Tock is a powerful and robust reservation and event system geared for the restaurant and wine industry, which we know many of you use – particularly those of you on WineDirect.
While getting a winery set up and happy on Tock is relatively easy, getting tracking set up on Google Analytics is a bit on the tricky side. However, we have learned a ton from setting up this kind of tracking for our clients – including how much web traffic is being set to Tock, how many of these people are making reservations, and which ads are working to convert.
For this reason we thought we’d share this little how to with you – enjoy!
Step 1 – Find Your Google Tracking ID in Google Analytics
The first step is to make sure you have a Google Analytics (GA) account. If you don’t, you’re going to have to get that done before moving any further. Don’t worry – we’ll wait…
OK. Now that we’re ready to roll, then you need to find your Google Analytics Tracking ID. It looks like this: UA: XXXXXXX-Y, except, you know, real numbers.
If you don’t know how to find your Tracking ID, go here.
OK. NOW we’re ready to roll.
Step 2 – Enter That Tracking ID into Tock
This part is probably the easiest thing you’re going to do today, assuming you have mastered copy and paste. Head into your Tock backend and do the following:
Control Panel > Settings > (Advanced) Integrations
The very first thing you’ll see is something that looks like this:
Enter your Google Analytics Tracking ID into that field and don’t forget to hit “Save”. Nice work.
Step 3 – Edit Your Website’s Tracking Code to Allow for Cross Domain Tracking
If that title alone gives you stress hives, stop what you’re doing and email me. I have some great deep breath exercises I can share with you. Of course, if you’d rather I take it from here, I can do that. But that would ruin the point of this DIY post. So, get ready to dive into the code of your website and prepare to do something epic today.
First things first. You need to find out where on your website the tracking code lives. This is where you’re going to get stuck. If you don’t know what you’re doing at this point, the easiest thing to do, honestly, is to email your web people and tell them you need the following code inserted into your site (you can still generate the code yourself). If you do know what to edit, then huzzah!, go forth with the following.
Go to the Google Analytics Help Page here.
Scroll down to the green and red section while trying not to think of Christmas. It looks like this.
See that second section? The one that combines the green and red? All you have to do is follow that model and enter your regular Tracking ID where is says “UA-XXXXXXX-Y” and then change “example-2.com” to “exploretock.com” (without those quotes that I just used).
That part of the code will end up looking like this, except, you know, you’re not an idiot so you put your real Tracking ID in where I have all “1s”.
Oh, you’re so close! Now, all you have to do is either 1) Send that piece of code to your web developer to add in or 2) Go into your code and replace that section of your GA code with the edited code you just made.
Step 4 – Make Sure It’s Working
Now that you have the code in place, you should probably check to make sure it’s working. This part is super easy. Log in to your Google Analytics account and go to Realtime > Overview (this is showing live traffic to your site). In another browser, open your website and then navigate to your winery’s Tock homepage. Check back on the Real Time GA screen and you’ll see you (oh my gosh, the call is coming from inside the house!) browsing your own website and you’ll see you (OMG, get out!!!) now on a Tock page (look for the Tock URL). You’ll know it’s a Tock page because you’ll see your Tock name /mytockname/ followed by wherever you are browsing around in Tock.
Step 5 – Make Goals
Now that it’s working, it’d be a good idea to set up at least one goal so you know when somebody actually books a reservation on Tock. If you’ve never set up a Goal in Google Analytics before, you might want to quickly look that up.
Here’s what you’ll need to know:
The Goal Type you want is “Destination” with the “Equals to” /YourWineryNameOnTock/receipt
Where do you find your winery’s name on Tock? Just visit your winery’s Tock page and in the URL you’ll see it.
In this case, the “Equals to” would be: /bethelheights/receipt
This will be how you know that a customer got all the way through the booking system and is now seeing the Receipt page after they made their reservation.
You can now load up that Goal in Google Analytics and see how much of your web traffic is actually converting to a reservation. Woohoo!
Oh – if you want more of that web traffic to convert, contact us, and we’ll run some kick ass Google Ads for you.
