An introduction to Lists

In this article we will dive into the what Lists are and how you can use them to get the most out of Sidetracker.

What are Lists?

Each list is a data storage, in which you can store a segmentation of data from your web traffic. Writing a record in a list can be done using a Tracker, or directly via our REST API.

Create a list

First we create a List with the name "Google ads traffic". To do this we navigate to "Lists" in the top navigation menu and next we click the "New list" button.

A popup appears in which we can select a template or create a custom list. The templates are convenient, because they are a selection of often used columns for each specific data storage use-case. For this example we select the Referrer traffic template by clicking the "Create list" button in the tile.

Manage your list

We will now be redirected to this newly created list. Here you can also manage your list. You re-arrange the columns by drag and dropping them in the preferred place.

And you can also remove a column by clicking the red times button. Then you also can add a column from the right top dropdown.

And from the same dropdown you can flush the list on date-range or permanently delete the whole list.

If you click the Edit button next to the dropdown, a popup appears where you can change the title and description for this list.

Excel exports

And finally there is the Export button with a Schedule option in the dropdown next to it. The export button creates an excel file with all entries of the current date-range selection and if you click on Schedule a popup appears where you can select a timeframe in which all entries added in this timeframe are automatically sent to you by email with a download link to the excel file.

To remove a schedule, just select "None" from the dropdown and hit "Save".

Example scenario

I think showing you an example on how to use a list is the best way to learn about the potential possibilities for you. That's why we will create a Tracker that stores all Google ads traffic into the list we've just created.

1. Setting up our Tracker

So we now want to create a Tracker that automatically stores website traffic that came in from a Google ads campaign to our list, we start by creating a new Tracker.

Click "New Tracker" on the Trackers overview page and select the Parameter Action. In the first step we select "Referrer" which tracks the parameters of the incoming URL of your visitor.

Next we fill our the key and value as gclid=* the key gclid is a parameter used by Google to meassure paid per click campaigns.

The * is a wildcard value this means the value could be anything. In this case, we only want to track visits that have the gclid key in their referrer URL.

Once we saved our Parameter action, we click on the event block. Select the "Add to list" event in the following popup.

Select the list we created earlier and click "Save".

Next we publish our Tracker and its time to test!

2. Test our Tracker

To test how this works, first make sure your domain is installed.

I created a link to my own website with a like this https://mywebsite.com?glicd=someTestValue When I click this link (make sure your website is written before the ?) we should be added to the list.

If everything is setup correctly you'll see traffic being registered in the list.

Conclusion

Thats it, I hope you got a better understanding of what Lists are and how you can use them for your own data collection purposes. You might want to redirect the data to your CRM system, or any other place using our Zapier integration, hold your sales team accountable on follow-ups, or check the data yourself to see which entry points are worth investing in (ads, organic, certain landing-pages). The possibilities are endless!

If there are any questions don't hesitate to contact us. We are here to help!