Capture Instagram Ads data into Typeform

Know how many leads you're getting from your Instagram campaigns by tracking Instagram Ads data in Typeform using a simple tool called Attributer.

Google Analytics is a good tool for telling you how many website visitors you get.

But to truly know if you're Instagram ads are successful, you need to know more than just how many vistors your site gets - you need to know how many customers or leads they're generating.

In this post, I'll show you how to use a tool called Attributer to track the number of leads you get from your Instagram Ads in Typeform.

4 steps to track Instagram Ads leads in Typeform

Follow these 4 simple steps to understand the number of leads you're getting from your Instagram ad campaigns:

1. Add UTM parameters to your Instagram Ads

Step one is to add UTM parameters behind your Instagram Ads.

UTM parameters are pieces of text you add to the end of the URL behind your ads.

Have I lost you? Don't worry, they're actually much simpler than they sound. If the page you are sending someone to is attributer.io/integrations/typeform then your URL (with UTM parameters) might look like this:

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

Best practice for UTM parameters for Instagram Ads is usually 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

While tagging URLs with UTM parameters is easy, there are a bunch of free tools 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

Next up is adding Attributer to your website.

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

Once the code is on your site, you need to include some hidden fields to your forms, these include:

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

Full instructions on how to do this in Typeform can be found here.

3. Attributer writes Instagram Ads data into hidden fields

After you've installed Attributer to your website, it starts monitoring 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 submits a form on your website, Attributer includes the information on where they came from (I.e. Instagram Ads) in the hidden fields added behind your forms.

4. Instagram Ads data is captured in Typeform

Step four is using the data! Once a visitor submits a form, the Instagram ads data that Attributer included in the hidden fields is captured by Typeform 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 Typeform sends every time a form is completed.
Send to your CRM - Use the integrations that work with Typeform, or third-party tools like Zapier, to send the data to CRM systems like Salesforce, Pipedrive, ActiveCampaign, Hubspot & more.
Include in a spreadsheet - Use various add-ons or third-party tools (like Zapier) to send the data to a spreadsheet and generate useful reports.

What data gets captured in Typeform?

By using Attributer to track Instagram Ads data in Typeform means you'll get the below information:

1. Marketing channel data

Attributer collects the data about how a lead came to your website.

Say you were a marketer working for a hairdressing 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 submitted 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: Hair color Ad (or whatever ad creative they clicked on)

2. Landing page data

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

With this data, you can understand the number of leads you generate from the content sections on your site (such as your blog), as well as see the specific posts that are delivering leads.

What is Attributer and why use it?

Attributer is a small bit of code that you add onto your website.

When someone lands on your site, Attributer looks at where they came from and categorizes them into a marketing channel, this includes Paid Social, Paid Search, Organic Search, etc. This 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 come back.

If that visitor submits a form on your website, Attributer populates 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, and more.

Attributer is a great tool for monitoring the success of Instagram Ads in Typeform 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 the 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, stopping data inconsistencies.

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

When you capture Instagram Ads data in Typeform and send it to your CRM or a spreadsheet, you can run reports to see the true performance of your marketing campaigns.

For 15+ years I've lead marketing teams across several technology companies. Here are a few reports I've used over my career to help make decisions about where and how to spend valuable marketing budget and time:

1. Leads by channel

This report shows you the channels (e.g: Organic Search, Paid Search, Paid Social, etc) that are delivering your leads so you can make informed decisions on where and how to spend your marketing budget.

The chart above shows that the majority of the leads in this instance are coming from Organic Search but if you're spending most of your budget on Instagram Ads, it may be a good time to switch your strategy.

2. Leads by network

The chart above is great if you're running ads on multiple platforms - for example Meta has Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp.

This report will show how many leads you get from each advertising network and helps you figure out which is the best performing platform so you know where to concentrate your budget and efforts.

3. Leads by campaign

This report shows how many leads you receive each month broken down by the specific campaign they came from.

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

Wrap up

Google Analytics is a great tool to track the number of visitors you get from Instagram Ads but to understand if those visitors are converting into leads or customers, you need to track them further.

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 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.