Logging Goals on Unique Download Pages

Here's the setup: I'm selling an eBook with 3 packages. Naturally, I want to track each package with a separate goal with the appropriate monetary value.

I'm using the shopping cart service SendOwl. After payment, SendOwl redirects users immediately back to a download page to download what they've purchased. I am able to add code to this download page, but the page has a different URL each time someone purchases, since it's a private page with only a certain number of download attempts.

I have the ability to add code to the download page, but I'm not sure *what* code to add:

I could add https://transactions.sendowl.com to my mirrors and put the tracking code on the page, but as I mentioned above, the page URL is different each time someone buys the product (for example: https://transactions.sendowl.com/orders/2949359/download/488505d032fd6cd2492a1d04b5776975)

I'm guessing this calls for some kind of custom dynamic goal, but I have no idea how to take what's on this page https://clicky.com/help/custom/manual and come up with what code I need to add to my three download page templates. Any advice?

Thanks!

Update: I do have the ability to add code to my download page, but it gets added to *all* of the download pages- this means I can't add a unique dynamic goal to each of the three product download pages. So I think I'm back to the drawing board here.

cloudcoach,

So you have one ebook which can be purchased in one of three different packages. The question will be how can you differentiate the three different packages in order to generate a different tracked goal for each one.

Putting the same code on all pages is not a problem if that code has a way to discern from URL, parameters, etc., which of the three package purchases sent the visitor to the download page, right?

I took a quick look over to SendOwl and it looks like there is some sort of order ID passed to the URL to allow for tracking. If you have any control over what the order ID looks like, then that might be a way to pass the info you need into the download page URL, where your download page code can parse it and log the correct goal.

Worst case it seems like you could set up three different download pages, as if you had three different products even though all three would be the same exact ebook. Then you would have three download pages and you could place code on each page to log goals for the respective product package that was purchased in order to land on the download page.

I also noted that SendOwl has support for google analytics which might be used to some advantage. You may be aware that Clicky has gone out of their way to support the google tag manager for clicky tracking. I'm not sure if/how that would be useful to you, just mentioning it since it came up when I looked around to see what might help.

If I was doing this for you I would proceed like this:

1. look into what precisely is passed to the download page to determine what I could parse to distinguish which package was purchased. That would include checking what I could do to specify the Order ID in a way that would allow me to pass data to the download page.

2. next I would look into the GA tag manager support to see if there is anything there to help.

3. if 1 & 2 didn't provide anything useful, then I would resort to a brute force approach by setting up three different download pages. That would provide a different download page for each package, giving three opportunities to place unique code on the page to log the goals. It would not matter that all three download pages actually provide the same ebook. If it doesn't cost a lot to set up three different download pages, then that is probably the easiest approach to implement goal tracking.

One caution for you to consider is that it might be better to place the goal tracking code on the purchase confirmation page instead of the actual product download page. You didn't suggest you have the ability to add code to that page. Actually your post suggests that the download page is the purchase confirmation page, but it can be revisited x number of times following a purchase.

So the point is you need to be careful to try not to count each download as if it was a new purchase or else you might think you are selling more while people are buying once and downloading more than once. If there is a purchase confirmation / thank you page that is only hit one time per sale, then that would be the perfect place to log the goal. The farther you move away from the actual purchase in either direction, the bigger the chance of false indicators. Before the purchase confirmation you might count someone who didn't follow through. After the purchase confirmation page you might be logging extra downloads as new sales. Just a thought.

good luck with this, it looks like something worth doing. Don't give up too soon.

hth

.. Ed