Tracking is the key to success. Collecting as much data as possible to know which of your marketing techniques are working and which aren't can facilitate your work so much. This is why UTM parameters are something you should use whenever possible. They will help you understand better where your customers are coming from. Using UTMs is crucial if you run ads, share content on different platforms or have an affiliate network. Check out our guide for tracking your URLs and getting valuable insights.
What are UTM parameters?
UTM parameters are variables that are added to an URL. They help you track your inbound traffic by telling you more about the origin of each visit. UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module, which was part of Urchin Software. If you haven't heard of them — they were a tool you can use for online web statistics and analysis. It was very innovative for its time back in 1997, and in 2002 they made another advancement by introducing Urchin Traffic Monitor, which provided much more tracking details.
The information they were able to provide was shockingly detailed — definitely not something that GDPR would approve. Google, in the beginning, wasn't really keen to touch such personal data, but at some point, they bought Urchin because they saw the potential behind it. This piece of technology is the base of Google Analytics. Google Analytics uses this standard naming convention to create the dashboard reports for the lead sources of your visits. They also offer a UTM builder you can use in order to have everything in one place.
The purpose of the UTM is to track the visits from outside sources, and it is done with the help of a string of code at the end of the URL you will be monitoring. That string looks something like that:
?utm_source=google&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=new-product&utm_term=feature&utm_content=introduction-guide
The UTM defines the following:
- Source;
- Medium;
- Campaign;
- Term;
- Content.
In our example, the visitor came from a Google Display campaign called “New Product.” It was triggered by the world “feature” and is leading to the introduction guide. As you can imagine, this means that the information you can get from the tracking is extremely valuable. It will show you if a specific link placement is as successful as you hoped.
How do UTM parameters work?
Each piece of content you create will have its own URL. And you will want to promote this content by sharing it on different social media platforms or in various guest posts whenever possible. To know how many visits came to that piece of content and from where is the reason why you will use UTMs. They will allow you to create many unique URLs leading to the same piece of content.
Why do you need UTMs?
The initial reason Urchin created UTM was to make it possible to track the return on investment. Knowing how many visits and from where your campaign got is more than crucial for any paid acquisition.
With the advancement of technology and UTMs, now you can see much more detail. You can see the campaign, the source, the medium, and more. So, if you are running three different acquisition campaigns on Facebook, you will be able to see how much return on investment each one brought.
What can you track?
As mentioned, the parameters you can track are source, medium, campaign, term, and content.
Let's have a look over each one of them in more detail.
- Source — This is the location from where the visitor came from. It can either be a specific platform on which you run ads or just share your content.
- Medium — As the name suggests, this is the medium where the user saw your URL. In most cases is the type of content that got clicked, for example, email, ad, social media posts, etc.
- Campaign — If this content is a part of a specific campaign, you can indicate this in this parameter. It is used to indicate when the link was clicked, for example. It can be a specific month.
- Term/Keywords — This is one of the most valuable parameters when you are running different search campaigns. It can show you which term or group of terms got you the click.
- Content — You can use this parameter to know exactly which piece of content the visitor is coming from.
In Google Analytics and most other tracking platforms, you will filter based on those parameters and see all the information you need.
UTM best practices
UTM is very beneficial for any marketer who wants more detailed tracking. You will be able to see where visitors are coming from and, based on that, make the needed adjustments to your strategy. Below you can find some of the best practices to use UTMs.
Follow naming conventions
When working in a team, you should use the same naming for UTMs to keep concise tracking. The best practice would be to create a guide that everyone can follow and check whenever needed. Some of the things you should consider are:
- How granular do you want the tracking to be?
- What is the difference between the mediums under each source?
- Is there something that should never change the naming?
- Are there different terms that should continuously be tracked?
What else should be added in this guide depends on your company policies and needs, but make sure to cover everything necessary. In this way, your tracking will be easier to analyze.
Don't use uppercase letters
Keep in mind that UTMs are case-sensitive so, if you write once the term “feature” and another time “Feature,” those URLs will be considered different ones, which can mess up your tracking. Therefore, the best practice when creating UTMs is not to use uppercase letters.
Determine when you need UTMs
Don't overuse UTMs. Knowing where each visitor came from is tempting, but it will definitely make your tracking very hard to analyze. UTMs should provide valuable information to determine which campaigns or platforms you would like to monitor. Then decide how you would like to do so and follow your naming conventions.
Wrapping up
Google Analytics will offer you a lot of information even without UTM parameters. Still, they will be the ones to give you the details that will make your analysis more manageable and more insightful. You will know if a visitor is coming from a paid UA or affiliate network or maybe social media postings. Those insights will help you adjust your marketing strategy and know which channels bring you the most valuable users.
