February 4, 2021
If you’re running any sort of campaign on social media for business, it’s important to pay attention to the sources of your traffic. One of the easiest ways to do this is by looking at the “insights” page of each social channel. However, that can only tell so much.
Most marketers already understand how to identify referral sources in Google Analytics, but tagging URLs using UTM codes takes this data to an entirely new level.
UTMs enable a business to isolate visitors referred from specific campaigns (email, social, etc.) to better understand their behavior. This also helps to build more focused audience lists that boost the performance of any ongoing paid media activity.
The literal definition of UTM stands for “urchin tracking module”. UTM codes are added to the end of a regular URL and are designed to communicate with analytics tools more information about each link and which marketing campaign it pertains to.
UTMs are a form of URL tagging. They ensure your destination URLs are labeled with specific campaign names when reported to Google Analytics (GA). This enables you to break down traffic that’s typically only reported by its source. You can then attribute the traffic to individual email or paid search campaigns that are currently running.
Here is an example of what a UTM code looks like:
https://www.linkhawwk.com/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=utm-tagging-post&utm_campaign=url-tagging-blog-link-feb-2020
This isn’t the easiest concept to grasp, so there has to be a good reason for learning how to do this in the first place. Tagging URLs helps to prove the value of online campaigns and drive traffic to your site. If you have goals set up in Google Analytics, it will report on each specific campaign’s conversion metrics.
One example of how this works is using UTM variables in the links you post on social media. This will help a business track how much traffic you receive from each post that is published.
UTM codes can also be used to track specific links, such as your website in a Twitter bio. URL tagging allows you to gain greater insight into the overall performance of each PPC (pay-per-click) campaign you are running.
There are a variety of ways in which UTM codes can be used to your advantage.
In-email links should always have UTMs attached. A business can gather differential click-through metrics from the same email.
For instance, are people clicking more at the top or bottom of the email? Tag the same signup URL or landing page sent to different customer lists, or at different times, to get a more focused level of granularity.
UTM codes can track social media efforts. This helps to determine which content was the most effective on each channel.
Pay-per-click advertising can be better monitored when employing UTM parameters. A business can easily distinguish between sidebar and banner performance. You can also A/B test things like:
Anything that involves someone clicking a link or typing a URL to end up at your website is tracked with a UTM. Even print ads can contain a branded short link that will redirect to your main domain. This can then be used to track response rates.
If you want to track internal action, it’s never a good idea to use a UTM. Every time a link containing a UTM gets clicked, Google flags a new visit. If someone navigates to a few pages on your site using URLs with a UTM, they’ll appear in your GA as new visitors. This can create a mess of your data.
The UTM will also override the original referral data. You’ll always be guessing what your real source of traffic comes from. It makes more sense to use event tracking or JavaScript’s “Track Page View” function.
UTM codes are not the easiest thing to write. There are a lot of automatic code generators out there that will help you cut some corners and save time. Try to limit your number of codes to only a few per campaign. The more you create the tougher it will be to track everything at once, all the time.
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