Note: The documentation below is for Google Analytics 4.
If you are still using Universal Analytics, we recommend setting up your property on Google Analytics 4 instead.
Beacon makes it easy to take donations or sell event tickets online via popular payment methods like credit cards, PayPal, and Apple Pay. When payments are made, they're automatically saved into Beacon for you to report on or generate charts from.
However, how can you track where the donations come from? Enter Google Analytics - a fantastic (free) tool for tracking the success of your marketing campaigns. It helps you answer questions like:
Which marketing channels drive the most revenue?
Which emails are the most successful at driving donations?
Which Google ads provide the best ROI?
Google Analytics helps you move on from numbers that don't matter (like open rates, click throughs) and focus on what matters - money donated to your end cause, and how you can attract more of it.
Set up Google Analytics with Beacon
Go to Settings > Charity Preferences in Beacon
Paste your Google Analytics Measurement ID into the 'Google Analytics' field (You can find your ID in your Google Analytics account, in Admin > Property > Data Streams)
To ensure that sessions are tracked correctly in Google analytics, you will need to add the following domains to your cross-domain measurement list in Google Analytics (Admin > Property > Data Streams > Configure tag settings > Configure your domains):
yourdomain.beaconforms.com
Your website domain
When new donations and memberships are made, they will automatically start appearing in your Google Analytics.
The steps above will allow donations to be added and tracked correctly, but they won't have sources correctly attributed to them - because Beacon forms run on a separate domain to your website.
To resolve this, ask your web developer to add the Beacon tracking code below to every page of your website:
<script type="text/javascript">
(function (d, id) {
if (d.getElementById(id)) {
return;
}
var js = d.createElement('script');
js.id = id;
js.src = 'https://static.beaconproducts.co.uk/js-sdk/production/beaconcrm.min.js';
d.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(js);
}(document, 'beacon-js-sdk'));
</script>
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a URL for the successful submission of a form?
Yes! Every form submission will log a page view with "/confirm" so that you configure the exit of your sales/marketing funnel.
For example:
Submission URL: https://thecharitytrust.beaconforms.com/form/321f8697/confirm
Alternatively, if you're redirecting to another page from the form completion you could also use that URL instead.
How do I connect Universal Analytics tracking codes to my new Google Analytics 4?
If you're upgrading to Google Analytics 4, but have existing Universal Analytics tracking codes running on your website, you can connect the existing tracker to your Google Analytics 4 property:
In Beacon, you can then add your existing Universal Analytics tracking ID (UA-XXXX).
How do I set up a new GA4 property based on my old UA property?
When you're ready to move your tracking to GA4, Google have a setup assistant that will help to create your new property. Go to Admin > Property > GA4 Setup Assistant in your Google Analytics account, and choose 'I want to create a new Google Analytics 4 property'
