Marketers utilize blog articles, PPC ads, and social media posts to direct traffic to their websites. But how do they know which channels are effectively increasing their website traffic?
That’s where an Urchin Traffic Monitor, or UTM, comes in. By pasting these special codes into the end of a URL, you can effectively track the advertising campaigns that are directing users to your website.
What is a UTM code? #
A UTM is a snippet of simple code which you can tack on to the end of your URL to track campaign performance. There are 5 URL parameters you can track: source, medium, campaign, term, and content.
A UTM is made up of two components:
- UTM Parameter: source, medium, campaign, term, or content. These start with ?utm_. For example, to track a campaign, the code would begin ?utm_campaign.
- Tracking Variable: a unique variable that represents the dimension between tracking (i.e., the name of the traffic source). The variable and it can only contain letters, numbers, hyphens, period and the + sign. The variable should be placed after the = sign.
Including a UTM code at the end of a URL won’t affect the page. You can subsequently delete the code and the page will look the same.
The purpose of a UTM code is to ascertain the source of your visitors. Marketers can use this resource to track the performance of their ad campaigns. This in turn will allow you to invest your marketing budget wisely. Instead of wasting money on ads that might be driving traffic, use UTM codes to find out definitively which ones are.
What are the benefits of UTM tracking? #
- It helps you monitor traffic by medium. Google Analytics only recognizes a few social networks. If you share content on one of the platforms not recognized by GA, you have no way of tracking its performance. That’s where UTMs come in. By adding utm_medium=social to the end of every link, you can effectively track your performance across all social networks. The medium parameter is particularly helpful if you’re interested in macro-level analytics of traffic patterns.
- It identifies the sources that are successfully driving traffic. The primary reason people use UTMs is to find out which marketing channels driving website traffic. With the use of UTM parameters, you can figure out whether your marketing is effective. In Google Analytics, you can visit the Acquisition -> All Traffic -> Referrals page to see which sources generated traffic.
- It lets you track the progress of different campaigns. Imagine you just launched a new product. How can you be sure your launch campaign is responsible for an increase in website traffic? Google Analytics won’t tell you which campaigns are driving traffic. Unless you set up a UTM, you won’t be able to accurately measure the results of your marketing campaigns.
- It uncovers the links that driving traffic. Companies that send out regular newsletters will especially benefit from UTMs. Each newsletter has a Call to Action (CTA) and most CTAs contain a link. Without UTMs, you won’t know which links are driving website traffic.
- UTM Tracking Shows in all of our Website ID Products. This means you can see who the visitor is and where they came from with detail from your marketing team.
How do you create UTM codes? #
Manually inserting UTMs is simple. All you have to do is create the code and then paste it at the end of your URL. An example UTM code is: https://your-domain.com/example-page/?utm_medium=email This UTM is tracking a medium. In this case, the medium is an email campaign. Now that you’ve created the UTM, all you have to do is paste the full URL into your email campaign.
A final piece of advice: the longer the UTM, the more likely you are to make a mistake. To rectify this, make a habit of double-checking your codes and opt to copy and paste rather than typing it out each time.