger you created in the previous step. In the “Track Type” field, select “Event,” and provide a suitable category, action, and label for the event you want to track. For example, you can use “Contact Form Submission” as the category, “Submit” as the action, and “Contact Form 7” as the label.
Step 6: Test and Publish
Once you’ve completed all the necessary configurations, it’s crucial to test the Contact Form 7 event tracking to ensure that everything is working correctly. Fill out the form associated with the trigger you set up and submit it. Then, navigate to the Google Analytics dashboard and check if the event is being captured under the “Behavior” or “Events” section.
If you see the event data being captured, congratulations! You have successfully set up Contact Form 7 event tracking. Now, all the form submissions from the specified Contact Form 7 form will be tracked and recorded in Google Analytics.
Conclusion
Contact Form 7 event tracking is a powerful tool that can provide you with valuable insights about your website visitors’ behavior. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can easily set up and configure event tracking for Contact Form 7. Remember, understanding your users’ interactions with your forms is crucial for optimizing your website’s performance and achieving your business goals.