Multiple url parameters in email templates in SAP Marketing Cloud

Context

Emails sent out within a campaign often include links to web pages / shops / product pages, for example a link to order the particular product. To track the success usually parameters are added to the link.

On the UI in the message editor of SAP Marketing Cloud one can add one parameter that can carry either a constant or a personalized value. Additionally a tracking ID (or SAP Outbound ID) can be added that can be used e.g. to prefill landing pages.

In some cases it is necessary to add multiple parameters to an url in the email, for example Google Analytics has up to 5 parameters. In this blog we describe how these parameters can be added to the email.

Multiple parameters

All static parameters need to be assembled to a long url string and inserted it into the field <URL or fallback URL> on the message app.

When the email is sent, this url with all the parameters is added to the message.

Google Analytics parameters

To measure the success of the campaign with Google Analytics various parameters need to be added to the links in the email.

With the email editor this integration comes out of the box.

In the link properties area there is a checkbox (that is defaulted) that triggers appending the url when sending the email.

When checked the parameters of Google Analytics are filled like this:

• utm_source : SAPHybris
• utm_medium : email
• utm_campaign : campaign ID.  Note that the campaign ID is used as the campaign name isn’t unique. 
• utm_content: language of email___name of condition block (if defined).  Here we insert the language of the email and the name of the condition where the link is contained. this two pieces of information are separated by three underscores.
• utm_term: email name___link name___ product or offer recommendation. In this parameter we insert the name of the email and the name of the link to support a tracking which link drove a conversion. All the pieces of information are separated by three underscores.

See this example:

The link for the picture in the email would look like this:

http://www.hybris.com/en/?utm_source=SAPHybris&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1234&utm_term=SAP%2520Hybris%2520Marketing%25201708___Link%2520to%2520Hybris.com&utm_content=EN

(Note: the %2520 represents the blank character)

Note that when loading data from Google Analytics into SAP Marketing Cloud we check the utm_medium on email and then we add the campaign ID, the email name and the link name to the business document (the sales order). By doing this SAP Marketing Cloud is able to track email open, email clicks, link clicks (natively from SAP Marketing Cloud) and conversion on granularity of links in emails (delivered via Google Analytics).

Note: To use the tracking down to link level, you must avoid using triple underscores in the names of email or the link.

In case your web analytics experts need different parameter information, please use the BADI to adapt to your needs. However keep in mid that on SAP Marketing Cloud there is an implemented logic for campaign ID, email name and link name as described in the paragraph above.

When the email is sent the url with all the parameters is added to the message.

More about Google Analytics can be found here: Google Analytics Integration

Multiple personalized parameters

Multiple personalized parameters might be of interest if you want to pass information to the web page, for example you want to add the gender and the first name of the contact. The message app currently supports to select a single personalized parameter, but with this little workaround it is possible to add as many personalized parameters as you like.

We start again as before, but add one personalized parameter using the UI:

Now you must switch to the source code tab of the email and find the technical parameter personalization:

In our case the technical personalization is: |%BO-CUAN_INTERACTION_CONTACT-NAME_FIRST%| . Note that this technical name is also dependent on the segmentation profile you have chosen for personalization in the Settings tab.

If you want to have more personalized parameters, you need to add this parameter to the url that you have in the URL or fallback URL field:

www.yourshop.com/yourproductpage?FirstName=|%BO-CUAN_INTERACTION_CONTACT-NAME_FIRST%|

Then select the next personalized parameter (e.g. gender):

To add even more personalized parameters, you need to go to the Source Code Tab again, find the technical name of the personalization, add it to the url and select a third personalized parameter.

When the email is sent, within the execution these personalization parameters are filled, eg. I would get an email including a link like this:

www.yourshop.com/yourproductpage?FirstName=Michael&gender=male