Beacon Website and Event Tracking
Overview
Sendlane’s Beacon tracking pixel allows you to follow your Contacts through their entire customer journey, from pages viewed to purchases made, even if you don't use a deep data eCommerce integration!
Using Beacon event tracking or conversion rules, you can target your audience to the right message at the right time. Read on to learn how to install Beacon and use its tracking data!
In This Guide
- How Does the Beacon Pixel Work?
- Types of Tracking
- Set Up General Tracking
- Set Up Event Tracking
- Test General and Event Tracking Installation
- Set Up Conversion Rules
- Use Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager with Beacon
- Use Beacon to Trigger Automations
- Use Events to Create Segments
🚦 Before Getting Started
Make sure you have access to your website's source code to install Beacon
⚠️ Shopify users, see How to use Beacon with Shopify for installation guidance
How Does the Beacon Pixel Work?
Sendlane’s Beacon tracking pixel collects information about your Contacts' pageview and purchase activity by cookie-ing them.
For the pixel to begin tracking, Contacts must be cookied. Contacts are cookied when they:
- Opt into your emails, and
- Open an email from you, and
- Click a link in an email from you
OR subscribe to your account via a Sendlane Form.
⚠️ The Beacon tracking pixel cannot track visits from anonymous visitors or incognito browsers
If the Beacon tracking pixel is blocked, Contacts will not be tracked in Beacon reporting or be sent through Automations such as browse and checkout abandonment. Contacts browsing using the following or other private browsing methods will not be tracked:
- Safari private browsing on iOS and macOS
- Chrome Incognito browsing on iOS, Android, and desktop
- Firefox private browsing on iOS, Android, and desktop
⚠️ Beacon reporting can take up to 24 hours to populate accurately
Once tracking begins, please allow up to 24 hours for reporting to populate accurately
Types of Tracking
| Type of Tracking | Description | When to Use | |
| General Tracking |
Tracks site visits as soon as the code is installed with no event or rule setup needed | To monitor website views and overall engagement | |
| Event Tracking |
Tracks visits to a specified URL | To send suggested product Automations or promo codes | |
| Conversion Rule |
Assigns a specified dollar value to visits to specified pages, most often used to track purchases via checkout landing page | To send post-purchase followups and information about similar products | |
Set Up General Tracking
- Click Account
- Click Beacon to Head to the Beacon tab of your Account page
- Click Get Beacon Code
- Click Copy code
- Paste the script in your website's header
Set Up Event Tracking
- Click Account
- Click Beacon to Head to the Beacon tab of your Account page
- Click Create Event
- Enter a Name and Description
- Click Save
- Click the code icon
- Click Copy Code
- Paste the script in the header tag of any page (or page template) you want to track visits to
Test General and Event Tracking Installation and Trigger
Installation
Determine whether Beacon was installed correctly by inspecting your website! This process assumes you are using Chrome, which is the most compatible browser for Sendlane:
- Copy the event ID from your Beacon installation code
- Open your website
- Right click anywhere on the page
- Click Inspect
- Click into the Elements tab
- Type Command/Control + F to open the finder
- Paste the event ID from your Beacon code
If your event ID is highlighted, Beacon is installed correctly! If your event ID was not found, try installing Beacon again and reach out to your Customer Success Manager or Sendlane's 24/7 Product Support team for next steps.
Trigger
Use the activity feed on Contact profiles to confirm that Beacon has triggered correctly when testing Automations using Beacon events
Set Up Conversion Rules
⚠️ Do not create conversion rules unless you have a reason to do so
Conversion rules assign a dollar amount to identified Contacts for every click on the URL you enter for the rule. This feature is commonly used for landing pages only accessible after purchasing a certain product. Do not use conversion rules if you do not have a URL associated with a known dollar amount, or you may falsely inflate your attributed revenue.
- Click Account
- Click Beacon
- Click Create Rule
- Enter a Name, Value, and URL
- Click Create
Use Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager with Beacon
Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager can be used for deeper insight and organization in managing customer metrics.
- Using Google Tag Manager, select Triggers > New
- Then click trigger Configuration and choose Custom Event Trigger
- Name your trigger and paste the Beacon event code!
Use Beacon to Trigger Automations
Using Event Tracking as a trigger when building a browse abandonment or cart abandonment Automation creates an extra touchpoint to help Contacts complete a purchase!
Select Event Tracking as a trigger, then add the Events you'd like to use as triggers.
You can use Event Tracking Automations to send targeted content, or add a tag to record your customers' interests!
Use Events to Create Segments
Segmenting contacts based on their behavior is a great way to send highly targeted content to your Contacts. To create a Segment based on Event Tracking, use the Triggered Event characteristic.
If you have set up General tracking, you can use your website pages' slug text to create Segments for specific page(s) visited!
Use General Tracking to Create Segments
General Beacon tracking allows you to create segments based on Contacts' site browsing using a target page's URL slug.
To create a Segment based on Event Tracking, use Visited Site contains. Enter the slug text of the URL(s) you want to track visits to.
Additional Resources
- Learn advanced segmentation strategies for Contact activity at eCommerce Academy!
- Sendlane Beacon: 5 Best Practices for Website Tracking
- 5 Post Purchase Emails You Should Be Sending to Increase Your Customer LTV
- Ultimate Guide to Browse Abandonment Emails: Definitions, Tactics, and Examples