Click Stats and Conversion Tracking

Your campaign comes with a “Visit Website” button, and an optional second button such as “Get Demo” or “Free Trial” or “Try it Now”, etc.

You can view click statistics about your campaign on the Click Stats tab. These are people researching your category or product that click through to your company website or lead form.

Your campaign will be getting hundreds to thousands of clicks. To determine the success of your campaign, you need to be able to accurately track these clicks and conversions.

You can change or update your campaign tracking URLs, which are linked to from the "Visit Website" button, and the other button (such as "Demo", "Free Trial", etc.) on the "Campaign Tracking URL" tab within your SourceForge admin section.

In recent years, default privacy settings in web browsers have become more restrictive, and it’s become harder to track the source of conversions.

A “link click” is when a potential buyer clicks the “Visit Website” or optional second button such as “Get Demo” or “Free Trial” or “Try it Now”, etc. that appears on your product listing, or anywhere else your product is featured such as categories, comparison pages, alternatives pages, and integration pages.

Your SourceForge admin dashboard provides a chart that shows the number of clicks over any specified date range. You can use this as your ultimate source of truth for the number of clicks your campaign is getting, because these clicks are tracked directly by our ad server.

If you want to track link clicks and visits on your end, there are three ways we recommend:

1. Use a UTM Campaign Link

Example: https://example.com/?utm_source=sourceforge&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=sourceforgelisting

2. Link to Custom Landing Page

Example: https://example.com/sourceforge/

3. Using BOTH of the above methods together (most effective)

Example: https://example.com/sourceforge/?utm_source=sourceforge&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=sourceforgelisting

A UTM link is a link that has certain parameters appended to the end of the URL that enable you to track visitors in Google Analytics and other analytics platforms by campaign, source, medium, and more.

Google provides a convenient Campaign URL Builder that you can use to generate your own UTM link.

A UTM link for example.com would look like this:

https://example.com/?utm_source=sourceforge&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=sourceforgelisting

In the URL above, these are the parameters that have been set:

Campaign Source: sourceforge Campaign Medium: paid Campaign Name: sourceforgelisting

You can set these parameters to whatever you want. These parameters will not change anything on your landing page, all they do is allow you to track visitors by campaign, source, and medium inside Google Analytics or other web analytics tools.

Please note that if you want to track campaigns using Google Analytics, all 3 of the parameters above are required (utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign)

There are other optional parameters you can set as well using Google’s Campaign URL Builder.

Once you have your UTM link, you can go to the Campaign Tracking URL tab in your SourceForge admin panel and input this link, so that clicks on your “Visit Website” button will now use this URL.

Once your UTM link is up and running, you can track visits and activity of users who come to your site using the “Visit Website” button on SourceForge by campaign, source, medium, and any other parameters you specified.

The best way to accurately track visitors is to build a custom landing page that lives on its own static URL.

For example, if your company website is https://example.com, then your landing page would be something like https://example.com/sourceforge/

You would use https://example.com/sourceforge/ as your Campaign Tracking URL in your SourceForge campaign. So any users that click the “Visit Website” button on your product listing will be sent to https://example.com/sourceforge/

You would not use this URL anywhere else. By not using this URL anywhere else, you know that 100% of users that land on this URL came from your SourceForge campaign. In your web analytics dashboard (such as Google Analytics), you would be able to track visits to this page because you know that the only way someone can get to this page is by clicking the button on your SourceForge product listing.

A good best practice is to have a lead form right on this page, so that users can submit their contact information and request a demo or a call back, or any other call to action. This lead form should be a separate lead form and “thank you” page than any other lead forms on your website, so that you can accurately track all leads that come from your SourceForge campaign.

If you have an optional second button such as “Get Demo” or “Free Trial” or “Try it Now”, etc. on your SourceForge listing, you can use the same URL you created for your “Visit Website” button, or you can create a new customer URL if you’d like to track these buttons separately.

As we mentioned above, the best way to track link clicks and SourceForge campaign performance is to use BOTH a custom landing page URL AND a UTM link.

Using the example.com domain above, the link would look like this:

https://example.com/sourceforge/?utm_source=sourceforge&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=sourceforgelisting

Using both methods together will give you the most complete picture of your campaign.

Tracking conversions accurately is extremely important to judge the success of your campaign. There are a variety of ways to track conversions. You may already have an accurate process in place to track conversions with correct attribution. If so, great!

If not, use this guide to set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics 4.

Tracking conversions in Google Analytics is the most common and reliable way to track conversions. This method will require that you set up accurate tracking links from the previous steps above.

Google Analytics 4 is much different than the previous version of Google Analytics.

Google Analytics 4 allows you to create “events” which you can use to track conversions. You can also set up “events” for GA4 in Google Tag Manager, but this guide will show you how to do it within the Google Analytics 4 dashboard.

Here are the steps to set up “events” in Google Analytics 4 to track conversions:

1. Sign in to Google Analytics and navigate to the Account/Property/View that you want to set up an event for.

2. Click the “Admin” gear button in the bottom left corner.

3. Click the “Events” button in the bottom under the “Property” view.

4. Click the “Create Event” button on the right side, and click the blue “Create” button on the next screen also.

5. Configure your “Custom Event Name”, and Matching conditions which include “Parameter”, “Operator”, and “Value”.

In this guide, we will use the parameter “page_location”, which means URL. We are setting the operator to “equals”, and inputting the full URL of our goal destination page as the “value”.

In the example below, you can see these conditions. This means that we are going to trigger an event any time a user lands on our “thank you” page, which is the page that loads after they fill out our form. In this case our “thank you” has a URL of: https://example.com/thank-you

Note: you can also use different operators such as “contain” if you have multiple “thank you” pages for different forms.

After creating the event. This event will appear in your “Custom events’ section. Click the X in the top left of the “Custom events” section to exit this section and go back to “Existing Events”.

NOTE: It’s important to know that your event will not show up in your “Events” section until the event is triggered for the first time. So go trigger the event, or wait for the event to be triggered. Once it’s triggered it will show up in your “Events” section and you can proceed to the next step.

6. Toggle “Mark as Conversion” on your new event

Now your conversion tracking is set up. You can navigate to the “Reports” menu in the left side navigation, and then click “Engagement” and then “Conversions”.

This was a very simple event set up. You can get much more advanced with event and conversion tracking if you really know how to use Google Analytics 4.

It’s also important to understand that in Google Analytics 4 you measure all conversions via GA4 events. GA4 events are triggered as users interact with your site or app. Using the user interface, you can “Mark as conversion” any events that contribute to the success of your business as conversions. Whenever any of these flagged events is triggered, a conversion is registered in your GA4 property.

Once you have your tracking link set up, make sure you run your own tests to ensure everything is working properly. Conversions (and test conversions) can show up within 3 hours of the conversion being triggered, but may take up to 24 hours to show up. Just keep that in mind.

Tracking links are only part of the marketing attribution process. They help you understand the clicks and conversions, however they need to be set up to work in harmony with your CRM so that you can attribute revenue to marketing spend. A common mistake clients make is tracking clicks correctly in their analytics, but failing to attribute the leads that enter their CRM to the proper source, so their sales team and revenue numbers do not properly attribute the correct lead source.

Setting this part up varies depending on your CRM and landing page setup. The most important thing to achieve here is to ensure that anyone that comes from a specific marketing campaign like SourceForge will be properly flagged in your CRM as having come from that source, so that you can attribute the revenue to the marketing channel.

We’ve included a few useful resources below that will help you set up proper lead source tracking or integration between CRMs and Google Analytics.

If your CRM is not on this list, please reach out to your SourceForge campaign manager and we can help you troubleshoot this.

Tracking Lead Source in Account Engagement

Let’s Talk About Salesforce Lead Source

Salesforce And Google Analytics Integration: All You Should Know

Lead Source: What Is It and Why It's Valuable To Your Team

Update the lead source property

Create tracking URLs

The ultimate cheat sheet on HubSpot Lead Sources

How to Create and Attribute Lead Source in Microsoft Dynamics

Track Lead Source and Attribute Marketing Revenue in Pipedrive

How to add lead source to Zoho CRM

Once you have your tracking link and lead sources set up, make sure you run comprehensive tests to ensure everything is working properly. You should see evidence of the click, the conversion metric, and see the contact showing up in your CRM with the lead source properly labeled. This way you can tie back revenue to conversion data.

A high-converting landing page is essential for driving business growth and turning visitors into leads or customers. When listing business software on SourceForge, a well-designed landing page can significantly impact your conversion rate. Below are the key elements that contribute to an effective landing page designed to convert:

The value proposition is the core message that communicates the primary benefit of your software. It should be immediately visible and convey why your solution stands out compared to competitors. The value proposition should:

Tip: Use a bold, headline statement that clearly describes what your software does and how it solves customer pain points. Pair this with a sub-headline that adds more detail.

A strong CTA is crucial for guiding users toward the desired action, such as downloading a free trial, scheduling a demo, or signing up for a newsletter. The CTA should:

Tip: Use contrasting colors for your CTA buttons and ensure they are easily accessible without needing to scroll.

The overall design of your landing page should be visually engaging, but not distracting. The goal is to keep the visitor’s attention on the core message. A clean and professional design will establish credibility and trust. Essential design principles include:

Tip: Use screenshots or product demo videos to give potential customers a real sense of how your software works and the problems it solves.

Here is a great graphic to visualize the elements of a high converting landing page.

Visitors are more likely to convert when they trust the product and the company behind it. Incorporate elements that build credibility, such as:

Tip: Feature logos of well-known clients or partners, along with third-party reviews and trust badges from credible sources like SourceForge.

Your landing page content should speak directly to the challenges and needs of your target audience. Understand their pain points and explain how your software provides the solution. Key points to address include:

Tip: Break down the text into digestible chunks with bullet points, headers, and subheaders to improve readability.

With an increasing number of users browsing on mobile devices, it's critical that your landing page is fully optimized for mobile. Ensure that:

Tip: Test your landing page on multiple devices to ensure a seamless experience for all users.

If your goal is to collect leads, make sure your form is simple and straightforward. The length of the form should reflect the value of what’s being offered. For example, a free trial might require only an email, while a demo might require more information. Key considerations include:

Tip: Enable autofill options and use real-time validation to make the form submission process smoother.

To continually improve your landing page’s conversion rate, you must gather data and optimize based on visitor behavior. Best practices include:

Tip: Regularly review and update your landing page based on user feedback and analytical insights to ensure ongoing improvements.