Easy How To: Track File Downloads in Google Analytics

Last Updated on February 1, 2021 by Roshan Parihar

Are you looking to track file downloads on your WordPress website?

If you provide eBooks or other digital resources on your website, it is the most valuable metric for your website to find out which downloads are the most popular among your audience. This helps you to find the interest of your audience and create premium high-quality digital products to sell online easily to your audience.

You can retain more customers by selling digital products according to the metrics you receive after tracking file download. It can help you earn money from your digital products that can increase the revenue of your business.

If you are using WordPress, it’s a very easy process to track file downloads using the MonsterInsights plugin. After you start using this plugin, it becomes an automated process for your website to track file downloads directly from the WordPress dashboard.

In this post, you will learn an easy step-by-step guide to track file downloads and the pages you get downloads from your website.

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How to Track File Downloads in Google Analytics

To add file download tracking features to your WordPress website, you can use the MonsterInsights WordPress plugin. With more than 2 million users worldwide, it is the #1 Google Analytics plugin trusted by professional marketers to connect with Google Analytics and start tracking your WordPress website performance.

MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin that helps you to easily connect with your Google Analytics account. After that, you can easily analyze your website traffic directly from your WordPress dashboard.

It is the best option for anyone who wants to start analyzing their website traffic that converts to regular customers.

Let’s start the step-by-step process to easily track file downloads below:-

Step 1: Create an Account with MonsterInsights

First of all, you need to visit the MonsterInsights homepage to create your account. You can also use the below button to open the homepage of the plugin

➜ Go to MonsterInsights Homepage

On the homepage, click the ‘Get MonsterInsights Now’ button to go to the MonsterInsights pricing page.

On the pricing page of MonsterInsights, you will get three different plans to select for your account. You can select any of the plans to get file download tracking features on your website.

The lowest plan is the ‘Plus’ plan that comes at a price of $99.50. However, I highly recommend choosing the ‘Pro’ plan as you will get all the essential features in one single package. The ‘Pro’ plan has high potential to give huge results with more powerful features you need to easily analyze and grow your online business.

The founder of the plugin is very confident about their product and its features, If you are not satisfied with the plugin features over the next 14-days, they will happily refund 100% of your money with no questions asked.

So, all the premium plans of the MonsterInsights plugin comes with a full satisfaction double-guarantee. See the image below showing the 100% no-risk double-guarantee from the founder of the plugin.

After you click the ‘Get Started’ button given under the plan you have selected on the pricing page above, a page will open where you have to provide your account information and a payment method.

You have to enter your name, email, and phone number in the account information form. After that, select a payment method you prefer to make payment and click the ‘Complete Checkout’ button to complete the purchase of the plugin.

Now, login to your email account that you have provided in the account information above. After login, click the email that you receive from MonsterInsights and click the verification link in the email to confirm and verify your email. This is required to create your MonsterInsights account completely.

Step 2: Install MonsterInsights Plugin and Connect with Google Analytics

After you have completed creating your MonsterInsights account, log in to your WordPress admin dashboard to install the MonsterInsights plugin. The MonsterInsights plugin required on your WordPress website to connect with the MonsterInsights account created above.

To install the plugin, visit the WordPress dashboard menu option Plugins >> Add New and search for the MonsterInsights plugin as showing in the image below.

When you get the MonsterInsights plugin, click the ‘Install Now’ button given under the plugin to install and activate the plugin.

Now, you have installed the MonsterInsights plugin, follow the step-by-step process guide whose link is given below that helps you to connect your WordPress website with Google Analytics using MonsterInsights. After that, you can return to this page again to follow the further process for file download tracking.

Follow this guide to Connect with GA ➔ How to Connect with Google Analytics in WordPress

Step 3: Enter Activation Key to Activate with MonsterInsights Account

As you have completely installed the MonsterInsights plugin above on your WordPress website with Google Analytics. You need to enter the license key of your MonsterInsights account to connect with your ‘MonsterInsights Pro’ account you have created above.

Login to your MonsterInsights accounts to get the license key. After that, go to your WordPress website dashboard menu option Insights >> Settings and click the ‘General’ tab there. You will get an input box as showing in the image below. Here, you need to enter the license key of your ‘Pro’ account. After that, click the ‘Unlock Pro Features Now’ button.

You will get a popup as showing below that displays you are going to connect your WordPress website with MonsterInsights to get Pro features. Click the ‘Connect and Install MonsterInsights Pro’ button that completes the connection of your ‘MonsterInsights Pro’ account to get all the benefits of Pro features.

Step 4: Add More File Extensions to Track

After you follow the above step completely, your WordPress website automatically starts tracking file downloads. However, you can add more file extensions to track more file types on your website.

To add more file extensions, go to the WordPress website dashboard and visit the menu option Insights >> Settings as showing in the image below:

On the settings page, there are many tab options given to click and make settings as per your requirements. You have to click the ‘Engagement’ setting tab to add more file extensions for file downloads tracking.

Now, scroll down the page to get the ‘File Downloads’ section as given below. It contains an input box where you will get the comma-separated extension names. You can add more extensions as per your requirements with comma-separation. Add as many extensions as you want to track file downloads.

After you have done with adding the file extensions for tracking of downloads, you will be able to check file downloading reports.

Let’s find out how you will get the file downloads tracking reports on your WordPress dashboard and Google Analytics.

Step 5: MonsterInsights Reports on File Downloads

To check reports on your WordPress website, visit the WordPress dashboard menu option Insights >> Reports.

A page will open where you will get file download tracking reports as showing in the image below:

The above image contains the file labels and the number of clicks that show the downloads for the files.

Let’s find out how you can check the reports on Google Analytics

Step 6: Check File Downloads in Google Analytics

Google Analytics does not have features that show the downloads. After installing the MonsterInsights plugin on your WordPress website, you will be able to also get the reports on your Google Analytics account.

To get the file downloads tracking report on Google Analytics, you need to login into your Google Analytics account. In the Google Analytics dashboard, go to the menu option Events >> Top Events.

Here, you have will get the ‘download’ event category as indicated in the image below that is tracked and record by MonsterInsights to Google Analytics. You have to click the ‘download’ event category to get the event action for file downloads.

After that, it displays the list of files in the ‘Event Action’ column and the number of downloads as showing in the image below. This is useful to find out the most popular file downloads on your website.

So, you have successfully tracked file downloads on your WordPress website. Also, you have checked the file downloads on your Google Analytics account.

You can now analyze these reports to improve your performance and create more useful resources on your website to get more customers for your online business.

Conclusion

MonsterInsights is the #1 solution for WordPress users to easily install and start getting file downloads tracking reports. It comes with all the features that help you easily get file downloads.

After getting the tracking reports, you can produce premium resources that can increase your revenue.

➜ Download MonsterInsights Plugin Now

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I hope you like this post of Easy How To: File Download Tracking in Google Analytics. If you have any queries regarding the tutorial, please comment below.

Also tell me, what other features MonsterInsights you are using on your website, do commenting below.