Could someone please define an argument?

An argument here is a querystring argument.

The querystring, is the part of the URL that comes after the question mark in the URL -- used to pass data, usually in the form of a "key=value" pair. So for example, on this page, the querystring is

"?threadID=2125". One adds additional data by using the ampersand.

The argument then is the "key", so again in the example of this page: "threadID" is the argument.

So you can use the options panels to add additional pieces of data to your URLs, for instance source and subsource codes. So one button would have this in the additional arguments field:

s_src=homepage&s_subsrc=bigbutton

The second could have

s_src=homepage&s_subsrc=littlebutton

Using report writer you could then pull a report that looked for s_src homepage, and then see how the s_subsrc's faired.

There's some more on this in the online help -- do a search on arguments. You should find the article "Understanding and Using Source and Subsource Codes"

Adrian

jdp :

So, then, adding in an argument would allow me to track certain links in the metrics reports?

Is there a standard or naming convention by which I would add these arguments?

So there are some standards for the names like

s_src (source)

s_subsrc (subsource)

But there is no standard for their values per se. It's arbitrary and depends on how you want to track? So in my example above

s_src would be the page name or title s_src=homepage

and the s_subsrc would be an identifier for the link (big button small button top link)

Here at the Sierra Club our membership department uses a system of values for the source that includes things like the date it was set up.

The facebook app, sets the s_src and s_subsrc automatically so you know from which page someone came from in the facebook application (more like my example above).