4 steps to monitor Instagram Ads in Ninja Forms

Want to know how many leads you're getting from your Instagram campaigns? Learn how to track Instagram Ads data in Ninja Forms using a tool called Attributer.

Ninja Forms - Instagram Ads

Monitoring the number of visitors your website gets is something Google Analytics is great at. However, it doesn't tell you if you're marketing efforts are actually generating leads or customers.

To know if you're Instagram Ads are generating leads, you need to understand where each of your leads is coming from.

In this blog, we'll teach you how to use a tool called Attributer to monitor how many leads you receive from your Instagram Ads in Ninja Forms.

4 steps to track Instagram Ads leads in Ninja Forms

Follow these 4 simple steps to know how many leads you're getting from Instagram ad campaigns:

1. Add UTM parameters to your Instagram Ads

Instagram Ads with UTM

First up is adding UTM parameters to your Instagram Ads.

Unsure what UTM parameters are? They're simply pieces of text you add to the end of the URL behind your ads.

As an example, if the page you are sending someone to is attributer.io/integrations/ninja-forms then your URL (with UTM parameters) might look like this:

attributer.io/integrations/ninja-forms?utm_medium=paidsocial&utm_source=instagram&utm_campaign=brand-campaign

Best practice for UTM parameters 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

While tagging URLs with UTM parameters is simple, if you're unsure there are a bunch of free tools widely available online that can help you do it. There's also an article on Attributer's Help site that explains what information you should put in your UTM parameters.

2. Install Attributer to your site and add some hidden fields

Step 2

Once you've included UTM parameters in your Instagram ads, you need to add Attributer on your website.

When you sign up for a free 14-day trial, we'll send you a simple piece of code to add to your website. Instructions on how to do that can be found here.

After adding the code, you need to include some hidden fields to your forms, these are:

  • Channel
  • Channel Drilldown 1
  • Channel Drilldown 2
  • Channel Drilldown 3
  • Channel Drilldown 4

Full instructions on how to do this in Ninja Forms can be seen here.

3. Attributer writes Instagram Ads data into hidden fields

Step 5

After you've installed Attributer to your website, it starts tracking where your website visitors come from (including those from your Instagram Ads). Attributer stores the data in a cookie in the visitor's browser (so that it is remembered as people navigate your website, or if they leave and come back).

Once a visitor completes a form on your site, Attributer writes the information on where they came from (I.e. Instagram Ads) into the hidden fields added behind the form.

4. Instagram Ads data captured in Ninja Forms

New Form Submission Instagram Ads

Once a visitor submits a form, the Instagram ads data that Attributer included in the hidden fields is captured by Ninja Forms along with all the usual information your lead enters into the form (like their name, email, phone, etc).

When you have this data you can use it to:

  • Send notification emails - Include the data in the notification emails Ninja Forms sends every time a form is submitted.
  • Send to your CRM - Use Ninja's native integrations, or third-party tools like Zapier, to send the data to CRM tools like Salesforce, Hubspot, Pipedrive, ActiveCampaign & more.
  • Include in a spreadsheet - Use various add-ons or third-party tools (like Zapier) to send the data to a spreadsheet and generate valuable reports.

What data gets captured in Ninja Forms?

Using Attributer to track Instagram Ads data in Ninja Forms means you'll get the below information:

1. Marketing channel data

Attributer collects the data about how a lead arrived on your website.

For instance, if you were a marketer working for a window cleaning company and you decided to run Instagram ads to generate new business the below data would be collected if someone clicked on your ad and filled out a form (based on the UTM parameters you added to your ads):

  • Channel: Paid Social
  • Channel Drilldown 1: Instagram
  • Channel Drilldown 2: Spring Campaign (or the specific campaign name)
  • Channel Drilldown 3: Clean windows Ad (or whatever ad creative they clicked on)

2. Landing page data

Attributer sends the landing page (e.g., windowcleaning.com/blog/best-clean) and its corresponding landing page category (e.g., /blog).

With this data, you can better understand how many leads you get from the content sections on your site (such as your blog), as well as see the specific posts that are generating leads.

What is Attributer and why use it?

Attributer is a piece of code that you install on your website.

When someone arrives on your website, Attributer looks at where they came from and categorizes them into the appropriate channel, including Paid Social, Paid Search, Organic Search, etc. This data is then saved as a cookie in the visitor's web browser so it isn't lost if they navigate around your site or leave and come back.

If that visitor fills out a form on your website, Attributer fills the form's hidden fields with information on where they came from. It can then be sent to your CRM, a spreadsheet, billing platform, analytics tools, etc.

Attributer is a great tool for monitoring the success of Instagram Ads in Ninja Forms because it:

  • Captures the source of ALL leads: Attributer monitors where all your leads come from including ones from other channels like organic Google searches, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc.
  • Remembers the data: Attributer stores marketing attribution data in a cookie inside the visitor's web browser so it doesn't matter which page a visitor submits a form on - the information on where they came from isn't lost.
  • Cleans the data: Attributer was designed to deal with data inconsistencies. For instance if you're using "instagram" in one place and "instagram.com" in another, Attributer will know how to categorize the lead in the right group. This stops data inconsistencies.

3 example reports to use when you track your Instagram Ads in Ninja Forms

When you capture Instagram Ads data in Ninja Forms and send it to your CRM or a spreadsheet, you can run many valuable reports to see how your marketing campaigns are performing.

Over the 15+ years I've spent leading marketing teams across several technology companies, I've learned that some reports are definitely better than others. Here are a few of those reports I've used over my career to help make decisions about where and how to spend valuable marketing budget and effort:

1. Leads by channel

Leads By Channel (7)

This above chart shows you which channels (e.g: Organic Search, Paid Search, Paid Social, etc) are generating your leads so you can make informed decisions on where and how to focus your marketing efforts and budget.

For example, if the chart is like the one above and shows that the majority of your leads come from Organic Search but you're spending most of your budget on Instagram Ads, it may be a good time to change your strategy.

2. Leads by network

Leads By Network - Instagram

Many businesses run ads across multiple networks. So if you're running ads on Instagram, it's likely you also have ads on other Meta platforms including Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp.

This above report shows how many leads you get from each advertising network and helps you determine which is the best performing platform (and subsequently where you should be spending your budget and time).

3. Leads by campaign

Leads by Instagram Ad Campaign

The above report shows how many leads you get each month broken down by the specific campaign they came from.

This helps you to better understand which campaigns are generating the most leads, and where you should be investing your efforts to help get more.

Wrap up

So in summary, while Google Analytics is a great tool to track how many visitors you receive from Instagram Ads, to understand how well they are performing you need to track how many leads (and ultimately customers) you're receiving from them.

Attributer gives you the information you need to know 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 going. Attributer takes about 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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aaron-beashel

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.