How to get Instagram Ads data into Formstack in 4 steps
Know how many leads you're generating from your Instagram Ads by tracking your Instagram campaign data in Formstack using a tool called Attributer.
Better understanding of how many visitors your website receives is what Google Analytics is great for.
But if you want to know the number of leads your Instagram Ads are bringing you, you need to understand where your leads are actually coming from.
In this post, I'll show you how to use a simple tool called Attributer to track the number of leads you receive from your Instagram Ads in Formstack.
4 steps to track Instagram Ads leads in Formstack
Here's what to do so you know how many leads you're receiving from your Instagram ads:
1. Add UTM parameters to your Instagram Ads
UTM parameters are text you add to the end of the URL behind your ads.
Setting them up properly will help track where your leads are coming from.
For Instagram Ads, the page you send someone to might be attributer.io/integrations/formstack then your URL (with UTM parameters) would look like this:
attributer.io/integrations/formstack?utm_medium=paidsocial&utm_source=instagram&utm_campaign=brand-campaign
Usually, best practice for UTM parameters for Instagram Ads is like this:
- UTM Medium = Paid social
- UTM Source = Instagram
- 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 URLs with UTM parameters is easy. There are also many free tools widely available online that can help you do it. We've also written an article on Attributer's Help site that explains what information you should include in your UTM parameters.
2. Add Attributer to your site and include some hidden fields to your forms
After you sign up for a 14-day free trial of Attributer, we'll send you a piece of code to install on your website. Instructions on how to do that can be found here.
After you've installed the code on your site, you need to add some hidden fields to your forms, including:
- Channel
- Channel Drilldown 1
- Channel Drilldown 2
- Channel Drilldown 3
- Channel Drilldown 4
Instructions on how to add hidden fields to your Formstack forms can be found here.
3. Attributer puts the Instagram Ads data in hidden fields
Once you've installed Attributer to your website, it looks at where your visitors are come from (including those from your Instagram Ads) and stores the data in a cookie in the visitor's browser so it is remembered if they navigate around your website, or if they leave and come back.
When a visitor completes a form on your site, Attributer includes the information on where they came from (e.g: Instagram Ads) in your form's hidden fields.
4. Instagram Ads data is captured in Formstack
When a form is submitted, the Instagram ad data that Attributer included in the hidden fields is captured by FormStack with the other information your lead enters into the form (like their name, email, phone, etc).
When you collect this data you can use it to:
- Send notification emails - Include the data in notification emails Formstack sends when a form is completed.
- Send to your CRM - Use integrations that work with Formstack, or third-party tools like Zapier, to send the data to your CRM (including systems like Salesforce, Pipedrive, Dynamics, Zoho & more.)
- Include in a spreadsheet - Use either add-ons or third-party tools to send the data to your spreadsheets and build useful reports.
What data gets captured in Formstack?
Here's what you can capture when you use Attributer to track Instagram Ads data in Formstack:
1. Marketing channel data
Attributer collects data on how a lead lands on your site.
Pretend you're doing some marketing for a building company and you decide to run Instagram ads to generate new business. The below data would be collected if someone clicked on your ad and completed a form (based on the UTM parameters you added to your ads):
- Channel: Paid Social
- Channel Drilldown 1: Instagram
- Channel Drilldown 2: Building Campaign (or the specific campaign name)
- Channel Drilldown 3: Addition Ad (or whatever ad creative they clicked on)
2. Landing page data
Attributer sends landing page (e.g., buildinghomes.com/blog/extra-room) and its corresponding landing page category (e.g., /blog).
With this information you can better understand what content sections (like your blog) are generating leads. Bonus: You can even drill down to see the specific posts that generate your leads.
What is Attributer and why use it?
Attributer is a simple bit of code that you install on your website.
When a visitor comes to your website, Attributer looks at where they came from and puts them into marketing categories. These categories include Paid Social, Paid Search, Organic Search, etc. The data is then saved in a cookie in the visitor's web browser so it isn't lost if they navigate around your site or leave and return.
Once a visitor completes your form, Attributer fills the hidden fields with information on where the visitor came from. It can then be sent to your CRM, a spreadsheet, billing platform, analytics tools, and more.
Attributer is a great way to track whether your Instagram Ads are generating leads because it:
- Captures the source of ALL leads: Attributer looks at where your leads are coming from and includes ones from other channels like organic Google searches, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc.
- Remembers the data: Attributer stores the attribution data in a cookie in the visitor's web browser so it doesn't matter which page a visitor completes the form on or if they leave and come back to your site - the information on where they came from won't be lost.
- Cleans the data: Attributer works with data inconsistencies. So if you're using "instagram" in one place and "instagram.com" in another, Attributer will know how to categorize the lead in the correct channel.
3 example reports to use when tracking Instagram Ads in Formstack
Using Attributer to collect Instagram Ads data in Formstack and sending it to your CRM or a spreadsheet enables you to run reports to see the performance of your marketing campaigns.
With more than 15 years of leading marketing teams across several tech companies under my belt, there are several reports I've used over and over to make decisions on marketing strategies, budget and efforts. Here are three of those reports:
1. Leads by channel
The above report helps you to understand the channels (e.g: Organic Search, Paid Search, Paid Social, etc) that deliver your leads so that you can make better decisions on where and how to spend your marketing budget and time.
For example, the chart shown above is communicating that the majority of the leads are coming from Organic Search but if you're spending most of your budget on Instagram Ads, you should review your marketing strategy to potentially improve outcomes.
2. Leads by network
This leads by network chart is particularly good if you're running ads across several platforms - for example Meta has Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp.
The above chart shows how many leads you receive from each advertising network and helps you determine which is the best performing platform so you know how to prioritize your spend and time.
3. Leads by campaign
Having a better understanding of what's working and what's not can help you make more informed decisions. The chart above is a leads by campaign report which shows you how many leads you're receiving each month broken down by the specific campaign they originated from.
This helps you better understand which campaigns generate the most leads, and where you should be investing your time to get more.
Wrap up
In summary, Google Analytics is a great tool to track how many visitors your website is receiving. However, if you want to know how many leads or customers your Instagram Ad campaigns are actually delivering, you need to go deeper.
Attributer gives you the data you need to understand the source of every lead, right down to the exact campaign, ad set, or ad they clicked.
And best of all, it's free to get started! Attributer takes just 10 minutes to set up, so start a free 14-day trial of Attributer today to see how it can work for you!
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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.