Print doesn't report back.
Yours will.
Every scan of a SunriseQR code is counted with a time, a country, and a device. Included on every plan, including the free one.
The redirect is the measurement
A dynamic code encodes a short link, not your destination. The scan hits that link first, gets counted, and is forwarded on. Nobody waits, nothing is installed, and it works even when the destination is a site you don't control.
https://qr.sunriseqr.com/h3Nk7RwpWhat every scan tells you
Four dimensions, broken down per code, so placements can be compared against each other rather than lumped together.
Scans over time
The fundamental chart. Which days spike, whether interest is growing or fading, and how long a campaign keeps producing scans after launch.
Country
Where scans are coming from, derived from the network the phone is on. A code on wholesale packaging scanned in markets you don't sell to yet is a distribution map you didn't commission.
Device and OS
iPhone or Android, and the operating system. Useful when the destination behaves differently by platform, and a sanity check that your audience is who you assumed.
Per code, not just per campaign
Give each placement its own code pointing at the same destination. The scan counts become a ranking of which physical placements actually work.
Why only dynamic codes can be tracked
This is architectural, not a pricing decision. No service can track a truly static code.
- Destination encoded in the code itself
- Decoded entirely on the phone
- Nothing is contacted in between
- No scans can be counted, ever
- Encodes a short redirect link
- Every scan passes through the redirect
- Counted before your page loads
- Destination editable after printing
What data does a QR code actually collect?
Usually asked by someone who has been told QR codes are a privacy risk. The honest answer is reassuring in one direction and worth knowing in the other.
A QR code itself collects nothing.
It is printed ink. No chip, no sensor, and no ability to do anything except hold a piece of text a camera can read. A static code is inert in exactly this way.
A dynamic code's redirect sees what any website sees.
When a phone requests the short link, that request carries what every web request carries: an IP address resolving to an approximate location, a user agent revealing device and operating system, and a timestamp. That is the raw material for scan analytics.
What a provider does with that is a choice.
Aggregating it into counts by day, country, and device is one option. Retaining IP addresses and building per-person profiles is another. Those are very different products that both get sold as QR code tracking, so the useful question to ask is not whether a provider tracks but what they retain.
What we deliberately don't track
Aggregate insight into your print marketing, without surveilling the people who scan.
How to set up a trackable QR code
Five steps, and the first one is the only irreversible decision.
- 01
Create the code as dynamic
Tracking cannot be added to a static code after printing, because tracking is a property of what was encoded. This is the one choice you cannot undo without a reprint.
- 02
Use one code per placement
Same destination, separate codes for the window, the counter, and the receipt. The scan counts then become a ranked list of which placements actually work.
- 03
Give codes clear names and folders
A code called "Spring menu, table tents" is still legible in six months. One called "QR 4" is not.
- 04
Add a call to action next to the code
"Scan for the menu" reliably outperforms a bare code, which means more data as well as more customers.
- 05
Check the analytics weekly, not obsessively
Print behaves in weeks, not minutes. A daily check mostly measures noise.
Reading the numbers: three patterns worth knowing
Scans that die suddenly
Usually a placement disappeared. The poster came down, the table tents were cleared, staff moved the sign. The chart notices before you do.
Scans without results
The destination is failing the scan. People pointed a camera at your code; if nothing came of it, the landing page is slow, unreadable on mobile, or not what the call to action promised.
Geography surprises
A strategy input. A code on wholesale packaging scanned in cities you don't sell to yet is a distribution map you didn't have to commission.
Start counting scans.
Full scan analytics on every plan, including free. No per-scan fees.
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