What is UTM

UTM stands for ‘Urchin Tracking Module’, in human terms though, they are tracking parameters used by marketers to track the effectiveness of campaigns. A UTM is a bit of text that you add to the end of your URL / website link to give Google Analytics more information.

Why use UTM tracking?

Google Analytics is relatively good at knowing where a visitor on a website has come from, whether that be from a Google search, an email, a message you sent on WhatsApp, or an Instagram story. UTM tracking can be used strategically to track specific marketing performance & its success of it.

With every link you use with UTM tracking added to it, you’re gaining valuable insights for your business and have more context around your data to understand what is and isn’t working against your KPIs.

Types of UTM Parameters

•  Source – utm_source is used to identify whether it’s from a search engine, social media outlet or a supplier.UTM source examples; Google, Facebook or Mailchimp.
• Medium – utm_medium is used to identify the medium which is best thought of as the marketing channel whereas the source is the overarching platform.UTM medium examples; email, paid social, cost per click (cpc), affiliates.
• Campaign Name – utm_campaign is used to identify a specific campaign such as a promotional campaign or a product campaign. These are very specific to a business and the marketing activity that runs.UTM campaign examples; July promotion push, red boots campaign, Spring offers.
• Campaign Content – utm_content is used as a way to differentiate between ad types and creative tests.UTM content examples; carousel ad 1, single image ad 2, text ad.
• Campaign Term – utm_term is used to tell Google Analytics the keyword that drove someone to the website. It’s used less often now as both Google and Bing have auto-tagging options which means you don’t need to manually ad UTM tracking on every keyword.UTM term examples; digital+marketing, new marketing agency, hire laura.

How to set up a UTM link?

You can either write the UTM code out yourself by adding each element after the URL or you can use a tool that generates this for you. Free UTM Generator 

The source, medium, and campaign are required fields but content and keywords are not.