UTM parameters are super helpful for tracking your marketing initiatives. While many marketers use them often, they might not be using them effectively. Time to strap in for the UTM crash course.
What are UTM parameters again?
UTM parameters are a set of five parameters that you can append to a URL that contain information about your marketing campaign. The five parameters are:
- utm_campaign: The name of the marketing effort (e.g. launch, sale, etc.)
- utm_source: Identify the source of the traffic (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc.)
- utm_medium: Identify the medium used by a visitor to come to your site (e.g. email, social, cpc., etc.)
- utm_content: Identify content or call to action (e.g. buy now, learn more, etc.)
- utm_term: Used for paid search keywords.
To UTM or NOT to UTM?
Yes, totally use UTMs for: paid campaigns, social media marketing, email, print campaigns. Why? These types of sources are what need tracking since you can see the direct performance of your paid channels that have a single starting point.
No, you don’t need to use UTMs for: internal links, organic search, and natural refferers. Why? UTM parameters override a lot of that tracking information built into search engines or your own website’s analytics tracking sources and journeys.
How to manage your UTMs:
Wherever you are using to build your UTMs usually offers data tracking, but you can also do this manually in GA or spreadsheets. However, here are some other tracking tools to keep your UTM’s in one place:
Terminus has a 5 chapter course for beginners and experts all about UTMs. Check out the full course for all of the details in between like the different types of UTMs between social media and email.
