Printed material has always been hard to measure. A QR code changes that, as long as it's set up to be tracked. Here's how tracking works and how to get useful answers from it.
How QR code tracking works
A standard (static) QR code sends the phone straight to your website, so nothing counts the scan along the way. To track scans, you need a dynamic QR code.
A dynamic code contains a short link. When someone scans it:
- their phone opens the short link;
- the QR service records the scan;
- the person is redirected to your destination, usually in a fraction of a second.
Because every scan passes through that short link, every scan can be counted, even if the destination is a PDF, a social profile or someone else's website.
What you can measure
- Total scans: every time the code is opened.
- Unique visitors: an estimate of how many different people scanned. One person scanning three times counts once.
- Scans over time: by day, so you can see the effect of a campaign, a mailing or an event.
- Busiest hours: useful for restaurants, shops and events.
- Devices, operating systems and browsers.
- Countries: where scans happen.
- Referrer: occasionally, when a code is opened from a web page rather than a camera.
Get better answers with one code per placement
The most useful thing you can do is use a separate code for each place it appears: one for the window poster, one for the table tents, one for the flyer drop.
Each code can point to the same destination, but you'll see exactly which placement drives scans. With unlimited codes, there's no reason to share one code across everything.
Combine scans with your website analytics
Scan tracking tells you how many people opened the code. To see what they did next, add UTM parameters to the destination, for example:
https://yourcafe.com/menu?utm_source=qr&utm_medium=print&utm_campaign=table-tents
Your website analytics will then show those visits as coming from the QR code. Because the code itself only holds the short link, the long URL doesn't make the code any denser.
Respect the people who scan
Good scan tracking counts scans. It doesn't follow people around. QR Flip doesn't store scanners' IP addresses with scan records, doesn't set tracking cookies on people who scan, and ignores bots and link previews so your numbers reflect real people.
If you're collecting scan data as a business, mention it in your own privacy notice.
Export your data
Every QR Flip code has a CSV export of its scans, so you can combine it with sales data or your own reports.
Create a trackable QR code. Every QR Flip code includes analytics.