Link Tagging Setup and Application
Spredfast, 2016
Problem - Companies use link tags to understand where their website users come from and what actions they take once they're on one of the companies websites. The link-tagging setup process was hard for users to understand, and applying link tags to social posts was hidden within a dropdown with hundreds of long confusing link tags to pick from.
Additional Challenge - We needed to support Omniture and Adobe along with Google Analytics which has different setup process. Since we were competitors with these web-analytics companies, we couldn't see how people were setting up their link tags outside of Spredfast and instead needed to rely on user interviews.
Existing Experience
To set up link tags for use, users needed to create a template, add parameters, and build and save out each link tag possibility. This was fairly complicated. The ability to then apply link tags on social media posts was hidden, and because of how link tags were set up in the admin, users would have hundreds of link tags available to them with little to no context for which link tag to apply.
An example link tag as it would appear in the dropdown:
mmc=SS_FB_FB_RP_MP_CC_RF_CN_VD_PP_DR_DPA_TGTAO_pfb_P11_V01_O5__prhxbc_L8FF&Y_NHP
Multiple Concepts for Setup
We wanted to make the setup process easier and signal to the user what to do by calling out the Link Tags and the Link Tag Groups and visually showing them the link tag as they built it.
Final Design
TThe final design clearly communicated how to build the link tags. Instead of having to build out and save each configuration, we made it so users can select the correct variables individually when publishing. When possible, we had the system automatically apply the appropriate variable such as FB for Facebook, thus reducing the number of options the user had to think about and navigate.
Prior to the update, many people were using abbreviated terms to fit more variables within their link tags. During the setup process, we made it so that now instead of just having the variables users would create a category such as a Campaign and instead of just having the abbreviated variables such as BTS for Back to School or LBD for Labor day users would enter in the full name. Due to this when users were publishing instead of having to select a Link Tag that read "CIR=FB_RR_BTS_FS", users would only have to select from two dropdowns: Campaign: Back to School (BTS) and Event: Fall Sale (FS).