What are UTM Parameters and How To Implement Them Easily
Using UTM Tags To Measure Your Marketing Efforts with Opentracker.
Q: How can you benefit from using UTM tags?
A: Using UTM tags will allow you to capture information from ALL your incoming traffic campaigns and put it directly in your traffic reports. Conversions, sources, returning visitors, etc. So you can get a complete insight.
In this how-to, you will learn what UTM parameters are and also the industry standards on how to use them. Using UTM tags and parameters, successful marketers are able to specifically measure how they’re hitting goals. As a result, a content editor will know that tweets from company accounts are driving traffic to the correct website if UTM parameters are being used..
What are UTM Tags/Parameters?
UTM is an abbreviation of Urchin Tracking Module. Previously, Google Analytics was named Urchin. Eventually, Google bought the technology but the abbreviation remained the same. Basically, UTM parameters are information which describe clicks, sources, mediums, and campaigns. This information is passed on to Google Analytics for segmentation purposes. Most importantly, as a marketer you can use these parameters in a wide range of online marketing products. Hence, this makes the use of UTM tags an important skill to master.
Why use UTM Parameters?
UTM parameters are a way to track traffic from different platforms and sources, and compare the results. As a result, with UTM parameters, you can also distinguish the different means by which your traffic is being generated. Furthermore in this article, you can learn how Opentracker helps you to easily keep track of UTM parameters in the form of graphs displayed on live dashboard.
How can you benefit from using UTM parameters?
Using UTM parameters will allow you to capture information from ALL your incoming traffic campaigns. This information is directly put into your traffic reports. As a result, you can get a complete insight of conversions, sources, returning visitors etc. This information is displayed on a single dashboard.
Best Practice: Make it a habit to always include UTM parameters in every new traffic campaign.
How do you use UTM Parameters?
UTM parameters are added to the end of a landing page URL. Consequently, when someone clicks and lands on a URL which contains UTM parameters, those tags are sent back to your Google Analytics for tracking.
For example, let’s say I want to track clicks to a page called “mypage” from a transactional email that I send out after a month. I would then insert a link to my site in that email which looks something like this:
http://mysite.com/mypage?utm_source=tutorial&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=User :: Send 1 month followup
How To Create UTM Parameters For Your Pages
The simplest way to create UTM parameters for your links is by using the Google Analytics URL Builder. Furthermore, different types and functionalities of URL parameters are explained below:
Campaign Source (utm_source)
A required parameter used to identify the source of your traffic such as search engine, newsletter or any other referral. An example of Facebook being the source is highlighted in green below:
https://www.opentracker.net?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=blogpost&utm_content=headerlinkCampaign Medium (utm_medium)
A required parameter to identify the medium that the link was used upon. i.e. : email, CPC, or other method of sharing. The example below is using the word “social” to signify the efforts using social media:
https://www.opentracker.net?utm_campaign=blogpost&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=headerlinkCampaign Name (utm_campaign)
A required parameter used to identify a specific product promotion or strategic campaign such as a summer sale. Summer_sale is the type of campaign in the example below.
https://www.opentracker.net?utm_campaign=summer_sale&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=headerlinkCampaign Term (utm_term)
An optional parameter suggested for paid search to identify keywords for your ad. You can skip this for Google AdWords. If you have connected your AdWords and Analytics accounts, use the auto-tagging feature instead.
https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/
Campaign Content (utm_content)
Optional parameter for additional details for A/B testing and content-targeted ads.
https://www.opentracker.net?utm_campaign=blogpost&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=headerlinkFurthermore, you can learn more about how to tag your links in Google Analytics Help. It also contains a handy chart view with an example of one campaign with different sources & mediums.
How are UTM parameters Displayed In Opentracker?
All the website visitors that click on on any link that contains your UTM parameters will show up on the graph of each parameter. In practice, this means your graph would look something like this:
UTM parameters in Opentracker Interface
In the example above, firstly you can see that the most number of sessions come from google source. Secondly, IP tracking is the most successful campaign. Thirdly, cpc is the best performing medium. Finally, “ip address searcher” is best performing paid search term.
Note: UTM parameters are case sensitive. This means that if you use “abc” for your on one medium as utm_campaign or use “ABC” as utm_campaign in other mediums, they will show up as separate campaigns in your Google Analytics. Also, note that UTM parameters will be shown in the browser’s address bar. Therefore, be sure you’re not using any tags that you should not be made public.