Market Source Codes help you track which channels, (such as online ads, e-mail, etc.) supporters use to respond to your Online Actions. These are added as query strings in the URL when you link to your forms from the various marketing channels advertising the link.
These codes differ from source codes. Source codes are unique to each online form and are intended to help you track which form your supporter used. You may have many Market Source Codes for the same form, depending on how many channels or versions of the ad or e-mail you use.
For example: If you have two Facebook ads labeled [FacebookAd1] and [FacebookAd2], you can link both ads to the same form URL but use Market Source Codes to track which ad your supporter viewed and followed to reach your form. The Market Source Code is added to their contact record and can be used to build searches or reports the same way you would use any Activist or source code.
Creating Market Source Codes
Overall Limit: You can create as many Market Source Codes as you need!
Setup: You can create Market Source Codes on the fly. They do not need to be added before you use them. Add it as a query string parameter appended to the URL of a form like this:
?ms=your_code_goes_here
Character limit: 150
Acceptable characters: Alphanumeric, spaces (if using proper URL encoding, a space is represented as%20), underscores, dashes are all allowed
Read more about query strings here.
Source Codes versus Market Source Codes
We have created the chart below to further clarify the differences between Source Codes and Market Source Codes:
| Item | Source Codes | Market Source |
|---|---|---|
| Apply to online forms | Y | Y |
| Apply to online forms as well as other entities (eg: direct mail efforts) | Y | N |
| URL string uses code name | N | Y |
| URL string uses code ID | Y | N |
| Forms can have "default" if a string isn't present on the URL | Y | N |
| The system maintains a list of all codes in usage | Y | N |
| System stores description of code for reference purposes | Y | N |
| Code must be "pre-created" in the system in order to be applied | Y | N |
| System forces uniqueness | Y | N |
| Codes can be stored in a hierarchy | Y | N |
Using Market Source Codes for searches
When you want to confirm you match your message to the right supporters, you can use these codes to search for contacts who responded to similar appeals when you create Lists or Saved Searches. These can be used as your audiences for new Targeted Emails, Online Actions, or other outreach efforts.
In 'Create a List', you can search the 'Online Forms' section for Market Source Codes. You can add as many codes as needed when including or excluding supporters in your search.
