The simplest way to capture Facebook Ads data in Contact Form 7
Learn how you can use Attributer to capture Facebook Ads data with each Contact Form 7 submission
Do you need to track the number of leads your Facebook Ads generate?
Imagine if you could capture, in Contact Form 7, the origin of every lead, down to the exact campaign, ad, and ad set they clicked.
You could then include this information in your email notifications, send it to your CRM, pass it to a spreadsheet and more.
And ultimately, you'd be able to understand how many leads each of your Facebook Ads campaigns are generating.
Wouldn't that be great?
In this post, you’ll learn how to use Attributer to track thge source of all your leads (including those from Facebook Ads) in Contact Form 7.
4 simple steps to track your Facebook Ads in Contact Form 7
Attributer makes it easy to capture Facebook Ads data in Contact Form 7. Follow these 4 steps to get started:
1. Add UTM parameters to your Facebook Ads
To start things off, you need to add UTM parameters to your Facebook ads.
If the term UTM parameters is unfamiliar to you, they're essentially extra bits of text that you put at the end of the URL you send to people from your campaigns.
Let's say the page you want to send someone is attributer.io/integrations/contact-form-7, then your final URL with UTM parameters may look something like this:
attributer.io/integrations/contact-form-7?utm_medium=paidsocial&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=brand-campaign
Even though you can build the UTM parameters with whatever data you wish to capture, following the general best practice for Facebook Ads is recommended, and it's something like this:
- UTM Medium = Paid social
- UTM Source = Facebook
- UTM Campaign = The name of your campaign
- UTM Term = The name of the ad set the ad belongs to
- UTM Content = The specific ad
Tagging your URLs with UTM parameters is easy and there are free tools available on the web which can help you build them.
2. Install Attributer on your website
Attributer is a small piece of code that you place on your company's website.
When a visitor lands on your site, Attributer looks at a bunch of technical information about how that visitor got there (same things as tools like Google Analytics look at) and uses it to determine where the visitor originated from (I.e. Facebook Ads)
When the site visitor completes a form on your website, Attributer passes the attribution information into hidden fields you add to your forms and it gets captured by Gravity Forms alongside the lead’s name, email, etc.
Installing Attributer on your site is simple. When you signup for a 14 day free trial you’ll get given a small snippet of code which you can add to your website by following these instructions.
3. Add hidden fields to your forms
Next up is adding a set of hidden fields to your lead capture forms (i.e., the forms you use to gather data from site users).
The hidden fields you need to add are the following:
- Channel
- Channel Drilldown 1
- Channel Drilldown 2
- Channel Drilldown 3
- Channel Drilldown 4
- Landing Page
- Landing Page Group
Adding hidden fields to your forms is simple, thanks to Contact Form 7 and detailed instructions can be seen here.
4. Attributer writes the Facebook Ads data into the hidden fields and it’s captured by Contact Form 7
Once a user arrives on your site from your Facebook Ads, Attributer captures the UTM parameters and keeps them in a cookie in the user’s browser. This way, they won’t be forgotten as the user looks around your website.
And once they complete a form on your site, such as your ‘Contact Us’ or ‘Request A Quote’ form, Attributer will place the Facebook Ads data (derived from the UTM parameters you added to your ads in step 1) into the hidden fields on the form, which will be captured along with the lead’s email, name, etc. upon form submission.
What you can do with the data
When the Facebook Ads data (obtained from the UTM parameters you put behind your ads) is captured in Contact Form 7, you can use additional plugins or third-party tools like Zapier to transfer it to different destinations, including:
- Send it to your CRM - When you send the Facebook Ads data into Pipedrive, Salesforce, Hubspot, and others, you will be able to use it to create reports that tell you the number of leads your Facebook Ads generated, the number of those that converted into customers, the amount of generated revenue, etc.
- Send it to a spreadsheet - By using tools like Zapier or a Contact Form 7 Add-On to send the data into an Excel sheet or Google sheet, you could perform basic analysis within the sheet or connect analytics tools like Google Data Studio or Microsoft Power BI to create more advanced reporting.
- See it in your email notifications - Say your business doesn’t use a CRM, and you respond to new leads once you receive a message in your inbox; you can add the Facebook Ads data to the lead notification email so you can see the exact origin of each lead you receive.
- Send it to your billing platform - If you have linked a billing platform like PayPal, Square, or Stripe, you can transfer the Facebook Ads data into these platforms and use the data to build reports to find out how much revenue your ads are making.
Why use Attributer
There are other ways to capture Facebook Ads data in Contact Form 7, so why opt for Attributer?
Here are a few of its main benefits:
Captures other attribution information
In addition to capturing the source of leads from your Facebook Ads, Attributer also captures data on leads who turn up on your site through other channels like Organic Search, Referral, Organic Social, or Direct. With this, you’ll be able to see where ALL your leads and customers are coming from, not just the ones from your Facebook Ads.
Remembers the data
What makes Attributer unique from other method is that it stores the UTM parameters in a cookie in the user’s browser, which means the UTM parameters will always be passed on no matter what page the user completes a form on. This ultimately means you'll get more accurate data on the number of leads and customers you get from your Facebook Ads.
Cleans the data
Attributer was designed to expect inconsistencies in UTM usage, like using utm_source=facebook in some campaigns and utm_source=facebook.com in others. Attributer would appoint these leads to the appropriate channel (Paid Social in this case) regardless of the inconsistencies, which ensures you get accurate data.
Captures landing page data
Besides capturing Facebook Ads data, Attributer also captures the landing page URL (e.g., https://attributer.io/blog/track-facebook-ads-contact-form-7) and landing page group (e.g., /blog).
Capturing this data enables you to run reports that show how your content (i.e., your blog) is performing as a whole, as well as drill down into how many leads you are getting from individual content pieces (I.e. individual blog posts).
3 example reports you can run to understand the performance of your Facebook Ads campaigns
If you are using Attributer to capture Facebook Ads data in Contact Form 7 and you’ve gone through the process of sending the captured data into a CRM or spreadsheet, then running reports like the ones below is easy:
1. Leads by channel
Since Attributer records the source of all your leads (not just those from your Facebook Ads), you can build reports like the one above that display the number of leads grouped according to the channel.
This report can be useful in understanding how your Facebook Ads are performing compared to your other channels. With this information, you can make more strategic decisions on where to spend your marketing resources.
For example, if your SEO efforts are actually generating more leads than your Facebook Ads you may want to redirect some of your budget.
2. Leads by Network
If you have ads running on the different networks Facebook offers (i.e., Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, etc.), the report above can help you see which networks are producing the most leads for you.
It can help you determine which social app your ads are performing best on, and in turn, will let you know where to focus on to get better results.
3. Leads by campaign
The report above displays the number of leads acquired every month from Facebook Ads, broken down by the campaign they came from.
The information presented can provide insight into the campaigns producing leads versus those generating clicks and visitors that don’t convert. With this, you can ultimately refine your strategy and have a higher possibility of getting more leads.
Wrap up
With Attributer, capturing the UTM parameters behind your Facebook Ads in Contact Form 7 is easy. And once you've captured the data, you can send it to your CRM, see it in your email notifications, pass it to a spreadsheet and more.
What really sets Attributer apart though is the fact it also provides data on leads that come from other channels. This way, you can track the source of ALL your leads and not just the ones from Facebook Ads. This will help you get a more broad understanding of where your leads are coming from and what you need to do to generate more leads for your business.
The best part is it’s free to get started! Start your free trial today and discover what Attributer can do for your business.
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About the Author
Aaron Beashel is the founder of Attributer and has over 15 years of experience in marketing & analytics. He is a recognized expert in the subject and has written articles for leading websites such as Hubspot, Zapier, Search Engine Journal, Buffer, Unbounce & more. Learn more about Aaron here.