QR code tracking that shows where people scan

When a phone opens the short link in a dynamic code, the scan service sends the phone on and records one row for the scan. That row holds:

• The date and time of the scan.
• Country, region and city, worked out from the network address at that moment.
• Device type: phone, tablet or desktop.
• Operating system, such as iOS or Android.
• Browser, such as Safari or Chrome.

A scan means one person opening the code. Link previews in chat apps, search crawlers and other bots are recognized and skipped, so a code shared in a group chat does not jump by twenty.

Tracking here is about counting, not about people. There are no names, no email addresses and no cookies that follow a scanner around the web.

The network address is never stored as it arrived. It is turned into a one-way hash that changes every day, which is enough to tell one scanner from another on the same day and nothing more. That is where the unique scanner count comes from.

• Total scans and unique scanners for the period you pick.
• Trend against the previous period of the same length, so a slow week shows as a slow week.
• Scans by day, as a line, to spot the day a poster went up or came down.
• Time of day, to see when people actually look at the code.
• Top countries and cities.
• Devices, operating systems and browsers.

Switch between 7, 30 and 90 days, look at one code or all of them together, and export the rows as a CSV file for a spreadsheet or a report.

A code can only tell you about itself. To compare placements, give each placement its own code, even when they all lead to the same page.

1. 1

   One code per placement

   A separate code for the window poster, the flyer and the receipt. Duplicate the first one so the design matches.

2. 2

   Name them for the report

   "Spring sale - window" reads better in a chart than "My website 3".

3. 3

   Group them in a folder

   Put a campaign's codes in one folder and compare them side by side.

If your site runs Google Analytics or a similar tool, add UTM parameters to the destination address, for example ?utm_source=qr&utm_medium=print&utm_campaign=spring. The code then shows up as its own source in your analytics, next to the scan counts here.

Because the code is dynamic, you can add or change the tags after printing. The two sets of numbers measure different moments, so expect them to differ a little:

• When it counts

  Tracked by the code

  The moment the code is opened

  Tracked by your analytics

  When your page finishes loading

• Scans that never load the page

  Tracked by the code

  Counted

  Tracked by your analytics

  Missed

• Visitors who block analytics

  Tracked by the code

  Counted

  Tracked by your analytics

  Often missed

• What happens after the visit

  Tracked by the code

  Not seen

  Tracked by your analytics

  Pages, sign-ups, sales

• Works for PDFs and hosted pages

  Tracked by the code

  Yes

  Tracked by your analytics

  Only on your own site