{"id":32103,"date":"2021-10-05T07:00:59","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T14:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eigene-homepage-erstellen.net\/?p=32103"},"modified":"2023-12-07T14:20:41","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T22:20:41","slug":"utm-codes-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eigene-homepage-erstellen.net\/blog\/analytics\/utm-codes-use.htm","title":{"rendered":"What Are UTM Codes and How To Use Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Updated on October 5, 2021 to include new information.<\/em><\/p>\n

As good marketers, being able to track how effective our online and offline marketing campaigns are is extremely important to measure the success of the marketing efforts for your company. Want to know how many people click on that call-to-action button on your email that you have sent out? Or track how many people are converting from your social ads? If so, then UTM codes will be your best friend. Let us take a deeper dive into a little history of UTM, its use, and some best practices.<\/p>\n

What Is a UTM Code and What Does It Stand For?<\/h2>\n
UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module. “Urchin” comes from a web analytics program acquired by Google in 2005, marking GA’s beginning.<\/p>\n
UTM codes are snippets of code appended to the end of URLs that communicate with the GA code on your website. This allows Google Analytics or any other analytics tools to track where your site originated from. Normally, we would attach a custom URL containing a source, medium, or campaign parameter.<\/p>\n
Here is an example of what a UTM code may look like:
\nhttps:\/\/www.example.com?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=example-of-campaign-name<\/p>\n
Why Are UTM Codes Important?<\/h2>\n
UTM Codes are important because they help collect data and valuable information about your website visitors to your Analytics platform. Marketing Analytics tools like Google Analytics are extremely powerful. They give us detailed information about what sources are driving the most traffic to our site and the quality of that traffic.<\/p>\n
UTM Code tracking empowers you to make big picture decisions like which channels you should be investing in, what changes to make to the site to improve user experience, and so much more.<\/p>\n
Simply put, without proper tracking, you are flying blind. The keyword there is “proper.” Simply having GA installed on your site isn’t enough. To get the most out of your tracking, you need to set up proper tracking parameters for all your marketing campaigns.<\/p>\n
Getting Started With UTM Codes<\/h2>\n
Now that you have a basic understanding of UTM Codes and their usefulness to your campaigns and analytics, let’s get down to how you can implement and use them in real life.<\/p>\n
Understanding UTM Parameters<\/h3>\n
There are five types of UTM parameters (also referred to as UTM tags\/codes) that we normally use to track our campaigns: Campaign Source, Campaign Medium, Campaign ID, Campaign Name, Campaign Term, and Campaign Content.<\/p>\n
Below are some quick definitions and examples for the 5 UTM parameters recognized on Google Analytics:
\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Parameter<\/th> Required<\/th> Example<\/th> Description<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Campaign Source*
utm_source<\/td> Yes<\/td> Google, Twitter, Facebook<\/td> Use this to identify your traffic source (e.g., website, social media channels, etc.)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Campaign Medium*
utm_medium<\/td> Yes<\/td> CPC, email<\/td> Use this to identify the medium of your campaign (e.g., email, social, CPC, etc.)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Campaign ID
utm_id<\/td> No<\/td> summer_ad_vl<\/td> Use this to identify which ads of your campaign this referral references to<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Campaign Name
utm_campaign<\/td> No<\/td> summer_promotion<\/td> Use this to identify the name of your campaign or promotion that you are running<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Campaign Term
utm_term<\/td> No<\/td> summer+dress<\/td> Use this in your paid search campaign to identify the keywords that resulted in your website visit<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Campaign Content
utm_content<\/td> No<\/td> male, female<\/td> Use this to differentiate the content of your ads, or A\/B test your content that points to the same URL link<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n
How To Create a UTM Code<\/h3>\n
If you are like me, the idea of writing custom URL parameters is not the most comforting. Luckily, Google has created a way to simply create your desired UTM Code using Google’s Campaign URL Builder<\/a>. In the UTM builder, you will need to input the website URL that you would like to track and other required fields like your Campaign, Source, and Medium information into the respective boxes. Here is an example of how to fill out each section to build a UTM code:<\/p>\n

Parameter<\/th>	Required<\/th>	Example<\/th>	Description<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Campaign Source* utm_source<\/td>	Yes<\/td>	Google, Twitter, Facebook<\/td>	Use this to identify your traffic source (e.g., website, social media channels, etc.)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Campaign Medium* utm_medium<\/td>	Yes<\/td>	CPC, email<\/td>	Use this to identify the medium of your campaign (e.g., email, social, CPC, etc.)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Campaign ID utm_id<\/td>	No<\/td>	summer_ad_vl<\/td>	Use this to identify which ads of your campaign this referral references to<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Campaign Name utm_campaign<\/td>	No<\/td>	summer_promotion<\/td>	Use this to identify the name of your campaign or promotion that you are running<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Campaign Term utm_term<\/td>	No<\/td>	summer+dress<\/td>	Use this in your paid search campaign to identify the keywords that resulted in your website visit<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Campaign Content utm_content<\/td>	No<\/td>	male, female<\/td>	Use this to differentiate the content of your ads, or A\/B test your content that points to the same URL link<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n How To Create a UTM Code<\/h3>\n If you are like me, the idea of writing custom URL parameters is not the most comforting. Luckily, Google has created a way to simply create your desired UTM Code using Google’s Campaign URL Builder<\/a>. In the UTM builder, you will need to input the website URL that you would like to track and other required fields like your Campaign, Source, and Medium information into the respective boxes. Here is an example of how to fill out each section to build a UTM code:<\/p>\n

Getting Started With UTM Codes<\/h2>\nNow that you have a basic understanding of UTM Codes and their usefulness to your campaigns and analytics, let’s get down to how you can implement and use them in real life.<\/p>\n

Getting Started With UTM Codes<\/h2>\n
Now that you have a basic understanding of UTM Codes and their usefulness to your campaigns and analytics, let’s get down to how you can implement and use them in real life.<\/p>\n