How to track Instagram Ads in Jotform in 4 simple steps
Learn how to use Attributer + Jotform to track how many leads you're getting from your Instgram Ads and send the data to your CRM, a spreadsheet & more.
Are you running Instagram Ads for your business but struggling to track how many leads you're actually getting from them?
If so, it's likely hindering the growth of your business. If you can't track how many leads you're getting, then you don't know if your ads are working or not and you can't scale them.
Fortunately, there's a solution.
In this article, we'll show you how to use a tool called Attributer to capture Instagram Ads data (like campaign name, ad set, ad name, etc) each time someone submits a Jotform on your website.
This will enable you to see exactly how many leads you got, which campaigns they came from, and more.
4 simple steps to track leads from Instagram Ads in Jotform
By following the 4 simple steps outlined below, you'll be able to see the exact campaign, ad set & ad each of your leads came from.
1. Add UTM parameters to your Instagram Ads
To get started, you first need to add some UTM parameters behind your ads.
If the term 'UTM parameters' is new to you, don't worry. They're basically extra bits of text you append to the end of the URL you send people to from your ad. They are basically the de facto standard for telling analytics tools where your visitors are coming from.
To illustrate how they work, let's imagine the page you are sending someone to is attributer.io/integrations/jotform. With the UTM parameters included, your final URL might look a bit like this:
attributer.io/integrations/jotform?utm_medium=paidsocial&utm_source=instagram&utm_campaign=brand-campaign
You should put whatever information you want to capture in the UTM's, but the general best practice for Instagram Ads is:
- 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 and there are free tools available on the web to help you create them. We also have an article on our Help site that gives some recommendations on what information you should put in your UTM parameters.
2. Install Attributer and add some hidden fields
The next step on your path to tracking nirvana is to install Attributer on your website.
The first step is to sign up for a 14-day free trial of Attributer. Once done, you'll be given a small snippet of code to add to your website.
The process for doing so depends on what website builder you are using, but full step-by-step instructions for the most common ones can be seen here.
After you've added the code, the next step is to include a series of hidden fields in your forms, including:
- Channel
- Channel Drilldown 1
- Channel Drilldown 2
- Channel Drilldown 3
- Channel Drilldown 4
Fortunately, Jotform makes it super simple to add these hidden fields. You simply add 6x 'Short Answer' fields to your form, flick the 'Hide Field' switch to 'On' and enter a Default Value. Full step-by-step instructions can be seen here.
3. Attributer writes Instagram Ads data into hidden fields
Now that everything is set up, Attributer will start tracking visitors to your website.
When a visit arrives, it will look at a bunch of technical information to determine where they came from (the same things tools like Google Analytics look at).
It will then categorise each visitor into a series of channels (the same one's you see in Google Analytics, like Paid Social, Paid Search, Organic Search, etc).
Then when they complete a Jotform on your website, Attributer will write the information on where they came from into the hidden fields.
4. Instagram Ads data is captured in Jotform
Finally, when a visitor submits a form, the Instagram Ads data is captured alongside the lead's name, email, phone, etc.
From here, you can do a number of different things with the data:
- See it in the Submissions section - You'll be able to see the Instagram Ads data within the Submissions section Jotform. Simply select the 'Submissions' link in the Jotform Dashboard and you'll see it next to each lead in a nice table view.
- Include it in notification emails - If you're like many businesses that just respond to new leads as they arrive in your inbox, then you can include the Instagram Ads data in the email notifications that Jotform sends. This way you can see which leads are coming from your Instagram Ads, which campaigns they're coming from, etc right from within your inbox.
- Send it to your CRM - If you do use a CRM to manage leads (like Hubspot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, etc) then you can send the Instagram Ads data to your CRM and use it to run reports to see how many leads & customers you're getting from them.
- Download it as a spreadsheet - You can easily download all form submissions (including the Instagram Ads data) from the Submissions table in Jotform, or use Jotform's native integrations with Google Sheets to send the data there. Once it's in a spreadsheet, you can use it to build charts that show how many leads you're getting, which campaigns are driving the most leads, etc.
What data gets captured in Jotform?
Attributer will give you the following information on where your leads are coming from and what content attracted them:
1. Marketing channel data
Attributer will send information on where the lead came from.
To illustrate, let's imagine you run a business coaching company and you're using Instagram Ads to promote yourself.
If someone clicks one of your Instagram Ads and completes a Jotform on your site, the following information will be captured (depending on the UTM parameters you attached put behind your ads):
- Channel: Paid Social
- Channel Drilldown 1: Instagram
- Channel Drilldown 2: Coaching Campaign Campaign (or the specific campaign name)
- Channel Drilldown 3: Blue Ad (or whatever ad creative they clicked on)
2. Landing page data
Attributer also passes which page on your site the visitor first landed on (e.g., sydneybusinesscoaching.com/blog/best-coaches) and its corresponding landing page category (e.g., /blog).
With this data, you can track the number of leads you can get from the different content sections on your site (such as your blog), as well as being able to dive deeper and see which blog posts are generating the most leads.
What is Attributer and why use it?
Attributer is essentially a little snippet of code that you add to your business's website.
When someone arrives on your site, Attributer looks at a bunch of technical information about how they got there and uses it to categorize visitors into channels (I.e. Paid Social, Paid Search, Organic Search, etc).
It then saves this data in a cookie in the visitor's browser, so that it is remembered as they browse around your site or if they leave and come back later on.
Then, when the visitor completes a contact form on your website, Attributer writes the information on where they came from into the hidden fields.
Finally, when they submit the form, the information is captured in Jotform and can be sent to your CRM, included in email notifications, downloaded to a spreadsheet, etc.
Attributer is the best solution for tracking Instagram Ads in Jotform for the following reasons:
- Captures all sources of leads: Attributer doesn't just capture Instagram Ads data, it captures the source of ALL leads that complete a form on your website. This means you can also track the performance of your Google Ads, Facebook Ads, SEO efforts, and more.
- It remembers the data: Because Attributer stores the data in a cookie in the visitor's browser, it is remembered even if people browse around your site or even leave and come back at a later date. This ensures you have accurate data on where your leads are coming from.
- It cleans the data: Attributer was designed to expect inconsistencies in UTM parameters (I.e. using UTM_source=instagram in some ads and UTM_souce=ig in others) and can assign these leads to the correct channel (I.e. Paid social) regardless.
3 example reports you can run when you capture Instagram Ads data in Jotform
For the first 15 years of my career (before I started Attributer), I ran the marketing & analytics teams at various tech companies (some of which are worth billions of dollars now).
Over my career, I've easily spent several million dollars on ads on Instagram (and other platforms) and have run hundreds of reports to track how many leads and customers these ads were generating for us.
Below are 3 reports that I've found useful over the years that you could easily run if you capture Instagram Ads data in Jotform:
1. Leads by channel
The above charts shows how many leads you're getting each month broken down by the channel they came from. It's made possible by the fact Attributer captures the source of ALL your leads, not just those from Instagram Ads.
The thing I like about this report is that it gives you a good high-level understanding of what's driving your leads and helps you understand where you should be focused to get more of them.
For instance, if you see that most of your leads are coming from Organic Search (like in the report above) but you're spending most of your budget on Instagram Ads, you might need to rethink how you're spending your money.
2. Leads by network
Meta (the company formerly known as Facebook) owns many social networks, (including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger & WhatsApp) and you can run ads through all of them from the same ad platform.
If that's what you're doing, then this report can be super useful. It'll give you insight into which network is actually driving the most leads for your business.
It's a great way to understand where you should be putting your ad budget to help generate more leads at a lower cost per lead.
3. Leads by campaign
The above report shows the number of leads being generated each month from your Instagram Ads, broken down by the campaign they came from.
It's a great way to see which campaigns are actually generating leads and ultimately where you should be placing your budget to get more.
Wrap up
If you're running Instagram Ads to promote your business and have been struggling to track how many leads you're getting from them, then using Attributer with Jotform could be the answer.
It will send through the exact campaign, ad set and even ad a particular lead came from, enabling you to understand where your leads are coming from and where you should be investing your budget to get more of them.
Best of all, it's free to get started and only takes about 10 minutes to set up. So start a free 14-day trial of Attributer today to see how it can help 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.