How can I track and optimize publisher engagement in Google Analytics?

Outbrain enables you to see your campaign performance in Google Analytics broken down by the referring source. This allows you to identify and exclude any underperforming referring sources.

Let’s get started

Add the following source tracking parameter in addition to your existing UTM code:
utm_term={{section_name}}
If you haven’t set up a basic UTM code for your campaign yet, you can learn more about that here.

After the campaign has received clicks, open Google Analytics and choose the desired date range.

Head to Acquisition >> All Traffic >> Source/Medium.
Locate the source/medium combination you had selected. We recommend using “Outbrain/Discovery.”

Click Secondary Dimension, and choose Keyword.

You can then view you the referring sources that promoted your Outbrain campaigns and monitor their performance. Reviewing this data will allow you to optimize your campaigns accordingly. You can then break out the data in your Outbrain dashboard and match up the section names with the ones you see in GA.

Key Takeaways

• Be mindful of how many sources you exclude. You will only be able to remove a maximum of 30 publishers and 100 sections.
• We only recommend excluding a source if it is underperforming after 400 clicks.
• Due to the differences between Google Analytics and Outbrain reporting, there will always be some discrepancies in data.
• In addition to excluding sources, you can also manually adjust their bids.