How to track Mailchimp email clicks in Matomo using UTM parameters

The Mailchimp email marketing platform lets you send promotional or transactional emails sent to a defined audience via scheduled campaigns or automation flows. To measure engagement with these emails, Mailchimp supports Google Analytics (GA) campaign tracking by appending standard UTM parameters (e.g. utm_campaign, utm_medium, utm_source) to the links you defined in the marketing email.

Matomo automatically recognises UTM parameters, so you can monitor Mailchimp email engagement directly in Matomo (as well as GA). This guide explains how to track Mailchimp email clicks in Matomo.

Before you start

1. You must have admin access to an active Mailchimp, GA, and Matomo account.
2. To enable tracking, add the GA and Matomo (or Matomo Tag Manager) tracking code to all pages linked from your Mailchimp emails.
3. Follow the official Mailchimp instructions to integrate Google Analytics.

Set up the Mailchimp email campaign

When Google Analytics integrates with Mailchimp, it automatically tracks clicks on links defined in the Mailchimp email using an auto-generated campaign URL based on the email title, e.g., utm_source=WEBSITE&utm_campaign=EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=093c79

1. In the Mailchimp Home dashboard, click Create email.
2. Choose your preferred layout and design the email.
3. Include links to your web page(s) containing the GA and Matomo tracking code. For example, add a link in the email that redirects to a specific page on your website.
   
4. Once the email is ready, click Save and exit.
5. In the email settings, complete all required fields.
6. Scroll down to the section on Settings and Tracking.
7. Click the Edit button and ensure Google Analytics link tracking is selected.
   
8. If required, overwrite the default campaign name. In Mailchimp paid plans, you can modify all UTM parameters.
9. Click Save.
10. Send a test email to check tracking works.
11. Open the email and click on a custom link.
12. Go to Matomo > Visitors > Visits Log report. Your click on the custom link in the email is automatically tracked as a campaign.
    
13. Over time, you can monitor the Mailchimp email campaign in Acquisition reports.

When email recipients click on the email links, they are redirected to your custom page using the campaign URL containing the UTM parameters. The campaign parameters are captured as part of the visit for analysis in your Matomo reports.

Next steps

After setting up tracking, you can enhance your analysis by defining Goals in Matomo to measure conversions from Mailchimp campaigns. For example, create a goal for when a user visits a page with specific campaign parameters. See How to create a goal in Matomo.

If using Matomo Tag Manager, you can trigger a Goal conversion directly when the email recipient clicks on a tracked link. See How to trigger a Goal Conversion.