Do you wish you could track the performance of marketing campaigns with precision? What about replacing vague metrics like clicks and impressions with actual performance data? If so, then it’s time to learn about UTM parameters.
By tagging your URLs with UTMs (Urchin Tracking Module), you can understand how visitors interact with your website. That’s why it’s important for you to know how to add UTM parameters so you can track everything.
In this article, I’ll show you how to do just that. We’ll learn what UTM parameters are, how to generate them, where to use them, and my best practices for making them as effective as possible.
What Are UTM Parameters?
UTM parameters are tags you can add to the end of a URL. You can use the tags alongside an analytics platform like Google Analytics to track how users behave after they’ve clicked on your link.
I’ll tell you what you can track in the next section. First, let me tell you one catch associated with them.
UTM parameters are stubborn entities that stick to your links, even when you switch to different networks and mediums.
That means if a visitor picked up your link (tagged with a UTM) from Twitter and shared it on Facebook, everyone else clicking that link would still get counted as a share from Twitter.
According to research conducted by BuzzFeed, content actually spreads across the social web in a branching tree pattern.
That means URLs appended with UTM parameters are going to be picked up and shared across different websites — and that’s going to throw off your UTM tracking.
There’s one potential solution: stripping URLs of UTM codes. You can see how video hosting platform Wistia does this with a piece of code.
But, if this clean URL then gets shared on private social media (think Email, WhatsApp, and Messenger), it appears as direct traffic in your analytics. Again, this is misleading.
With this limitation, I just wanted you to understand that UTMs aren’t the be-all and end-all solution to understanding the performance of your content.
With that said, they sure make it easier to understand the performance of your marketing campaign.
How to Generate URL Parameters With Google’s URL Builder
UTM parameters are a great way to figure out where your traffic is coming from and how users from specific sources of traffic behave on your site. So, is there a systematic way to append them to your URLs?
Fortunately, yes.
Say hello to Google’s URL builder. There are actually three different URL builders to choose from depending on whether you want to track data in Google Analytics, Google Play, or the Apple App Store.
We’ll look at the one inside the Google Analytics help center (looks like the screenshot below) for setting up your URLs.
There are three mandatory form fields you need to complete:
Website URL: The full URL of your website, complete with https://
Campaign Source: The platform (or vendor) where the traffic originates, like Facebook or your email newsletter.
Campaign Medium: You can use this to identify the medium like Cost Per Click (CPC), social media, affiliate, or QR code.
There are also four non-mandatory field names you can choose to complete:
Campaign ID: The ads campaign ID.
Campaign Name: A name to identify your campaign. Like your website or specific product promotion.
Campaign Term: You’ll use this mainly for tracking your keywords during a paid Google Ads campaign. You can also use it in your display ad campaigns to identify aspects of your audience.
Campaign Content: If you’re A/B testing ads, then this is a useful metric that passes details about your ad. You can also use it to differentiate links that point to the same URL.
You can also use the UTM.io Google Chrome extension to create UTMs. It auto-populates the URL and saves your most used terms as presets.
I advise you to keep the number of parameters to a minimum.
For example, here’s what you see when you navigate to Traffic Sources >> Sources >> Campaigns in Google Analytics.
Then, you have to then dig into the secondary dimensions to get to the campaign term and content. So, assuming you’re not working with Google Ads, you may want to fit your details into the three required parameters for easy reporting.
It’s even more complicated to see UTM parameters in GA4. Click on Reports >> Traffic Acquisition to access the correct area. Then click on the blue + icon to add secondary dimensions to aggregated traffic data. You’ll be able to track the following parameters we’ve discussed so far:
Content
Medium
Source
Manual Term
But GA4 lets you go beyond these parameters and create even more should you wish. These include:
Utm_creative_format: the type of creative, like display or video.
Utm_marketing_tactic: the marketing tactic you used, like retargeting
Utm_source_platform: The buying platform that directs traffic, like Search Ads 360
Analytics aside, you should also keep in mind that UTM parameters are case-sensitive. So, if you use Google in one parameter, and google in another, they will be tracked differently. In general, you’ll want to make sure you are using the same parameters for consistency and tracking, especially when it comes to the campaign name. You don’t want to have to look in two separate areas for the same campaign, such as Website and website or Spring Sale and springsale. Figure out a format and stick with it.
UTM Parameter Best Practices
Here are six best practices I recommend you follow to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of your UTM tracking efforts.
Create Standard Naming Convention for UTM Parameters
UTM parameters can get very complex, very quickly. But you can avoid a lot of confusion and ensure that your UTMs are reportable if you keep your naming conventions consistent.
1, use dashes over underscores, percentage (representation for spaces inside GA), and plus signs in your URLs. Google algorithm doesn’t penalize you for using them, and they work better — just ask Matt Cutts.
2, stay consistent with lowercase throughout all of your campaigns. For example,
utm_source=LinkedIn is different from utm_source=linkedin.
Changing to uppercase, camel case, or any other capitalization will require you to remember this convention. It’s better to stick with lowercase and not let human error creep in.
3, keep your URLs clean, descriptive, non-redundant, and easy to read.
For example, you might mistakenly put the same values inside source and medium parameters.
The best way is to simply make the UTMs flow like a normal sentence sans any redundancy. See how easy it is to decipher your campaign details in the URL below.
Note: Once you’ve taken sufficient time to create data-rich URLs, I recommend that you shorten them, using tools like bit.ly or Firebase Dynamic Links. A long and bulky URL does not make for a good user experience and might even come across as spammy.
Remember, UTM parameters are visible to the users in their address bars. So be transparent and don’t use values that you don’t want to be seen by the user.
Track Your UTM Links Inside a Spreadsheet
Keeping a record of the tagged links will ensure that your marketing team stays on the same page. You can use this free spreadsheet template by Sam Wiltshire or this free link tagging tool by Rafflecopter to get started.
Additionally, create a naming convention guide document that lays out clear instructions for tagging links. This can be an iterative and expanding guide – if you come across a new scenario, you can add the example to this document.
Connect Tracking Data To Your UTM System
The most important aspect for a business isn’t the number of clicks and traffic generated by various sources; it’s revenue.
So, once you know your way around UTMs, it’s useful to connect your tracking data with your CRM. It shows you a clear picture of how various online marketing channels are affecting your bottom line.
Alternatively, you can also set up goals inside GA. For example, you can measure reader loyalty and engagement using Google Analytics.
I recommend, though, that you track more concrete conversion-focused metrics, like leads generated and email signups.
Be Careful When Copying and Pasting Links With UTM Codes
Please don’t get carried away using URLs with UTM parameters and take particular care when copying and pasting them. It’s very easy to copy links from your own content that include UTM codes and post them elsewhere. This can cause havoc with your UTM tracking.
If you use UTM codes, you’ll have to get into the habit of making sure every URL you paste is free from tracking codes. It’s a pain, but it’s a necessary evil to ensure traffic from each URL is attributed properly.
Don’t Use UTM Parameters for Internal Links
You should only use UTM parameters for external links that point to your website. In other words, please don’t use UTM parameters on your internal links.
Once visitors have arrived at your site, there’s no need to alter which platform referred them. But that’s what will happen if you add UTM parameters to the internal links of your website. And this can cause a heap of problems:
Sessions get artificially inflated because a new session is triggered every time a parameter is recognized.
Conversions get attributed incorrectly because the external source is no longer clear.
Average session duration will decrease because you’ll have dozens of sessions with no action.
Bounce rate will increase as a result because multiple sessions will be cut short.
There’s no reason to use UTM parameters for internal links, either. You can use Google Analytics to track the flow of users once they land on your website under the Audience tab or create events using Google Tag Manager to record when users take a specific action.
Record When Links Are Built And By Who
Don’t just track UTM links in a spreadsheet. Make a note of when they were built and by whom. That way, everyone knows who to speak to when they have questions about a specific marketing campaign.
If you use a tool like UTM.io, it will auto-populate a “Created by” field with user account information, so you don’t have to store the data separately somewhere else.
Where to Use UTM Parameters
Here are five UTM parameter use cases you can implement right away.
Google Analytics reports on traffic from many social networks. However, there is no way to distinguish visitors who click on links in your profile bio, your status updates, or your ads. Not unless you use UTM parameters, that is.
Suppose you want to find your highest ROI-yielding social media platform and which links on that platform perform the best, traffic-wise. UTMs can help you analyze your social media referral traffic.
For example, on Twitter, you have four options to promote your links – a regular tweet, a promoted tweet, a website field, and a profile/bio description.
Barring the profile link (since it displays the first part of the URL you enter), you can track all of these link clicks separately.