If you’re running campaigns across a bunch of channels—email, paid ads, socials, maybe even good old direct mail—you know the pain: tracking what’s working and what’s just burning budget. This guide is for you if you’re tired of duct-taping spreadsheets and want a clear, honest walkthrough for tracking multi-channel campaign performance in Topo.
Let’s cut the noise and get you set up, step by step.
Step 1: Get Your Channels and Campaigns Organized
Before you touch Topo, do yourself a favor: get a list of every channel and campaign you want to track. This isn’t busywork; it’s the foundation.
- List your channels: Email, Google Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn, organic search, events—whatever you’re running.
- Map your campaigns: For each channel, jot down campaign names, dates, and unique offers or creative.
Pro tip: Don’t get cute with naming. Use clear, consistent names: “2024-Q2-PaidSearch-Brand” beats “Spring Explosion.”
Why it matters: Topo’s power is in how it connects the dots. Garbage in, garbage out.
Step 2: Set Up Campaigns in Topo
Now, jump into Topo. The first thing you need to do is mirror your campaign list in the platform.
- Create your campaigns: In Topo, campaigns are usually the “parent” that holds all your channel efforts together. Set up a new campaign for each cross-channel push you want to measure.
- Add channels to campaigns: Attach each channel (email, search, etc.) to the campaign. Don’t skip channels because they’re “small”—sometimes the surprise ROI is hiding there.
- Assign owners and budgets: If you have a team, set clear ownership. Otherwise, make sure budgets/targets are set for each channel.
What works: Keeping your campaign structure flat and logical. Don’t nest things three layers deep unless you like headaches.
What to ignore: Overly granular segmentation. Unless you’re a Fortune 500 with a dedicated analytics team, you don’t need separate campaigns for “Left-handed skateboarders, April 14th, Instagram Stories.”
Step 3: Tag and Track Your Links
You can’t measure what you can’t tag. Topo’s tracking relies on clean URLs and tracking parameters.
- Use UTM parameters: For any link you control (emails, ads, social posts), add UTMs. Topo can auto-generate these or you can use your own system.
- Be consistent: Use the same UTM values you used in your campaign setup. Example:
utm_campaign=2024-Q2-PaidSearch-Brand. - Integrate where possible: If Topo connects directly to your ad accounts or email platform, set up the integration. This saves you from manual tagging mistakes.
What works: Automating link tagging wherever possible. Manual UTM building is a recipe for typos and missed data.
What doesn’t: Relying only on “last click” tracking. It’s easy, but you’ll miss the bigger story.
Step 4: Connect Your Data Sources to Topo
This is where Topo earns its keep—pulling in performance data from all your channels.
- Integrate each channel: Topo should connect to major platforms: Google Ads, Facebook, HubSpot, Mailchimp, etc. Use API integrations instead of CSV uploads if you can.
- Check your data flow: Once connected, confirm that impressions, clicks, costs, and conversions are flowing in. Don’t just assume it’s working.
- Map conversions: Make sure Topo knows what a “conversion” looks like for each channel. This might mean mapping form fills, purchases, or signups.
Pro tip: Set a calendar reminder to check integrations monthly. APIs break, credentials expire, and you don’t want to find out three months later.
Step 5: Set Up Dashboards and Reports
You’ve got data—now make it useful.
- Build a summary dashboard: At minimum, you want one dashboard that shows all your campaigns, channels, spend, and conversions in one place.
- Segment by channel and campaign: Drill down to see which campaigns are driving results in each channel.
- Customize reports: Most people overcomplicate this. Start simple: spend, clicks, conversions, cost per conversion. Add more if you actually use it.
What works: Regular, automated reports delivered to your inbox. If you have to go looking for insights, you’ll stop doing it.
What doesn’t: Vanity metrics. Don’t build dashboards with “impressions” front and center unless you’re a media buyer. Focus on what moves the needle.
Step 6: Analyze, Learn, and Iterate
This step gets skipped more than you’d think. Don’t just set it and forget it.
- Look for patterns: Which channels actually drive conversions, not just clicks? Are there days/times that perform better?
- Kill or scale: If something’s not working after a fair shot, kill it. If something’s working, double down.
- Share learnings: If you’re on a team, make sure everyone knows what’s working (and what’s not). Transparency beats ego.
Pro tip: Keep a running doc of “what we tried, what happened, what we’ll do next.” Most teams forget what they learned last quarter.
Step 7: Avoid Common Pitfalls
Even with Topo, you can trip yourself up. Here’s what to watch for:
- Messy naming conventions: If campaign names are inconsistent, your reports will be a mess.
- Data gaps: If a channel’s data goes missing for a week, don’t just shrug—figure out why.
- Over-automation: Don’t automate so much that you never look at the raw data. Spot-check monthly.
- Chasing every metric: Focus on conversions and ROI. The rest is often noise.
The Bottom Line
Tracking multi-channel campaigns in Topo isn’t rocket science, but it does take a bit of setup and ongoing attention. Don’t get bogged down in fancy dashboards or a million micro-campaigns. Start simple, stay organized, and actually look at your results. Iterate as you go—nobody gets it perfect on the first try.
Keep it honest, keep it simple, and you’ll know exactly where your marketing dollars are going.