Campaign Tracking for Cannabis Sales: A Beginner’s Guide

When diving into campaign tracking for cannabis sales, it’s essential to understand that this process helps you monitor how your marketing efforts are resonating across different platforms, such as social media and websites. The goal is to optimize your approach, ensuring your marketing not only complies with strict advertising regulations but is also effective in attracting and retaining customers. Here’s a quick guide to get you started:

Understand campaign tracking: It involves using tools and strategies to monitor the response to your marketing efforts.
Recognize its importance: For cannabis companies, it’s crucial due to advertising restrictions, helping to identify effective strategies.
Key performance indicators: Focus on sales, engagement, and acquisition metrics to gauge success.
Strategies for effective tracking: Utilize UTM codes, dedicated landing pages, and retargeting tactics.
Analyzing data: Consistently review your campaign data to identify high-performing campaigns and adjust strategies accordingly.
Optimization tips: Double down on what works, refine campaign elements, and expand audience targeting.
Avoid common pitfalls: Ensure proper setup, focus beyond vanity metrics, and segment your audience for precise insights.

By following these steps and regularly analyzing your campaign data, you can enhance your marketing efforts, navigate the complexities of cannabis advertising, and ultimately, boost your sales.

Why Cannabis Companies Need Campaign Tracking

Since it’s tough to advertise cannabis the usual way, it’s super important to know if your ads are working. Campaign tracking helps you:

Figure out which ads and places are best for your marketing
Understand who’s interested in what you’re selling
Make your messages and deals better
Guess how much money you might make from your ads
Keep getting better at marketing over time
Show that your marketing is making money

For new cannabis businesses, knowing how your marketing is doing is crucial to keep up with others online.

What You Will Learn

This guide will teach you the basics of keeping track of your cannabis marketing, including:

Using special tracking links
Creating web pages just for your ads
Using discount codes to see how sales are going
Adding phone tracking
Using data tools for useful information
Figuring out if your ads are making more money than they cost

With the right tools for tracking, you can make those tough advertising rules work in your favor by always making your marketing better.

Preparing for Effective Campaign Tracking

Before you dive into tracking how well your marketing campaigns are doing, you need to set up a few things. This will help you understand what’s working and what needs improvement. Here’s how to get started:

Setting Up Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free tool that lets you see how people are finding and using your website. Here’s how to set it up:

Create a free Google Analytics account
Put the tracking code on your website
If you’re selling things, link your online store
Check out the reports to see where visitors come from and what they do on your site
Create goals to keep track of important actions, like when someone makes a purchase

Google Analytics helps you see how many people visit your site, where they come from, and what they do there.

Integrating Other Tools

Besides Google Analytics, you can use other tools to get a fuller picture of your marketing efforts, like:

HubSpot for managing contacts and tracking ads and emails
Mailchimp for seeing how well your emails are doing
POS systems to connect sales in your store with your online marketing
Call tracking to understand how phone calls lead to sales

Linking these tools together gives you a complete view of how all your marketing is working together.

Understanding Regulations

When you’re marketing cannabis, you have to follow strict rules, especially about data and privacy, like:

Only advertising to certain people
Keeping customer information private
Making sure people agree to be tracked
Using tracking tools that are okay under the law

It’s important to talk to experts to make sure you’re following all the rules. With the right setup, you can track your marketing efforts without stepping over any legal lines.

Key Performance Indicators to Track

Sales and Revenues

It’s important for cannabis companies to keep an eye on how much money they’re making from their marketing. Here are some key things to watch:

Revenue growth: Check if you’re selling more over time, like comparing this week’s sales to last week’s. Set goals for how much you want to sell.
Average order value: Find out how much people usually spend each time they buy something. Try to get this number up.
Conversion rate: Look at how many people who visit your website actually end up buying something. This helps you see if your ads are working well.
Repeat purchase rate: Figure out how often people come back to buy again. More repeat customers mean they really like your stuff.

Keeping track of these sales numbers helps you see if your marketing is bringing in more money.

Traffic and Engagement

It’s also key to see how many people are checking out your website or social media and if they like what they see. Things to watch include:

Sessions: Count how many times people visit and how long they stay. This helps make your website better.
Bounce rate: Find out how many people leave after looking at just one page. This can show if something’s not right with your content.
Email open rate: Check how many people open your emails. This helps you figure out the best subjects and times to send them.
Social media followers: Keep track of how many followers you have to see if more people are getting interested in your brand.

Improving these numbers means more people know and like your brand.

Acquisition

Finding out how people come across your cannabis content and what makes them buy is crucial. Here’s what to look at:

Source / medium: See where your website visitors come from and how they found you. This shows which marketing ways are best.
Campaign content performance: Look at how many people see, click on, and act on your ads and content.
Keyword rankings: Keep an eye on where your website shows up in search results to reach more people.
Referral traffic: Track visits from other websites to find good partners.

Watching these things helps you focus on what’s working best to get more customers.

Campaign Tracking Strategies and Best Practices

Use UTM Tracking Codes

UTM codes help you keep an eye on where your website visitors come from and what they do. Think of them as tags you add to your website links. They let you see which ads or posts get more clicks and lead to sales.

Here are some simple tips for using UTM codes:

Make a different UTM code for each ad or post like "newsletter" or "instagram-giveaway"
Use UTM codes to tell you the type of link, like "email" or "social"
Name each campaign with UTM to track them easier
Add UTM for keywords and for different ad designs
Use a link shortener so your links aren’t too long

By using UTM codes right, you can tell which of your marketing efforts are working best.

Create Dedicated Landing Pages

For every ad you run, have a special page on your website just for that. This makes it easier to see how many people come to your site because of that ad and if they’re interested in what you’re selling.

Here’s how to make good landing pages:

Each page should have its own title and web address
Make sure the page looks good on phones too
Put a form on the page to collect visitor info
Use pictures or videos that match the ad
Have clear instructions on what to do next, like "Buy now" or "Sign up"

By having special pages for each ad, you can see clearly which ones get people interested.

Leverage Retargeting Tactics

Retargeting means showing ads to people who visited your site but didn’t buy anything. It’s a way to remind them about your products and get them to come back.

Here are some ways to do retargeting well:

Use Facebook or Instagram tools to target ads to people who have visited your site
Show ads to these visitors on other websites
Send emails to people who visited your site before
Try sending offers through the mail

Retargeting helps you focus on people who are already interested in what you sell, making it more likely they’ll buy.

Analyzing Campaign Tracking Data

Looking at your campaign tracking data is key to figuring out which marketing moves are hitting the mark and which ones are missing it. This helps you put more into what’s working and fix or drop what’s not.

Identify Top Performing Campaigns

To find your star campaigns:

Look at your data to see which campaigns are bringing people to your site
Spot the ones with the most people visiting
Find out which ones are making people buy stuff
Check which campaigns are making people come back and buy again
See which ones are making the most money

This helps you know where to put more money and effort.

Diagnose Underperforming Efforts

To figure out which marketing moves aren’t doing well:

Look at your data for the campaigns that aren’t getting much love
Check for ones where people leave quickly or only look at one thing
Notice if people aren’t clicking on or opening your ads
Think about if you didn’t spend enough to get noticed
Consider if your message or target audience wasn’t quite right

Fixing these can help your campaigns do better.

Compare and Contrast

A simple table showing the difference between what’s working and what’s not can help you see what to change:

Metric	High Performer	Low Performer
Traffic Volume	500 sessions/month	100 sessions/month
Bounce Rate	20%	60%
Pages/Session	5	1
Conversion Rate	15%	2%
Revenue	$5,000	$100

This table makes it easier to decide where to focus your efforts.

Keeping an eye on your campaign tracking data and making changes along the way can lead to better results and more money made from your marketing over time.

Optimizing Future Marketing Efforts

Double Down on What Works

After looking at your data, figure out which marketing moves are really hitting the mark. Then, put more of your budget and effort there. Here’s how:

If certain ads are getting lots of clicks and sales, spend more on them.
If some social media posts are getting a lot of likes and comments, do more like those.
Write more blog posts on topics that people seem to love.
Use more eye-catching designs in your successful campaigns.

Putting more into what’s already working helps you get even better results.

Enhance Campaign Elements

Use what you’ve learned from tracking to make your campaigns even better. Here are some ideas:

If people are leaving your website without doing anything, try changing the words or button that asks them to take action.
If a lot of people leave your website from the same page, make the content on that page easier to read or shorter.
Try different email subject lines or send times to get more people to open them.
If an ad isn’t getting clicked on much anymore, try using a different picture.

Making small changes like these can keep your marketing fresh and effective.

Expanded Audience Targeting

Use the data from your best campaigns to find more people like your current customers. Here’s how:

Use tools like Facebook Ads to find more people who are similar to those who have already bought from you.
Create detailed profiles of your ideal customers based on what you know about the people who like your products.
Grow your email list by finding more people who are similar to those who already subscribe.

Reaching more people who are likely to be interested in your products can help you sell more.

Common Pitfalls and Mistakes

When tracking how well your cannabis ads are doing, there are some slip-ups that can really mess things up. Here are the big mistakes you should steer clear of:

Not Setting Up Correctly Initially

Getting your tracking set up right from the start is super important. If you wait and try to add it later, you’ll miss out on some crucial info. Here’s what you need to do:

Make sure tools like Google Analytics are working on your website from day one
Figure out what normal looks like for your site so you can tell when things change
Set up special tracking codes (UTM codes) for your ads before they go live
Double-check that all your tracking is working right. If it’s not, fix it ASAP.

Doing all this at the beginning gives you a full picture of how your ads are doing.

Focusing on Vanity Metrics

It’s easy to get caught up in how many people see your ads, but what really matters is the results, like sales. Don’t just look at the flashy numbers.

Focus on things like:

How much money you’re making
How many new customers you’re getting
How many people are buying stuff from your website
How much customers are worth over time

Always aim to improve the numbers that show your business is growing.

Not Segmenting Audiences

If you only look at your data as one big chunk, you might miss problems with certain groups of people.

Break down your data by:

Where people are coming from
Which webpage they land on
What your ad looks like
People’s age, where they live
Different places in the country or world

Finding out where you’re not doing so well with certain groups can help you tweak your ads to connect better with those folks.

Conclusion and Next Steps

Key Takeaways

Keeping an eye on your marketing is super important for selling cannabis. It helps you know what’s working and what’s not.
Start with setting up Google Analytics, hook up your sales system, use special codes (UTM) for tracking, make web pages for each ad, and try to bring back visitors who didn’t buy.
Keep track of important stuff: how much you sell, how many people visit your website, how engaged they are, and where they found you.
Look at your data to spot the best and worst ads, tweak them, and try to reach more people.
Don’t get caught up in just the big numbers, forget to look at different groups of customers, or skip setting up your tracking at the beginning.

Getting Started Checklist

[ ] Get Google Analytics up and running and connect other tools like your sales system.
[ ] Put UTM codes on all your links and ads.
[ ] Make special web pages for your ads.
[ ] Start gathering info on your visitors and customers to group them.
[ ] Pick the main things you want to keep an eye on, like sales and website visits.
[ ] Regularly check your data to see which ads are doing well and which aren’t.
[ ] Update your ads every few weeks based on what you learn.
[ ] Slowly start showing your ads to more people who might be interested.

Following these steps will help you get a good handle on tracking your cannabis ads. Pay attention to the important numbers, learn from what you see, and keep making things better to sell more.