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In this article:

1. Understanding analytics tools on ActBlue
2. Setting up your analytics integration
3. Setting up Meta conversion tracking

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ActBlue makes tracking the effectiveness of your forms and ad campaigns simple. You can set up tracking codes on your contribution forms and collect ad success data and donor behavior analytics.

We advise that you only set up tracking on forms specifically made as an endpoint for an ad campaign. Doing so ensures that the forms you use for email fundraising or website traffic load quickly. Additionally, please note there are different instructions for setting up Meta conversion tracking at the end of this article.

 

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Understanding Analytics Tools on ActBlue

Popular tracking & analytics services we support:

• Meta Ads
• X (formerly Twitter) Ads
• Google Ads
• Google Analytics 4

Tracking Events

We trigger tracking events on two areas of your contribution form:

1. Landing Page events are triggered whenever a donor visits the contribution form. They will display as a “PageView” event in your analytics platform. Note: Due to privacy limitations, we do not support landing page tracking on the Meta ads platform.
2. Conversion Page events are triggered after the donor makes a contribution and reaches the Thanks page. These will display as a “Purchase” event in your analytics platform. Note: ActBlue supports conversion page tracking for Meta, but the setup process differs from others. The instructions are at the end of this article.

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Setting Up Your Analytics Integration

Using Global Tracking Codes

If you’re doing a lot of ad tracking, you can set up global tracking codes to save and easily apply to any of your forms. To do this, head to your Dashboard and click " Settings " at the bottom of your Dashboard menu.

 

 

 

Then, click on the “Tracking” tab under “Settings.”

 

 

Under “Tracking,” you can set up landing page and conversion page tracking codes in their respective tabs:

 

 

The “Landing Page” and “Conversion Page” tabs have sections for the most common third-party ad services campaigns and organizations use to run and track ads: Google Ads, Google Analytics, Meta Ads, and X Ads. Fill out these sections with tracking codes from each specific service. Below, you can find helpful instructions on the tracking information you need and where to find it. Note: Due to privacy limitations, we do not support landing page tracking on the Meta ads platform.

 

 

At the bottom of the “Landing Page” and “Conversion Page” tabs, you can find “Additional code” sections for any custom code needed for global tracking. For example, if you need to track custom events or ads on additional third-party services like Snapchat, include the custom code in “Additional code.'

 

 

The “Additional code” section has restrictions to ensure your contribution forms always load and perform quickly. If you need help with custom code, contact your ActBlue representative or submit this form.

Once you set up global tracking, click “Save changes” at the bottom of the tab.

 

 

Now, you can apply global tracking to a specific contribution form. Open the form, and click the “Edit” button on the form navigation bar.

 

 

In the form editor that opens, click the “Tracking” tab.

 

 

Under the “Tracking” tab, select the “Tracking code” dropdown and choose to keep ad tracking off ("No Code"), apply global tracking codes to all third-party ad services to the form (“Use global tracking code”), or customize ad tracking (“Customize”).

 

 

When you turn on “Use global tracking code,” all your codes will apply to this form. 

If you want to return to your Dashboard to update any codes, click “Configure globals.”

 

 

Using Form-Specific Tracking Codes

You also have the option to specify individual tracking codes for forms or use a mix of custom and global codes.

To use form-specific tracking codes, open the form editor and select the “Tracking” tab.

 

 

Click the “Tracking code” dropdown to turn off ad tracking, apply global tracking codes for all third-party ad services to the form, or customize ad tracking.

 

 

Click “Customize” from the dropdown.

 

 

You have the same options for customizing ad tracking as you do for global tracking codes. Below each field are instructions on where to find the third-party tracking codes.

 

 

If you want to turn on the global tracking codes you set up in your Dashboard for some services for a specific form, toggle the button next to “Global” so it’s green.

 

 

After turning on global tracking, you may see a link that says, "Currently blank, configure a default tracking code," as shown in the screenshot above. This indicates that you have not set up global tracking for this service in your Dashboard. Click on the link to your Dashboard and set up global tracking there.

Like global tracking in your Dashboard, you will find “Additional code” sections in the “Tracking” tab of the form editor. If you need to track custom events or set up tracking for additional third-party ad services for this form, you can include custom code. Add this code to the “Additional code” section under “Landing page tracking” and “Conversion page tracking.”

 

 

Once "Landing page tracking" and "Conversion page tracking" are both set up, click "Publish" to save your changes.

 

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Setting Up Meta Conversion Tracking

Due to new privacy limitations on the Meta ads platforms, we continue to support conversion page tracking but are required to set up a conversion loading page on your behalf on a web domain you own. To do this, you'll need to complete the following steps, which we will outline in more detail in the following sections:

1. Verify your domain with Meta.
2. Configure your subdomain to point to ActBlue.
3. Set up your Meta pixel on your contribution forms.
4. Verify your setup in your Meta events manager.

Verify your domain with Meta

To use your Meta purchase events for ad conversion optimization, Meta now requires that all domains where tracking occurs have verification through their Business Manager. You can learn more about domain verification here. You'll need to verify the domain that you intend to use for the redirect (i.e., yourCandidateDomain.com)

IMPORTANT: There are multiple ways to verify your domain, but you must use this option (i.e., verification via a DNS TXT record).

1. Navigate to the Meta for Developers site.
2. Complete the steps under the 'Add your domain in Business Manager' heading.
3. Complete the steps under the 'Confirm domain ownership' heading. 
4. Confirm that your domain has verification under your Domains:

 

 

Configure your subdomain to point to ActBlue

Once your domain is successfully verified, you need to configure a subdomain of your choice to point to the ActBlue service. It can be any subdomain you don’t use for other purposes; we recommend using something like thankyou.yourCandidateDomain.com. 

Configure your CNAME record

1. Navigate to the DNS record section of your domain provider. If you’re unsure of your DNS provider, this article might be helpful.
2. Add a CNAME entry for thankyou to your DNS record that points to thankyou.actblue.com. Popular DNS providers like GoDaddy have support articles that guide you through the CNAME process.
3. Email your ActBlue contact to let them know you’ve configured your CNAME record. 

Once you notify us of your subdomain configuration, ActBlue may take up to 1 business day to complete additional configuration necessary to enable the interstitial.

Enable Meta Pixel on your contribution forms

Once we’ve enabled the conversion interstitial flow, all contribution forms that have your Meta Pixel enabled will start using the new flow and start tracking events. Confirm that your Meta pixel is enabled either globally for all your forms or on the relevant forms you’d like to track.

Checking your Meta integration

Here are a few checks you can make to determine if the interstitial is working as intended.

• Visiting thankyou.yourCandidateDomain.com/convert/<the form’s URL name> should display a loading indicator.

 

 

• In Meta Business Manager, check that Purchase events come from thankyou.yourCandidateDomain.com. On the contribution form in question, you can make a test donation. Make sure any ad blockers are off.
• In Meta Business Manager, confirm that you can buy an ad or ad set that optimizes for Purchase events that occur on thankyou.yourCandidateDomain.com. Note: This may take at least seven days; however, after receiving a contribution, you should immediately see an entry for these events under the AEM tab.

If you configure your CNAME correctly, directly visiting thankyou.yourCandidate.com will show an ActBlue page that has been intentionally left blank.

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