Installing the Identify Snippet for your 'Contacts' section
Last updated: 4th February, 2022
📔 This article will guide you through installing the Identify Snippet. This enables you to stitch visitor Analytics from our tracking Snippet onto their user-profile in your ‘Contacts’ section.
‘Contacts’ is an incredibly powerful tool which brings all your user-level data together in one place. Once you have installed the standard GoSquared pageview tracking, simply follow the instructions below to add the ‘Identify’ Snippet in order to complete the full installation.
Setting up your Contacts section will also enhance your experience when using GoSquared Inbox as it will automatically show all the user’s information when they start a conversation with you.
Code Free Installation
If your website has a user login system and you don't want to write any code to install Customer Data Hub you can follow these alternative guides:
- Ecommerce options (via Segment plugin)
- Wordpress/WooCommerce plugin
Manual Installation – using JavaScript
This guide is for me if:
- My website has a way of identifying users, such as a user login system.
- I know how to access the underlying source code of the website.
- I am comfortable writing basic javascript and am familiar with terms such as 'function' and 'variables'.
This guide outlines the core concepts of implementing the 'identify' function.
The full technical documentation is recommended for developers.
1. Ensure you've set-up GoSquared Analytics first
Before you can start tracking People profiles you must have standard pageview tracking set up. If you haven't already, start by adding the GoSquared Analytics code to your site and watch as visitors start showing up in your Now dashboard.
2. Use the 'Identify' function to create People profiles
When a user signs up for your service you’ll need to use the GoSquared 'identify' function to create a new profile for them in the People dashboard. This will merge together their activity across devices, stitch together any previous sessions and continue to track all future browsing sessions.
We require an email address to identify a user.
Login/Registration Form
When a new user signs up (or when an existing user logs back in), you can programmatically pass back their email address from the input box, to GoSquared.
Email Newsletter Sign-up Form
Alternatively you could use a email newsletter sign-up form to pass the email address to our 'identify' code (ask your developer for help with this).
What Properties can I track?
Track as many or few properties as you like. We only require a minimum of a users email address. All custom properties become filterable/searchable within the People dashboard. We will automatically detect the type of data that you send in custom properties: Dates/Timestamps, Numbers, Text and Boolean (True or False).
Optionally we also have special reserved properties that you can use to track additional information (Company Name etc). You can also pass back any custom properties unique to your website/business.
Example Code
After adding the standard tracking code onto the page you'll also need to call the 'identify' function.
- The green property is the user's email address, this is the minimum that you must pass back to GoSquared.
- The orange section shows special reserved properties (you cannot change the name of a reserved property), that you can use to pass back additional information about the user.
- The red section shows how you would pass back any custom properties you may want to track that are specific to your business.
Technical documentation on identifying new users
3. Track events
Go beyond the pageviews, and track the actions your users take within your app or service.
We recommend you start off with a handful of key events you really want to track. Trying to track every single action right away is a daunting task that can drag out the process and lead to a poor tracking setup.
Here’s a list of the most common key events for a SaaS business:
- Joined Email List
- Signed Up
- Invited Teammate
- Upgraded Plan
- Used Key Feature X
🤔 Unsure about installing the Identify Snippet?
We’re here to help you install and integrate GoSquared. Feel free to contact us and we’ll be able to offer a range of paths to help you with integration.
For enterprise installations, please discuss with your account manager, who will be happy to make separate arrangements.