Google UTM Parameters: A Beginner's Guide to Tracking Success

Google UTM parameters are a powerful tool for tracking the success of your online marketing campaigns. They allow you to measure the effectiveness of your ads, emails, and other online content.

UTM parameters are made up of five key components: source, medium, campaign, term, and content. These components provide a wealth of information about how users are interacting with your content.

To create a UTM parameter, you simply need to add a string of text to the end of a URL. This string includes the five components mentioned above, separated by an ampersand (&). For example, a URL with a UTM parameter might look like this: https://example.com?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=summer_sale&utm_term=summer_sale_2023&utm_content=homepage_banner.

Each component of the UTM parameter provides a specific type of information. The source tells you where the traffic is coming from, the medium tells you how the traffic is reaching your site, the campaign tells you the name of the campaign, the term tells you the specific keyword or phrase being used, and the content tells you the specific piece of content being promoted.

UTM parameters provide three key benefits: measuring the ROI of social media posts, providing precise tracking for conversions, and allowing A/B testing of different links or creatives.

To create your own UTM tags, you can use Google's UTM Builder for Google Analytics (GA) 4 or the Google Campaign URL Builder. These tools will guide you through how to fill in each parameter, making it easy to generate UTM codes.

To use UTM parameters effectively, you'll need to know how to add them to your URLs. You can manually create a UTM code by starting with the full URL you want to track, adding a question mark, and then adding the UTM parameters "utm_source=", "utm_medium=", "utm_campaign=", "utm_content=", and "utm_term=".

Here's a breakdown of the required and optional UTM parameters:

By following these steps and using the right UTM parameters, you'll be able to track the performance of your campaigns and make data-driven decisions.

Using UTM parameters can help you measure the ROI of social media posts. By adding UTM parameters to your links, you can track the performance of each post and see which ones are driving the most conversions.

You should add UTM parameters to any social media post that includes a link. This allows you to track the performance of each post and make data-driven decisions about your social media strategy.

Use the "Campaign content" UTM tag when you have multiple links pointing to the same URL. This is useful for running numerous creatives within the same ad set, such as video ads, text ads, or user-generated content ads.

Here are some examples of how you can use the "Campaign content" UTM tag:

By using the "Campaign content" UTM tag, you can A/B test different social media ads or posts and see which ones perform best.

You can use a URL builder to easily generate UTM codes. Google offers a free URL builder that you can use to create UTMs in Google Analytics 4. To use it, simply fill out the form with your campaign information, and Google will guide you through how to fill in each parameter.

The Google Campaign URL Builder is a free tool that generates links with UTM parameters. It's a great option for those with limited coding experience or knowledge. To use it, simply enter the URL and required fields, and it will create a custom tracking URL for your campaigns.

You can also manually create a UTM code, but it's a bit more involved. You'll need to add the UTM parameters "utm_source=", "utm_medium=", "utm_campaign=", "utm_content=", and "utm_term=" to the end of the URL, separated by ampersands.

Here's an example of what a manually created UTM code might look like: https://kortxprod.wpenginepowered.com?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=seo_sale&utm_content=button_link&utm_term=advertising_services

Using a URL builder can save you time and effort in the long run. It's a good idea to use one to create your UTM codes, especially if you're not comfortable with manual coding.

If you're using a URL builder, you can also use link shorteners like Bit.ly or Rebrandly to turn lengthy links into more shareable URLs. This is especially helpful for social media posts, where shorter links can make a big difference in engagement.

To track the traffic source, you'll need to include the campaign source parameter in your URL. This parameter is required and can be set to values like instagram, tiktok, blog, or newsletter.

For example, if you're promoting a product on TikTok, your utm_source tag would be tiktok. The utm_source parameter allows website owners to track where a link was clicked before leading to a website visit.

To track the type of channel where the link is placed, you'll need to include the campaign medium parameter in your URL. This parameter is also required and can be set to values like paid_social, organic_social, cpc, or email.

The campaign medium parameter helps you understand how users are interacting with your content. For instance, if you're running a paid social media campaign, your utm_medium tag would be paid_social.

The source parameter is a required parameter in UTM tracking, and it's used to track the traffic source, such as a social media platform, search engine, or blog. This is done using the utm_source tag in a URL.

Examples of source parameters include instagram, tiktok, blog, and newsletter. By using these tags, you can track where a link was clicked before leading to a website visit.

You can use Google Analytics to track your website traffic and see which sources are driving the most traffic to your site. For instance, if you have a Quora account and you post links to your website, you can add &utm_campaign=name-of-post to the end of the link to see which posts generated traffic.

Direct traffic is often a mysterious traffic source in Google Analytics, but by adding UTM links that specify the source of traffic, you can filter your traffic by source and understand how your ebook or other offline marketing materials are performing.

The name parameter is a required field, and it's used to track the campaign with which the link is associated. This could be a product name, contest name, advertising campaign theme, specific sale or promotion name, influencer's username, or more.

It's essential to choose a name that's easy to understand, as anyone looking at the code should be able to figure out what it means at one glance. Inbound.org uses a UTM tracking code that's easy to decipher, with a campaign name that targets worldwide Facebook users who have been logged in during the past 30 days.

The campaign name could be as simple as "black_friday" or "always_on", or it could be more descriptive like "facebook-worldwide-loggedinusers30days-np-allseg". The key is to make it clear and concise, so you can easily understand what the code is tracking.

In Google Analytics, you can navigate to Acquisition -→ All Traffic -→ Referrals to see which sites generated traffic. By adding &utm_campaign=name-of-post UTM parameters to the end of your link, you can see in Google Analytics which posts generated traffic.

Optional Parameters are used to provide additional context to your Google UTM parameters. They can be particularly useful when you need to track specific campaigns or promotions.

One optional parameter is utm_id, which is used to identify a specific campaign or promotion. This is a required parameter in Google Analytics 4 for importing cost, clicks, and impressions data from Google Ads.

Another optional parameter is utm_source_platform, which is used to identify the source platform, such as Search Ads 360 or Display & Video 360.

Here are some of the optional parameters you can use:

Measuring performance with Google UTM parameters is a game-changer for marketers. You can track the performance of your marketing campaigns across multiple channels, including social media. This analysis can help you understand how your campaign performed across different platforms.

With UTM parameters, you can view metrics like total goal conversions, bounce rate, and average time on-site for each campaign. This information can help you identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions.

To measure campaign performance, you can use the UTM parameter to track traffic for different campaigns. For example, if you had a new product launch, you could use the utm_campaign parameter to track traffic and conversions generated by the launch campaign.

Here's a breakdown of the UTM parameters you can use to measure performance:

By using these parameters, you can track the performance of your marketing campaigns and make data-driven decisions to improve their effectiveness. For example, you can use the utm_medium parameter to track the performance of paid social media ads and organic social media traffic.

To view the performance of your UTM campaigns in Google Analytics, you can go to Acquisition → Overview → All Traffic → Source/Medium or Acquisition → Campaigns → All Campaigns. From there, you can analyze metrics like total goal conversions, bounce rate, and average time on-site for each campaign.

Measuring performance with Google UTM parameters requires some setup, but it's worth the effort. By tracking the performance of your marketing campaigns, you can make data-driven decisions and improve their effectiveness.

Google offers a free tool called the Campaign URL Builder to generate links with UTM parameters.

To use the tool, you need to set the toggle to reflect the version of Google Analytics you're using, then fill in the form with your specific identifiers.

The Google Analytics Campaign URL Builder is an easy way to add UTM parameters to your campaigns without manual coding.

You can use the URL Builder to create a custom tracking URL for your campaigns by entering the URL and required fields, and it will automatically create a tracking URL for you.

If the URL is too long, you can easily shorten it using Bitly.

Hootsuite also offers a link builder that allows you to automatically add UTMs to your URLs when publishing social media posts.

Google Sheets can be a powerful tool for creating and managing tracking URLs, especially for those who want complete control over their tracking links or need to document them in one place.

You can build your own tracking link generator in Google Sheets by adding specific columns, including Base URL, Source, Medium, Campaign, Term, Content, and Final URL.

Here's an example of what the sheet could look like:

The formula to generate the Final URL is complex, so it's recommended to use a resource like MeasureSchool to build your sheet.

When tracking campaigns in Google Analytics 4 (GA4), you may want to consider adding some optional tags to get a more detailed picture of your marketing efforts. These tags can help you identify specific campaigns, platforms, and promotions.

utm_id is a required tag in GA4 for importing cost, clicks, and impressions data from Google Ads. This tag is used to identify a specific campaign or promotion.

If you're using multiple platforms for your marketing campaigns, you can use the utm_source_platform tag to identify the source platform, such as Search Ads 360 or Display & Video 360.

Here are some optional GA4 tags you can use to track your campaigns:

In Google Analytics, finding utm_term and utm_content can be a bit tricky, but once you know where to look, it's a breeze.

To find utm_term and utm_content in Google Analytics, follow these steps: click on the "Other" link in most reports, then click on "Acquisition", and you'll see "Ad Content" which corresponds to utm_content, and "Keyword" which corresponds to utm_term.

You can also use the following URL format to track your UTM groups: utm_campaign, utm_medium, utm_source, utm_term, and utm_content.

Here are the five standard UTM groups you'll need to track:

It's worth noting that even though modern browsers will automatically add a slash to the URL, it's still a good idea to add it manually for consistency.