Google Ecommerce Tracking

[idtags]

As to Option 2, there is a html_header.php located in includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/common/

Near the end of that file, you'll see

</head><?php // NOTE: Blank line following is intended: ?>

Just insert the code above the </head>

Thank you very much for advise.
I will try and report back with result.

[g2ktcf]

Hello Team,

Below is most recent instruction (2022) for connecting Google Analytics to the ZenCart.

Can you, please, explain in what file and where in the file on ZenCart is should be inserted.

########################################################

To connect Google Analytics to your website, choose 1 of the following methods that apply:

Option 1: Install a tracking ID through your hosting service or commerce platform
Sign in to your website builder, web hosting service, or commerce platform and paste your tracking ID into the analytics section.

UA-XXXXXX-1

Option 2: Install a tracking tag in your website code
Paste your tracking tag before the closing </head> tag on every page of your website you want to track.

<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-638871-1">
</script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());

gtag('config', 'UA-XXXXXX-1');
</script>

Thank you for your time in advance.

did you try this per dbltoe?

[g2ktcf]

I just signed up for Google Ads and added the tracking info per dbltoe's input. The "test connection" button on Google Analytics worked fine so we will see how this goes. I will post back on my experience.

Bit of Background:

I sort of feel that I am being forced into this by another platform. While we love the customers that Etsy brings to us (85% of our Sales) they have an "Offsite Ads" program that we have ZERO control over. Each sale from these offsite ads has fees up to 27% which we just cannot do. They will not even let you set which items you want to include...they control what products of yours THEY sell. We are removing all of the affected products from their platform and working to sell them only on our site.

Thanks!
Chris

[g2ktcf]

First off, I had no idea how rich the dataset from Google Analytics really is. WOW.

1. I have learned that I am paying for and getting clicks, but the visitors are not staying on the site. I need to look at the landing page as it is clearly NOT keeping visitors engaged.
2. I had no idea that 75% of our visitors are all on phones! What a great metric to see.
3. My wife does small live videos each weekend and I can clearly see the "social media" portion of our visitors in the hour after her videos post.

We are still learning. I do think I need to change my ad from a general "we supply X" to "buy this item". I also have some videos at the top of the landing page which means that they never see products when they click on a link. You have to scroll down past the video to get to the real stuff.

[dbltoe]

<personalOpinion>
I can empathize with your desire for increasing sales and gaining/guiding customers to your products. I just think most of this can be done without spending money on SEO and clicks that result in a very small ROI. You hear on Shark Tank, "What's your customer acquistion cost?" Actually, they're wanting to know if you are having to spend a lot for a customer. That generally says you are trying to take a shortcut.

If your host has cPanel and is not blocking you from Awstats, most of the info needed to adjust your site for the majority of your customers is available without having to pay for clicks or having a "landing page".

I am one of those that feels a landing page is counter productive in that most of our population stands in front of a microwave and hollers, "HURRY UP!"

IMHO, a landing page in ecommerce is like putting the microwave behind a locked door. As a shopper, I am generally looking for a specific item. If I google that item and, if the link I find takes me to anything other than the item I was looking for, I'm history.

Statistics say that a "properly setup" landing page is still only 2.3% successful in keeping someone who would otherwise leave.

One of the sites hosted by myZenCartHost had 17,639 unique visitors in May. They averaged just over a thousand page views a day with 860+ sales at an average $68.19 per sale.

Still, 71% of those 17,639 visitors left in less than two minutes. A landing page MAY have kept 288 people there a little longer. BUT, unless your site is focused in one particular area, a landing page would have to be "properly setup" to make the focus of the paid click. I'm still confused as to how an extra step getting to any e-commerce product/service can be worth any expense. At $0.02 a click, that's $350+ a month for a 29% keep rate.

Awstats also lets you know the Operating Systems and Browsers used to access your site. It also lets you know if they came from a search engine or a link from a non-SE.

Miscellaneous info and HTTP Status Codes round out the list of helpful information. Keeping those 404s to a minimum makes the SEs happy. Awstats lets you know whether the customer was directed to the wrong link from another website, your own, or an SE.

With the use of Awstats as a tool to modify/repair site problems and accurate/informative product descriptions, this site is almost always number 1 on the non-ad list of any google search for a product dealing with kayak parts. That's above Amazon.

Just food for thought. The site mentioned in this example is a Mom and Pop with one employee. They taken advantage of the tools provided them rather than the SEO shortcuts with the Ad - in front of them.
</personalOpinion>

[g2ktcf]

I have actually minimized the effect of Etsy's fees. I have strategically modified the pricing so that I can make more on some Etsy sales that I do on my own site. But we are still actively looking for more traffic on the site.

My bounce rate is 75% so there is something wrong and I think I know what it is. But I am paying WAY more than $0.02 a click. Try more like $0.50 average with Google Ads and I had no idea that it would be that high. This experiment may end very soon. And NO, I am not paying for SEO. I still have not gotten a good understanding of SEO. Its like "here a black box" just use. I know what the letters in SEO stands for but there should be some logical way to implement it and MEASURE it. And I have found that this is not the case. It seems more like black magic. I am open to other opinions though.

Also lol...I pay $10 a month for my entire VPS so I do not get cpanel!

[balihr]

First off, I had no idea how rich the dataset from Google Analytics really is. WOW.

1. I have learned that I am paying for and getting clicks, but the visitors are not staying on the site. I need to look at the landing page as it is clearly NOT keeping visitors engaged.
2. I had no idea that 75% of our visitors are all on phones! What a great metric to see.
3. My wife does small live videos each weekend and I can clearly see the "social media" portion of our visitors in the hour after her videos post.

We are still learning. I do think I need to change my ad from a general "we supply X" to "buy this item". I also have some videos at the top of the landing page which means that they never see products when they click on a link. You have to scroll down past the video to get to the real stuff.

I don't know your website, but you might want to look more into UX (User Experience).

IMO (and I know a lot of people here will disagree), a good looking site is step one. Sadly, most of the free templates here are far from good, with the exception of lat9's bootstrap template which is an excellent starting point, but needs a lot of work to customize it and adapt it to your needs. If your site looks like it was designed and built 10 years ago, you're very likely to lose customers because the initial lack of trust. We're all just human and we all prefer fancy looking shops over some old fashioned cr**py looking shop in a shady neighborhood, and I bet you'll even be happy to pay a dollar more for the same thing in the fancy store...

Next, do your research on UX and learn more about the "minor" details that make a huge difference. For example, what you mentioned here is a big no-no - videos do not go on top of the page. There's even a recommended layout with ratios where the image should be, title, price and buy now (action) buttons should be visible without scrolling etc. There's a ton of stuff that you might think are insignificant, but actually make a huge difference, and vice versa - you might think it's important and customers mostly couldn't care less about it.

Zen Cart is crazy powerful if you push the right buttons, but it's up to you to push 'em... One of my clients had an 800% revenue increase only 3 months after site redesign, with the exact same marketing as before. We just pushed the right buttons.

And last but not least - on-site SEO with Zen Cart is quite easy and very powerful (and excellent out of the box), plus you can do a lot of off-site SEO and marketing yourself so it's relatively easy to get the wheel going.

[nicksab]

I see it has been asked before but no answer was provided.

Does this plugin works with the new Google Analytic G4?

UA is getting removed by Google soon and replace by GA4. The property ID are different format now and wonder if anyone made it work.

Thank you