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Tracking Recruitment Campaigns with Webform Tracking Tags (URL Parameters)

Webform Tracking Tags (URL Parameters) Overview

A key component of any recruitment campaign is tracking which sources are most effective in bringing participants into your studies. EnrollNow allows you to use URL parameters to track participant engagement with your surveys.

What Are URL Parameters?

URL parameters are small, concise tags added to the end of a survey URL. When a participant completes a survey from a tagged link, the URL parameters are sent back to EnrollNow to track your recruitment success.

Why Use URL Parameters?

✅ Identify which pages, posts, or ads are driving participants to your study.
✅ Automatically log recruitment data into EnrollNow's Recruitment Sources and Sites.
✅ Gain insights to optimize future recruitment efforts based on real data.

How URL Parameters Work in EnrollNow

  1. Create a unique survey URL with URL parameters.
  2. Share the tagged URL (the URL + its parameters) on different platforms (social media, websites, emails, etc.).
  3. When a participant completes the survey, their URL parameter data is automatically stored in EnrollNow.
  4. Analyze recruitment performance in EnrollNow's tracking system.

 

Best Practices for Creating URL Parameters

  • Keep URL parameters short, consistent, and easy to read.
  • Use clear naming conventions to indicate what you are tracking.
  • Be mindful of capitalization and punctuation—URL parameters are case-sensitive.
  • Avoid special characters or spaces, as some may not be allowed in URL parameters.
  • Maintain a list of tagged links so your team can track which ones are in use.

By implementing URL parameters, you can streamline participant tracking, optimize recruitment strategies, and focus efforts on the most effective sources.

How to Connect URL Parameters to Recruitment Sources and Sites

To track participant sources effectively, follow these steps to connect URL parameters to Recruitment Sources and Sites in EnrollNow.

1. Set Up Recruitment Sources and Sites

  • Navigate to your study’s Recruitment tab (red).

  • Create your Recruitment Sources and Sites.

  • For more details, refer to the Working with Recruitment Sources article.

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2. Create Your Survey in EnrollNow

  • Go to the Study Settings tab (red).

  • Navigate to the Survey Creator (green).

  • In the Survey Designer tab, create your survey questions.

  • Important:

    • Add First Name and Last Name questions.

    • Link them to the First Name and Last Name survey variables.

    • This ensures EnrollNow generates a URL for your survey.

  • Refer to the Getting Started Creating Your First Survey article for additional guidance.

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3. Link the Survey to Recruitment Sites

  • Create a Radiogroup type question (red).

  • Name this question site (green).

  • Link it to your Recruitment Site variable (purple).

  • Ensure Proper Naming:

    • The Name of this question (not the Title) must exactly match the format you will use in your URL.

    • URL parameters are case-sensitive—match the exact format you plan to use in your URL.

    • Properly name your source to ensure accurate tracking.

Ensure that the question’s Name matches the desired name in your URL. If you title the question "Site" but do not also set its Name as "Site", the URL parameter will not be captured correctly in your survey.

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5. Copy and paste the survey’s URL into a new window.

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4. Add URL parameters to your URL 

  • Copy and paste your survey’s URL into a new window.

  • Add a URL parameter for recruitment site to the URL to preload recruitment site information.

Example: Facebook Ad 1 Tracking URL

  • Original survey URL:

    https://yourstudy.enrollnowapp.com/survey/12345

  • Modified URL with URL parameter:

    https://yourstudy.enrollnowapp.com/survey/12345?site=Facebook%20Ad%201

  • Explanation:

    • ?site=Facebook%20Ad%201 tells EnrollNow that participants coming from this link should be tagged with the recruitment site Facebook Ad 1.

    • %20 represents spaces in URLs, ensuring the site name is correctly formatted.

NOTE:  If your recruitment site's name contains spaces, the URL will automatically replace them with special characters to ensure functionality. Adding the URL parameter after the question mark will not alter or impact your survey. It simply allows EnrollNow to track that a respondent completed the survey through your specific site within your recruitment campaign. 

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5. Repeat for Other Recruitment Sources

  • Modify the URL for each Recruitment Site.

  • Create separate URL parameters for each ad, social post, or webpage where you plan to distribute the survey.

6. Hide Site Questions in the Survey

  • Open the Properties panel for the site variables.

  • Toggle Visible to Off (red).

  • This prevents participants from seeing or editing the pre-filled recruitment data.

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7. Save Your Survey

  • Click the save button to store changes.

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8. Embed Modified URLs in Your Recruitment Campaign

  • Post your modified URLs in different recruitment locations (social media, emails, websites, ads, etc.).

  • Participants who access these links will complete the survey with the URL parameters preloaded.

9. Track Recruitment Data in EnrollNow

  • If Recruitment Site variables are correctly linked, you will see:

    ✅ Recruitment Source and Site pull into the participant’s profile card.

    ✅ Upon enrollment, the Recruitment Source and Site data will appear in the Study Dashboard.

    ✅ Analytics will display where your participants are coming from, helping to optimize recruitment strategies.

By implementing these steps, you can efficiently track and measure your recruitment efforts using URL parameters in EnrollNow! 

Troubleshooting your URL parameters

If your URL parameters aren’t appearing in the survey or the participant’s profile card in EnrollNow, your survey or URL may be incorrectly formatted. Check the following:

Survey Setup

  • Ensure the question used for the URL parameter is a single input or radiogroup-type question.
  • If pulling in the recruitment method, confirm that the survey question is linked to the Recruitment Site or Recruitment Strategy survey variable.

URL Formatting

  • There must be a question mark (?) after "form" and before the URL parameters.
  • The question name in your URL must exactly match the Name of the survey question, including spelling and case.
  • If pulling in the recruitment method, the URL parameter (selected site or strategy) in your URL must match one of the Recruitment Site or Recruitment Strategy options.

Redirecting from Another Survey

  • Ensure the Names of the questions are spelled correctly and match in case and special characters when redirecting between surveys.
  • Use single braces {} around the question name.

Sending the Survey Link via EnrollNow Email or Text

  • If using merge tags (e.g., participant’s first name, last name, or global ID), make sure to use double braces around the tag.