Track visitor activity on a 3rd Party Website | Voters

Track visitor activity on a 3rd Party Website

complete

Robert Diaz

I see that the system tracks visits from the user to a website created on HL but I want to be able to track visits on my Wordpress site!Usually other systems have an embed code to put on your website so that these visits are tracked but I confirmed with HL support that page visits can only be tracked on websites created inside HL. Please add this tracking code option so we can track visits across external sites. Thanks

HIGHLVL-I-3259

March 30, 2021

Ryan Rockwood

It would be great to see some real documentation — even basic examples.
From what I can tell, an external tracking code typically implies:
1.	Anonymous tracking — probably “shadow contact” creation, where activity is logged and compiled awaiting contact match upon conversion. Standard UTM parameters should be supported, and this information should be visible in reporting and ideally available via API.
2.	Contact creation or matching upon conversion/identification, with automatic merging of any shadow contact if applicable. Source and campaign info and web activity should back populate appropriately.
3.	Pageview and event tracking, showing activity within the contact record.
4.	Full data accessibility — all tracking information should be exposed via both API and reporting.
From the limited comments and documentation, it seems like a domain may need to be added to HighLevel for tracking to function. Perhaps this would also allow workflow triggers based on pageviews (or filtered by contact ID, etc.)? It also seems to support tracking on HTML forms — which, realistically, very few people still use.
This is a tough one for me, because I truly want to applaud every scrappy effort and forward step HL makes. But it’s hard not to feel discouraged that this comes so many years late and still lacks even the most basic documentation — just a script placement guide and references to niche features. It makes me wonder if I’m backing the wrong horse and whether I should start diversifying vendors.
Frankly, it’s difficult to justify spending a couple of hours experimenting just to figure out what it does. Minimally, I’d need to know:
1.	Users can clearly view tracking activity within the contact record.
2.	There’s at least one reliable way to link contacts to their tracking ID.
No one converts through raw HTML forms anymore. So, does this tracking link with email clicks, newsletters, or maybe SMS messages to identify known users? What about sending a contact a tracked link to the website — will it recognize and tie that back to the contact?
If those capabilities aren’t currently available (or at least on the roadmap), this might be something worth actively avoiding for now.

Ryan Rockwood

Here is what AI could tell me, for what it's worth: 
The script auto-captures all form fields and sends them to HighLevel. Here's how it maps:
Data Captured from Forms
Automatic Field Mapping:
•  Form field name or id → Sent as field key
•  Field label text → Sent alongside for context
•  Field value → The actual data
•  Timezone → Auto-added from browser
Example payload sent:
{
"eventType": "external_form_submission",
"trackingId": "tk_ea04d94602094f47993ce800f365be72",
"locationId": "<fetched_from_api>",
"sessionId": "<uuid>",
"contactId": "<from_localStorage_if_exists>",
"userId": "<from_localStorage_if_exists>",
"data": {
"name": "John Doe",
"email": "john@example.com",
"phone": "+1234567890",
"custom_field_1": "value",
"Timezone": "America/Los_Angeles"
}
}
HighLevel Mapping
HighLevel automatically maps common field names to contact fields:
•  name, first_name, last_name → Contact name
•  email → Contact email
•  phone, phone_number → Contact phone
•  company → Company name
•  address, city, state, zip → Address fields
Custom fields → Go to HighLevel custom fields if they match, otherwise stored as form submission data.
To Control Mapping:
Use standard HTML name attributes that match HighLevel's expected fields:
<input name="first_name" />
<input name="email" />
<input name="phone" />

Ryan Rockwood

###########
Based on the script, here's what page tracking captures:
Page View Events (external_script_page_view)
Automatically Tracked Data:
{
"eventType": "external_script_page_view",
"trackingId": "tk_ea04d94602094f47993ce800f365be72",
"locationId": "<fetched>",
"sessionId": "<uuid>",
"contactId": "<if_available>",
"userId": "<if_available>",
"data": {
"title": document.title,           // Page title
"url": window.location.href,       // Full URL
"path": window.location.pathname,  // Path only
"referrer": document.referrer,     // Where they came from
"userAgent": navigator.userAgent   // Browser/device info
}
}
How It Works:
Fires on page load - Tracks initial page view
No SPA detection - Doesn't auto-track navigation changes 
Session tracking - Links all page views to same session ID via cookie
Returning visitors - If they have contactId/userId in localStorage, it ties page views to that contact
What You Get in HighLevel:
•  Activity timeline - Shows which pages contacts visited
•  Attribution - Tracks referrer sources
•  Session tracking - Groups page views into sessions
•  User agent data - Device/browser info for analytics
Limitations:
•  Single page load only - Won't track SPAs unless page reloads
•  No custom events - Just page views and forms, no custom tracking
•  No UTM parsing - Sends full URL but doesn't parse UTM params automatically (HighLevel backend may handle this)
If you need SPA tracking, you'd need to manually fire page view events on route changes.

Sales & Marketing

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complete

Please feel free to share any feedback/concerns : https://speakwith.us/shivangi

Davide Tamanini

Sales & Marketing I've tried to activeate it on a woocommerce site. It tracks the checkout data but do not associate it properly to the contact. Maybe because the email field is "billing email"...but cannot modify it. Any suggestion?

Brad Jones

I have the script installed on my Wordpress site, but it appears in the external tracking event trigger I can't add a specific url where I would like to track a page view. The most likely option is in the filter options to add a domain, but I can't add a domain unless I move the domain into HighLevel. I don't want to do this because it would break the connection to the Wordpress site it's pointed to. If I can't in some other way add an external domain to the filter options for the external tracking event trigger, that defeats the purpose of the external tracking event script. Is there another workaround, or can I only track general page views of all pages of the site where the external tracking event script is installed?

Marco Sacco

Brad Jones did you find a work around with this? How did you go?

Robyn Smuts

Guys! This is FINALLY live!! You have to head to Labs on Agency view - enable 3rd Party Website tracking for the subaccount, then it'll show up under the sub account settings...

Andrew Eastoe

Robyn Smuts i've had a lot of difficulty implemeting this on GTM. Can you confirm if we can use the script with GTM?

Pascal Dörflinger

Robyn Smuts But where do .the tracking results show?

Robyn Smuts

Pascal Dörflinger this is still in development, but essentially in the next week or so you should be able to go to Reporting > Attribution Report > Filter by your external site and your website data should reflect. I know GHL are working on adding 3rd party website page visits as a trigger for workflows as well, so once that's live you'll be able to build some workflows based on page visit activity...

Robyn Smuts

Andrew Eastoe I'm not too sure about this, I don't work for GHL - just a client who's been waiting on this feature. Prakhar Agrawal can you confirm?

Prakhar Agrawal

Robyn Smuts Workflows for external tracking event is also live. So if you embed a ghl form on wp site and use external tracking script. Once a person comes and fills the form and if that person comes back to any page, you should be able to trigger workflow action like call, email etc.

Jorge Sanchez

Andrew Eastoe Same here, it is firing in GTM but gives the [LC Tracking ERROR] Required data-tracking-id attribute not found errors. Did you find a way to make the tracking work with GTM?

Andrew Eastoe

Jorge Sanchez honestly I gave up. It doesn't work in the way it should. It needs a well written explanation for implementation and further testing with GTM. I am waiting until it leaves labs to put anymore time into it.

Jorge Sanchez

Andrew Eastoe yeh I also gave up. It seems that the tracking code snippet provided in the subaccount does not work within Google Tag Manager. 
When implemented through GTM the data-tracking-id attribute isn’t on that script so it throws the errors in the dev tools console.
Hopefully the GHL team can provide more clarity on the GTM installation. This documentation I found does not work: https://help.leadconnectorhq.com/support/solutions/articles/155000006093-track-external-forms-with-the-tracking-script#:~:text=Install%20the%20tracking%20code%20using%20Google%20Tag%20Manager

Andrew Eastoe

Jorge Sanchez yes, even when i added it manually as code to the website it did nothing of note. I was hoping for it to show up in the clients activity feed as our sales team likes to know how many times the client has visited and what pages they have frequented.

It also looks like External Tracking has now exited labs but i'm not sure they have had the proper testing and feedback needed.

Camille Mercier

Andrew Eastoe I put the tracking code in systeme.io, the page views are detected on my side in reporting/attribution report but ghl cannot associate them with a contact... while there is a ghl form in my systeme.io funnel:/

Marco Sacco

Jorge Sanchez i can't locate "External Tracking" in my subaccount. Where is exactly?

Jorge Sanchez

Marco Sacco You have to head to Labs on Agency view - enable 3rd Party Website tracking for the subaccount, then it'll show up under the sub account settings > External Tracking

Marco Sacco

Jorge Sanchez thanks did you actually get it to work? is it tracking the 3d party website correctly now? If yes what exactly did you do?

Jorge Sanchez

Marco Sacco no its still not working

Bryn Hughes

I was able to get the code to load without error in GTM using this snippet instead:
<script>
(function() {
var s = document.createElement('script');
s.src = 'https://link.mysite.com/js/external-tracking.js';
s.setAttribute('data-tracking-id', 'tk_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX');
document.head.appendChild(s);
})();
</script>

Jonathan Rothe

We really need it. It is increadible that such a basic feature doesn't exist... And nothing is happening... They just say since 4 years : we are working on it

Heather Lodge

Any update? We need this like, yesterday.

Irfan Khan

Heather Lodge This is live. You have to head to Labs on Agency view - enable 3rd Party Website tracking for the subaccount, then it'll show up under the sub account settings.

Alexandra Gendes

we need this asap! Hubspot does this and the majority of other automation systems as well. Is there an updated on when this will be released?

Irfan Khan

Alexandra Gendes This is live. You have to head to Labs on Agency view - enable 3rd Party Website tracking for the subaccount, then it'll show up under the sub account settings.

Jacob Davidson

Really need this ASAP!

Irfan Khan

Jacob Davidson This is live. You have to head to Labs on Agency view - enable 3rd Party Website tracking for the subaccount, then it'll show up under the sub account settings.

Dan Merna

ETA on this?

Irfan Khan

Dan Merna This is live. You have to head to Labs on Agency view - enable 3rd Party Website tracking for the subaccount, then it'll show up under the sub account settings.

Marcelo Rincón

I have the same problem. thanks to GH if work on that

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