Tracking how patients find and book appointments online is essential for understanding marketing performance and improving ad results. Let's discuss how you can integrate Google Analytics with your online appointment portal and enable Google Ads optimisation.
Topics Covered
- Set Up Google Analytics
- Integrate Google Analytics into Your Online Appointment Portal
- Add Tracking Parameters (UTM Tags)
- Monitor Events and Mark Key Conversions
- Link Google Ads for Optimisation
Set Up Google Analytics
The first step in this process is setting up Google Analytics for your website. Here’s how you can do that:
- Log into Google Analytics and navigate to the Admin section.
- Under Property Settings, select Data Streams, then choose Web.
- Click Add Stream to create a new data stream.
- Enter your Online Appointment Portal URL and give your data stream a custom name.
- Once you create the stream, you will be provided with a Measurement ID.
- Copy the Measurement ID (it looks like: G-XXXXXXXXXX). This Measurement ID is your Google Tag ID, which you will paste into the Online Appointments Google Analytics settings.
- This will be used to track events on your website, including patient interactions with your online appointment system.
Integrate Google Analytics into Your Online Appointment Portal
Once you have your Measurement ID, you will need to add it to your online appointment portal. This integration will allow you to track user interactions and optimise your ads based on this data. Let's see how!
- Navigate to the System Menu > select Online Appointments.
- Global Configuration: If your practice operates multiple locations but uses a single Google Ads account, you can set up a global configuration. This allows you to track all conversions from various locations under one Google Analytics account.
- Custom Tag ID: For practices running separate Google Ads accounts for each location, it is best to set up unique Google tag IDs for each location. This will allow you to track conversions and optimise ads on a location-specific level.
Note: When the global configuration of Google Analytics is completed and a location-level Google ID is set, events that are specific to that location-level will not appear in the Google Analytics account specified in the global configuration. |
Add Tracking Parameters (UTM Tags)
To accurately track traffic sources and ad performance, your online appointment portal URL must include UTM parameters. Google Analytics tracks conversions through various parameters, including UTM source, UTM medium, UTM campaign, and GCLID (Google Click Identifier).
- UTM Source: Identifies where the traffic is coming from (e.g., Google, Facebook, etc.).
- UTM Medium: Describes the medium through which the traffic arrived (e.g., CPC for paid ads).
- UTM Campaign: Represents the marketing campaign that drove the traffic (e.g., Spring Sale).
- GCLID: A unique ID that identifies a specific ad click, which is essential for conversion tracking.
Ensure that your website passes all these parameters to the online appointment portal.
Here is a sample script that helps pass these UTM parameters to the appointment portal.
Note: The provided script is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Every website is built differently, so the script may require adjustments to work correctly with your setup. |
We strongly recommend working with your website developer to:
- Review the script.
- Customise it based on your site structure.
- Ensure it runs correctly without impacting site performance.
Every step will be logged as an event in Google Analytics, giving the practice insight into how patients are interacting with the portal. Events such as slot selection, payment page, and patient details page will be tracked, and a conversion event will be triggered once the patient successfully books an appointment.
Tip: Once you create a URL with custom UTM parameters using a URL builder, share the generated link with referral practices or use it in your campaigns. Adding custom campaign parameters makes it easier to track and measure Custom Campaign performance in Google Analytics. |
Monitor Events and Mark Key Conversions
After setting up Google Analytics, you can monitor the events that occur on your online appointment portal.
- Home_Page: Home_Page is triggered if Enhance for Marketing is enabled.
- Reasons_Page: Reasons_Page event is triggered when the patient views the appointment reasons page.
- Locations_Page: Triggered if the patient is using the account-level location URL to access the online appointment portal.
- Slots_Page: Slots_Page is triggered when they visit the slot selection page.
- Patient_Details_Page: Patient_Details_Page is triggered for new patients.
- Payment_Page: When advance payment is enabled, the Payment_Page is triggered.
- Appointment_Message_View: Appointment_Message_View event is triggered when they navigate to the appointment message page.
- Appointment_Message: Triggered when an appointment request message is confirmed.
- Event Tracking: Once a patient books an appointment successfully, you will see events like Direct_Booking or Appointment_Request. These events should be marked/enabled as key events.
Link Google Ads for Optimisation
Once your Google Analytics account is properly configured and the key events are marked as conversions, you can link your Google Ads account to Google Analytics. This will allow you to:
- Import conversion data from Google Analytics into Google Ads.
- Optimise your ads based on actual bookings, not just clicks.
- Use the conversion data to better allocate your ad budget and improve ROI.
Practices can use this simple guide to track online appointment bookings accurately and optimise Google Ads for better results.