Guide

Tracking External CTAs

Already have buttons or links on your site that you'd like to track? ClickIntent can monitor any existing CTA by linking it to a Section via its CSS class or HTML ID — no shortcode needed, and no changes to your existing markup beyond a single attribute.

What is an External CTA?

An external CTA is any button, link, or clickable element that already exists on your site — built by your theme, a page builder, or custom HTML — that you want to bring into ClickIntent's tracking system. Rather than replacing these elements with a ClickIntent shortcode, you instruct ClickIntent to watch them by their existing CSS class or element ID.

Common use cases include:

Theme-native hero buttons you don't want to replace
Page builder elements that can't easily accept shortcodes
Navigation links or sticky bar CTAs
Buttons managed by a different plugin you want to track alongside ClickIntent's own CTAs

How to set up tracking for an external CTA

Create a Section for the external CTA

Go to ClickIntent → Section CTAs and click on the tab "External CTAs". Create a new section by giving it a descriptive name that matches the CTA you're tracking (e.g., Hero Button — Theme). This Section will serve as the tracking identity for that external element.

You don't need to use this Section's shortcode anywhere — it exists solely to hold the configuration and receive the tracking data.

Find the element's class or ID

In your browser, right-click your existing CTA button or link and choose Inspect (or Inspect Element). Look at the HTML for a class or id attribute you can use to uniquely identify the element.

Example element in your theme

<a href="/contact" class="hero-btn primary-cta">Get Started</a>

In this example, you could use the class hero-btn or primary-cta, or add a unique ID to the element. If multiple elements share the same class, all of them will be tracked together under that Section.

Link the Section to the external element

Back in ClickIntent → Section CTAs, open the Section you created and find the External CTA Selector field. Enter the CSS class (prefixed with .) or element ID (prefixed with #) of the element you want to track.

Selector examples

.hero-btn        ← targets elements with class "hero-btn"
#main-cta        ← targets the element with id "main-cta"
.primary-cta     ← targets all elements with class "primary-cta"

Save the Section. ClickIntent will now watch for clicks on any element matching that selector.

Verify tracking is working

Visit the page containing your external CTA as a regular visitor (or in an incognito window) and click the button. Then check ClickIntent → Analytics — the click should appear under the Section you configured within a few seconds.

What gets tracked

External CTAs are tracked the same way as shortcode-based buttons. When a matching element is clicked, ClickIntent records:

A click event associated with the configured Section
The page URL and page title where the click occurred
Approximate geographic location derived from the visitor's IP

ℹ️

No lead capture modal for external CTAs External CTA tracking records click and conversion events only. The lead capture modal (name/email/phone form) is not triggered for external elements — it is only shown for shortcode-placed buttons. If you want lead capture as well, use the [clickintent] shortcode instead.

Using specific vs shared selectors

Specific selector (recommended)

If your external element has a unique class or ID, use that. This ensures only one specific button is tracked per Section, giving you clean, isolated data.

Shared class selector

If you point a Section at a class shared by multiple elements (e.g., .cta-button appears on 10 pages), all clicks on all matching elements site-wide will roll up into that single Section. This can be intentional — for example, if you want to track a global navigation CTA as a single metric — but be aware that you won't get per-page breakdowns within that Section.

⚠️

Avoid overly broad selectors Using a generic class like .button or .btn that applies to most buttons on your site will inflate click counts and make the data less useful. Use the most specific selector that uniquely identifies the CTA you intend to track.

External CTAs in Analytics

Tracked external CTAs appear alongside your shortcode-based Sections in all analytics views — the same click counts, conversion rates, and geographic data apply. There is no distinction in the dashboard between a shortcode CTA and an external CTA; both are identified by their Section name.

Next: Leads →