Enable File Download Tracking On WordPress With MonsterInsights

Do you offer eBooks, PDFs, videos, images, Word and Excel documents or any other downloadable files on your WordPress website? If yes, do you know how you can enable file download tracking on WordPress Website? This could be to know how many times your visitors downloaded your content. 

Google Analytics helps you track your website’s traffic but it doesn’t automatically track file downloads. This is where MonsterInsights steps in. MonsterInsights has been used and trusted by over 20 million professionals. It is also the #1 Google Analytics Plugin for your WordPress website.

Why You Should Track Downloaded Files on Your Website?

Google Analytics doesn’t record anything in the Analytics’ database and if you can’t measure whether your website visitors are downloading your resources, you can’t improve it. 

A Plugin to enable File download tracking on WordPress helps you obtain important data. The data could be used to analyze your audience. Furthermore, you can upgrade your content as per the interests and desires of your target audience.

• You can understand the popularity of your downloadable resources.
• It’s easy to evaluate which is more successful and should be offered on relevant landing pages and which is a complete waste.
• You can manage your resources efficiently saving time and money by only offering the downloads your audience is looking for. 

Keeping the above in mind, this guide will take you through a step-by-step process on how you can install Google Analytics in WordPress using MonsterInsights.

How to Setup Google Analytics With MonsterInsight?

If you have a WordPress website, chances that you already have Google Analytics enabled are high. If you don’t, here’s what you need to do.

Get Your Google Account

• Visit Google to create a new account. If you already have one, simply sign in using your existing credentials.
• Go to Google Analytics to set up your analytics account. 

• Your account name can be your brand’s name or your name as per choice. A Google Analytics account can be used to track several websites, such as subdomain, root-domain, blogs, etc.
• Fill in the required information such as the website’s name, URL, etc. 

• Click on ‘Get a tracking ID’
• This tracking ID is important information. The ID has numbers and starts with the letters ‘UA’. Make sure you copy this ID to a safe place since you will need it to complete the plugin configuration in the next steps. 

Install MonsterInsights

Once you have obtained your Google Analytics tracking ID, it is time for you to install MonsterInsights. Google Analytics individually can track events to measure user interactions with content such as video plays, ad clicks, etc.

• On your WordPress dashboard, click on Tools>Plugin in the left sidebar menu. Search for the plugin – ‘Google Analytics by MonsterInsights’.

• Click on Install Google Analytics by monsterInsights and activate the plugin after installation.

Configure Your Google Analytics by MonsterInsights Plugin

It is important to configure the new plugin so that there is a flawless connection between your Google Analytics account and your WordPress website.

• Visit the plugins page
• You will see a list of installed plugins. Click on ‘Settings’ against Google Analytics by MonsterInsights
• On this settings page, click on ‘Authenticate with your Google account’

• You will see a popup window. Click on ‘Allow’.
• You will be redirected to a page containing a long string of random characters (example: 4Qkrty7Jik9fd2njbrtlop).
• Copy the code and paste it in the relevant field on your WordPress tab. 
• Click on ‘Save authentication code’.
• Now, from the dropdown, choose the Google Analytics property you created. This can be identified from the first few numbers after the letters UA in your tracking ID. You can also choose to manually enter your UA code.
• Click on ‘Save changes’.

Add Extensions to Track More File Downloads on WordPress

As per the default settings of MonsterInsights, you can track file downloads for the following extensions: doc, exe, xls, jpg, pdf, ppt, zip, tgz, js. 

If you wish to add more file extensions, you will need to go to Insights>Settings>Tracking>File Downloads. In the field for ‘Extensions of files to track as downloads’, enter the additional extensions separated by a comma and click on ‘Save Changes’.

How to View File Downloads?

Now that you have successfully installed and configured the required plugin to track file downloads on WordPress, you need to know how you can view the tracking information.

File Download Tracking for WordPress:

Step 1: Go to Insights>Reports>Publishers Report.

Step 2: Navigate to the section below to view your downloads.

Please note: You need a Plus level tier or higher of MonsterInsights to view the information in WordPress.

File Download Tracking for Google Analytics:

Step 1: Log in to your Google Analytics account and choose the website for which you’d like to monitor file downloads.

Step 2: Go to Behavior>Site Content>All Pages to view downloads tracking as pageviews. This report contains information for the website along with other pages and blog posts. 

Conversely, go to Behavior>Events to see the report of the event, in case you have set downloads tracking as events. This report will contain four different options:

• Overview: This section summarizes the top events data of your WordPress site. 
• Top Events: This section provides information about events that garner user engagement and don’t let visitors leave your website soon. 
• Pages: This section comprises a list of pages offering downloadable resources. This means events on your website occur on these posts and pages. 
• Events Flow: This section helps you explore the events that keep your users engaged. It also tracks the path visitors take to move from one event to another.

If you wish to see a detailed report, you can click on ‘Top Events’. 

As you click on ‘download’, you will see a detailed report.

That’s it! You’re all set for file download tracking on WordPress website and know the category of interested visitors. 

Final Thoughts

MonsterInsights helps you easily track advanced metrics such as transactions on eCommerce platforms. It provides analytics for different pages making it simpler for you to know which sections are popular on your website. It also assists in seamless affiliate links and ad tracking. 

So, getting MonsterInsights for your WordPress website is a win-win deal and there isn’t any better tool for tracking Google Analytics in detail from your WordPress dashboard.