Hidden Metadata Fields allow you to track complex information about your supporters without displaying additional fields on your forms.
Step 1: Create new Hidden Metadata Fields
- Open Online Actions from your EveryAction menu
- Click on "Settings" in the top navigation
- Select "Hidden Metadata Fields" from the dropdown
- Click "Add a New Field"
- Enter the identifier for your field (must start with "oa_" and cannot contain spaces or special characters)
- Add a description to help others understand the field's purpose
- Click "Save" to create the field
Step 2: Understand metadata field usage
- Hidden Metadata Fields can track information such as:
Referral sources
Campaign identifiers
A/B test variants
Device or browser information
Affiliate codes
- These fields are invisible to form users but store valuable tracking data
Step 3: Populate fields with query strings
- Add your metadata field as a parameter in the URL when linking to your form:
https://yourorg.everyaction.com/page/12345/action/1?oa_source=email&oa_campaign=spring2023
In this example, "oa_source" and "oa_campaign" are Hidden Metadata Fields
The values "email" and "spring2023" will be stored with the form submission
- Include these parameters in links from emails, social media, or other sources
Step 4: Use metadata in reporting
- Hidden Metadata Fields are available in the Online Forms Custom Questions Report
- Navigate to Report Manager and select this report
- Filter by specific metadata fields or values
- Group results by metadata fields to analyze performance
- This helps identify which traffic sources or campaigns are most effective
Step 5: Use metadata for segmentation
- Create a List based on Hidden Metadata Field values
- Go to "Create a List" in EveryAction
- Under Online Actions filters, select your Hidden Metadata Field
- Choose the value(s) to filter by
- Use these lists for targeted follow-up communications
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