UTM parameters are a crucial tool for tracking and analyzing your online marketing efforts. They help you understand how your campaigns are performing, which channels are driving the most traffic, and what content is resonating with your audience.
UTM parameters can be added to any URL, making it easy to track specific links in your marketing campaigns. By adding UTM parameters, you can create unique links for each campaign, allowing you to see which one is performing best.
The most common UTM parameters are utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign. These parameters help you identify the source of your traffic, the marketing medium used, and the specific campaign being tracked.
What Are UTM Parameters?
UTM parameters are additional pieces of tracking information appended to the end of a URL that can give Google Analytics detailed information about the specific way that the visitor arrived on the site.
UTM parameters are used to track different marketing campaigns, like a specific email newsletter or a particular seasonal marketing effort, or even an A/B test on a paid ad.
A click on a link with UTM parameters that then lands on a website will be cataloged as “campaign” traffic in that website’s Google Analytics property.
UTM parameters allow digital marketers to analyze all of their campaign tagged traffic in one place.
UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module, and it's a snippet of text appended to a URL that is recognized in Google Analytics as another dimension, similar to average time on site or number of pages viewed.
This added text string allows for the tracking of a URL through different channels and tools.
In 2005, Google acquired Urchin Software Corporation and rebranded to what we now know as Google Analytics (GA).
Why Are UTM Parameters Important?
UTM parameters are a crucial tool for businesses to track and analyze their marketing efforts. Every business dedicates resources to producing campaigns and content across various paid and organic channels.
Attaching UTMs to your links helps you identify which messages and channels are generating the most traffic or conversions. This data is crucial for allocating marketing budget, justifying your spend, and optimizing campaigns.
You can use UTMs to track a unique identifier for a marketing campaign, such as UTM ID, which can be used to track performance across multiple traffic sources and platforms. This is especially useful for tracking the performance of a specific campaign across different marketing channels.
UTM parameters can help you build custom audiences in ad platforms like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft Ads, allowing you to improve your targeting accordingly. For example, you can include users who triggered an AddToCart but didn't make a Purchase event from any traffic source, but exclusively for a specific campaign.
By using UTMs correctly, you can compare the performance of campaigns from different mediums and social media channels, and measure each UTM source over time. This can help you identify which social media post, article, or other UTM source drove the most website traffic.
How They Work
UTM parameters are added to your content to help track traffic, and they work by being identifiable by specific tags. Each type performs its own identification job, and the more you use, the more granular data you'll get.
UTMs are used by Google Analytics to track data about link clicks, like the number of visitors, traffic sources, conversions, and more. They work like any other clickable link, but when a user clicks on the link, Google Analytics uses the UTM tags to differentiate each URL from the rest.
There are five tags in a UTM code, with the last two being optional. Here are the five tags:
- Source (utm_source): shows you the source your visitors are coming from, like Google, Facebook, Twitter, or your email marketing provider
- Medium (utm_medium): used to identify the campaign medium of your traffic, like email, social media, or ad
- Campaign (utm_campaign): where you'll add a campaign name that makes sense to your initiative, like newsletter, spring-sale, or product-launch
- Term (utm_term): helps you identify which paid keyword you can attribute to the traffic, if you're running a pay-per-click (PPC) ad
- Content (utm_content): used to explain which element was clicked, like footer-cta or header-banner
UTM tags are case-sensitive, so it's essential to decide on a naming convention before naming your campaigns. This will help keep your campaign parameters concise and make sense across all of them.
UTM Parameter Types
UTM Parameter Types are an essential part of tracking the effectiveness of your online marketing campaigns. UTM parameters can be categorized into three main types: source, medium, and campaign.
The source parameter identifies the source of the traffic, such as a social media platform or a referral from a website. For example, if you're promoting your product on Facebook, you would use the source parameter to track the traffic coming from Facebook.
The medium parameter specifies the type of campaign, such as email or paid advertising. This helps you understand how your audience is interacting with your content. For instance, if you're running a paid Google Ads campaign, you would use the medium parameter to track the traffic generated from those ads.
Campaign parameters are used to track specific campaigns or promotions. These can include parameters like campaign names, IDs, and descriptions. For example, if you're running a summer sale campaign, you would use the campaign parameter to track the traffic and conversions generated from that campaign.
UTM parameter types are crucial for understanding how your online marketing efforts are performing. By tracking the source, medium, and campaign parameters, you can make data-driven decisions to optimize your marketing strategy.
UTM Parameter Best Practices
Stick to a standard naming convention to avoid inconsistent parameters, which can lead to incorrect, incomplete, or hard-to-interpret data.
Use lowercase letters in all UTM parameters to avoid confusion, as capitalization matters. For example, LinkedIn, Linkedin, and linkedin are three different traffic sources.
Be descriptive with your tags to help you and others interpret the data later on. Avoid using ambiguous terms or number sequences, and instead use recognizable and clear terms.
Use a dash or an underscore to serve as a space in UTM parameters, as it makes your life simpler.
Don't repeat yourself with UTM parameters; each parameter should tell you something different about your visitors. A good UTM parameter reads more like a sentence than a keyword.
Here are some guidelines to follow:
- Use a standard naming convention
- Use lowercase letters in all UTM parameters
- Be descriptive with your tags
- Use a dash or an underscore to serve as a space
- Don't repeat yourself
By following these best practices, you'll be able to accurately measure UTM source attribution and identify where visitors are going post-click, giving you a bird's-eye view of your UTM campaign.
UTM Parameter Tools and Builders
Many marketing automation platforms automatically put UTMs in URLs across your email and SMS marketing.
You can also use a sharable spreadsheet to generate and keep track of UTMs, like the $UTM builder template/$ that can be copied for your use. This template has naming conventions and examples on the first tab, and a second tab to build out your UTMs with platforms, urls, and campaign types.
The Google Campaign URL Builder is another nifty tool that allows you to plug in campaign details and get a full URL with UTM codes.
Test Your Links
Testing your links is a crucial step before sharing them with the world. It's especially important for larger campaigns.
Click on your link and review the URL in your browser's address bar to verify that the UTM parameters are present. This is the easiest way to do it.
You can then check in GA4 or your reports in Ortto to ensure your UTMs are appearing correctly, and attributing to any conversions or goals you set. This will give you a clear picture of how your links are performing.
Tools for Generation
If you're looking for tools to generate UTM parameters, you're in luck. There are several options available, including the Google Campaign URL Builder, which is a nifty tool that can help you generate UTM parameters without worrying about stringing a coherent URL.
The Google Campaign URL Builder is a simple tool that allows you to plug in the details of your campaign and it will spit out your full URL, complete with UTM codes. You can then click the "Copy URL" button to copy the URL and plug it into whatever tool you're using to promote your URL.
Another option is to use a UTM builder template, such as the one provided by The Pulse. This template can be a useful resource for generating and keeping track of UTM parameters.
If you're looking for a more customizable option, you might consider using a spreadsheet template, such as the one provided by Anytrack. This template allows you to build out your UTMs with platforms, URLs, and campaign types, making it a useful tool for generating and tracking UTM parameters.
Here are some tools that can help you generate UTM parameters:
- Google Campaign URL Builder
- UTM builder template by The Pulse
- UTM builder spreadsheet template by Anytrack
These tools can save you time and effort when generating UTM parameters, and help you keep your tracking in order.
UTM Parameter Measurement and Analysis
You can use UTM parameters to track your social media efforts and measure the return on investment (ROI) of your social media activities.
By adding UTM code to your social media links, you'll be able to see which posts and campaigns were most effective in generating traffic and conversions. This allows you to optimize later campaigns based on the data.
To see the source and medium for each campaign in Google Analytics 4, you can add it to your report by clicking the blue + sign next to the dropdown and selecting Session source/medium.
You can also use UTM parameters to track the effectiveness of content on different channels. For example, if you publish the same content on multiple channels, you can use UTM codes to easily see which channel sent the best traffic.
Here are the 7 UTM parameters available for use in Google Analytics 4:
- utm_source = the specific source sending the traffic
- utm_medium = the type of traffic
- utm_campaign = often used to track the name of the specific campaign
- utm_content = often used to track various creative versions
- utm_term = if you're running a paid search campaign, utm_term will provide information on the specific paid keyword
- utm_id = this is not the same as utm_campaign. It's rarely used but required for data import
- utm_source_platform = only use this if you want to differntiate your media buying platform
You can see UTM tagged traffic in your standard Acquisition reports in Google Analytics 4 and you can also see UTM data in Explorations. The simplest place to look is your “Traffic acquisition” report.
To view your UTM data, you can add a secondary dimension to your report by searching for “session” and then selecting the UTM parameter dimension you want to view.
UTM Parameter in Google Analytics 4
UTM parameters in Google Analytics 4 are a game-changer for tracking your marketing campaigns. To see UTM parameters in Google Analytics 4, you can add them to your report by clicking the blue + sign next to the dropdown in the Traffic source section.
You can see UTM tagged traffic in your standard Acquisition reports in GA4, specifically in the Traffic acquisition report. This report will group your website traffic by traffic channel, and you can add a secondary dimension to view your data aggregated by UTM parameters.
UTM parameters are appended to a URL as URL parameters after the “?” and are used to track specific campaign data in Google Analytics 4. The seven UTM parameters available for use in GA4 are utm_id, utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content, and utm_source_platform.
Here are the seven UTM parameters and their descriptions:
To see UTM content and UTM term in GA4, you need to create an Exploration. You can do this by manually choosing which metrics and dimensions you want to view, and then adding utm_term and utm_content data as secondary dimensions.
UTM Parameter Definitions and Attribution
UTM parameters are used to track and measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. They're like a secret code that helps you understand where your website traffic is coming from.
Google Analytics defines five types of UTM parameters: Campaign ID, Campaign Source, Campaign Medium, Campaign Name, and Campaign Term. These parameters can be used to identify specific ad campaigns and track their performance.
UTM parameters can be used to track the source of your website traffic, including which websites, search engines, or social media platforms are driving the most traffic to your website. By identifying which sources are driving the most traffic, you can optimize your marketing campaigns accordingly.
The most common UTM parameters are Campaign Source (utm_source), Campaign Medium (utm_medium), and Campaign Name (utm_campaign). These parameters can help you track the effectiveness of specific marketing campaigns and measure the ROI of your marketing budget.
Here are the most common UTM parameters and their descriptions:
Using UTM parameters can help you ensure that your website traffic data is accurate and consistent across different marketing channels and campaigns. This can help you avoid data discrepancies and make more informed marketing decisions.
UTM Parameter in Paid Advertising
UTM parameters can be used to track a unique identifier for a marketing campaign, making it easier to track performance across multiple traffic sources and platforms.
In paid advertising, UTM parameters can help you identify which social media posts or ads drive the most traffic to your website. You can measure clicks and conversions, and see which posts resonate most with your audience.
By using UTM parameters, you can optimize your social media strategy and allocate resources where they matter most. For example, if you're sharing a link to a new product on Facebook, you could add UTM parameters like this:
- URL: https://www.example.com/blog-post
- UTM Source: linkedin
- UTM Medium: social
- UTM Campaign: industry-insights
UTM parameters can also help you track your social media efforts and measure the return on investment (ROI) of your social media activities. By adding UTM code to your social media links, you'll be able to see which posts and campaigns were most effective in generating traffic and conversions.
Here are some examples of how to use UTM parameters for paid advertising:
- For Facebook Ads, you can use the template that includes all dynamic parameters available in Facebook.
- For Google Ads, you can use the auto-tagging feature to automatically import UTM data into Google Analytics.
- For both Facebook Ads and Google Ads, you can add UTM parameters manually by selecting the ad or ad group and clicking the "Edit" button.
By using UTM parameters in paid advertising, you can gain valuable insights into your marketing efforts and make data-driven decisions to improve your campaigns.
UTM Parameter Tips and Tricks
UTM parameters are a powerful tool for marketers, and here are some tips and tricks to get the most out of them.
You can use UTM parameters to track specific content, such as blog posts or landing pages, and see which ones are driving the most traffic and conversions.
For example, if you have a blog post about "summer fashion" and you want to track its performance, you can add a UTM parameter to the URL, like this: https://example.com/summer-fashion?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=summerpromo&utm_id=656433d221.
UTM parameters can also help you track keywords, audience segments, and even A/B testing variations.
By including a keyword parameter in your URL, you can identify which keywords are driving the most traffic and conversions, and optimize your bidding strategy accordingly.
For instance, if you're running a paid search campaign for "summer fashion" and you want to track the performance of different keywords, you can add a keyword parameter to the URL, like this: https://example.com/summer-fashion?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=summerpromo&utm_keyword=summerfashion.
Here are some common use cases for UTM parameters:
- Track specific content
- Track keywords
- Track audience segments
- A/B testing
By using UTM parameters in these ways, you can gain valuable insights into your marketing efforts and make data-driven decisions to improve your campaigns.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the parameters of a URL?
URL parameters are additional pieces of information added to a URL after the '?' symbol, separated by '&' symbols. They provide extra context to a URL, allowing for more specific and targeted information to be passed along
Sources
- https://ortto.com/learn/what-are-utm-parameters/
- https://www.monsterinsights.com/a-beginners-guide-to-utm-parameters/
- https://www.rootandbranchgroup.com/utm-parameters-google-analytics/
- https://readme.anytrack.io/docs/utm-parameters
- https://www.woopra.com/blog/what-are-utm-parameters-and-how-should-you-use-them
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