UTM Parameters: How to Use Them to Personalize Every ...

UTM (Urchin Tracking Model) parameters are customizable snippets of text added to a URL that enables software to track and optimize campaign ... Features Services Platform InstapageOverview Integrations Security Products LandingPages Personalization Experimentation AdMap® Collaboration PageSpeed Solutions ByChannel ForSearchAds ForSocialAds ForDisplayAds ByUseCase ForLeadGen ForEcommerce Customers Pricing Resources ResourcesLibrary LandingPageExamples WhatisaLandingPage? Blog Login GETSTARTED Features Platform InstapageOverview Integrations Security Products LandingPages Personalization Experimentation AdMap® Collaboration PageSpeed ByChannel ForSearchAds ForSocialAds ForDisplayAds ByUseCase ForLeadGen ForEcommerce Customers Pricing ResourcesLibrary LandingPageExamples WhatisaLandingPage? Blog Login GETSTARTED QuickLinksWhatareUTMparameters?Whyusethem?HowdoUTMparameterswork?ThecomponentsofUTMparametersUTMSourceUTMMediumUTMCampaignUTMContentUTMTermBestpracticesforUTMtaggingCreatingUTMparametersGoogleCampaignURLBuilderGoogleAuto-taggingInstapageUTMpersonalizationWheretofindUTMparameterdata In2005,Googlepurchasedwhatwouldbecomeknownastheonly“must-have”marketingsoftwaretoday:GoogleAnalytics. Nearlyfifteenyearslater,it’sstillthemostpopularplatformamongbusinesseslookingtooptimizedigitalcampaigns.Andoneofitscentralcomponents,UTMparameters,remainsoneofthebesttoolstotrackdata,siftthroughit,andimprovemarketingstrategies. WhatareUTMparameters? UTM(UrchinTrackingModel)parametersarecustomizablesnippetsoftextaddedtoaURLthatenablessoftwaretotrackandoptimizecampaigntraffic.They’realsoknownasUTMtagsorUTMtrackingcodes.Here’sanexampleofwhattheylooklike: AddingthemtotheendofaURL,liketheoneabove,enablesyoutodeterminealotaboutyourvisitors:whichcampaignthey’rerespondingto,whatemaildrivesmoreclicks,whichbuttonproducesmorerevenue,etc. WhyUTMparameters? Today,peopleaccesstheinternetfromcountlessdevices,locations,channels,browsersinavarietyofsituations.Asamarketer,youbeartheseeminglyimpossibletaskofcateringtoeverycombination,like… AsearchengineinFirefoxondesktopatwork DisplaynetworkonSafarioniPadathome FacebookonChromeonAndroidinthesubway WebsiteonExplorerondesktopathome thelistgoeson… Youalsohavethetaskofcreatingeffectivecampaignsforeachexperience.Often,thatmeanstestingmyriadapproaches.Attheveryleast,itinvolvesanalyzingdata,determiningyourmostvaluablecampaigns,mediumsandchannels,andadjustingyourstrategyaccordingly. Eitherway,trackingitallisanenormoushassle.UTMparametersgivemarketersawaytonarrowinonapproachesthatwork,bykeepingclosetabsoneachaspectofacampaign. HowdoUTMparameterswork? Forthemostpart,usingUTMparametersisastraightforwardprocess.SimplycreateyourownandaddthemtotheendoftheURLsyouwanttotrack.Then,findreportsontheminGoogleAnalytics,whichwillofferallkindsofinsightsintotheirperformance. ThecomponentsofUTMparameters YouraverageURLconsistsofseveralcomponents.First,there’stheprotocol:HTTPorHTTPS.The“S”attheendofthesecondstandsfor“Secure,”meaningwhateverfollowsthatprotocolhasbeensecuredfordatatransmission,asopposedtothestandardHTTP://. Next,there’sthedomain,which,forthispage,isInstapage.Thiscanalsoincludeasubdomain,likeinhelp.Instapage.com,whichistheaddressfortheInstapagehelpdesk. Followingthedomainisthepath.Thisspecifiestotheserverwheretograbyourdesiredinformationfrom.It’showyounavigatetospecificpageswithinadomain. Finally,afterallthat,cometheUTMparameters.Theseextrabitsoftextualinformation,completelycustomizable,allowmarketerstotrackandoptimizecampaigns.Therearefivemaintypes,eachabletotrackadifferenttypeofinformation: utm_source Whenyouadd“utm_source”toaURL,you’retrackingthesourceofyourtraffic.Thinkof“source”tomean“site.”Whichwebsitebroughtthevisitortothispage?Examplesinclude:Facebook,Twitter,Google,Bing,etc.Here’sanexampleaWakeForestpagethatdrivestrafficfromFacebook: utm_medium Whenyouadd“utm_medium”totheendofaURL,you’reidentifyingthechannelthatdroveyourtraffic.If“Google”wereourutm_source,thenourutm_mediumwouldbe“search.”Ifourutm_sourcewereFacebook,ourutm_mediumwouldbe“social.”Here’sanexamplefromSpiritAirlines,whichuses“utm_medium”toidentifythetrafficascomingfromemail: utm_campaign WhentheendofyourURLcontainsa“utm_campaign”tag,it’sspecifyingtheexactcampaignthatgeneratedthevisit.Thiswouldbethenamethatyou’vegivenyourcampaign.Below,CXLhaslabeledthistagbasedonthedateoftheemailnewslettercampaignthatdrovetraffictothepage: utm_content Theutm_contentshowcasesjusthowgranularyoucangetwithUTMparameters.Beyondsourceandmedium,youcanevendistinguishwhenonelinkinapieceofcontentisclickedoveranother.Forexample,thisutmcodefromtheFreelancerreads“content=212rejections.” ItindicatesthatthisURLisreachedbyclickingthelinkinthefollowingemail,whichreads:“Why212RejectionsinaYearWastheBestThingThatHappenedtoMe:” ThistagespeciallycomesinhandywhentestingtheeffectivenessofaparticularadoremailorevenCTAwithinanemail.Forexample,oneatthetopofanemail,beforethecontent,andthenoneatthebottom,afterthecontent. utm_term Thistag,utm_term,isvaluableinpaidsearchcampaigns.Itcanhelpindicatetoadvertisersthekeywordsthataredrivingclicks.Here’sanexamplefromSpredfast’spost-clicklandingpagethatgottrafficfromtheterm“socialmediasoftware:” BestpracticesforUTMtagging Whiletaggingyourlinksisfairlystraightforward,itisn’talleasy.Forthebeginner,thereareplentyoftrapstofallintobeforehandthatwillmakeanalysisallbutimpossibleafter.Hereareafewthingstobeawareofwhenyou’retaggingyourURLs. 1.Developconsistentnamingconventions.Onemarketermaytagtheircampaignsoneway,whileanotherwilldoitcompletelydifferently.That’sfine,solongasthey’renotonthesameteam.Whendifferentconventionsareused,itmakesUTMparametersdifficulttoread,tofind,andtoremainorganizedthroughouteachcampaign.Itcanalsocompletelyscrewupthewayyourtoolsreadthetags,asyou’llseebelow. 2.Alwaysuselowercaseletters.Sayyou’veaddedthetagutm_source=FacebooktotheendofaURL,soyou’llknowthattraffictoaparticularpageisFacebook.Next,youdothesameforanotherURLthatwillreceivetrafficfromFacebook:utm_source=facebook.Holdon,though.“Facebook”and“facebook”willregisterastwodifferentsourcesinGoogleAnalytics.Insteadofworryingaboutmistakesinvolvingcapitalization,it’sbesttouselowercaseletterswhencreatingthesetags. 3.Beasdescriptiveaspossiblewithoutrepeatingyourself.Thesetagsareusedforanalytics,tracking,andoptimization.So,themoretheytellyouaboutyourtraffic,thebetter.However,that’sonlytrueiftheinformationyou’regettingfromthemisunique.Thatmeansifyou’reusingmultipleUTMparameters,youshouldensuretheyeachgiveyouanewpieceofinformationthattheothertagdidn’t.Don’tuseutm_source=Facebookandutm_medium=Facebook.Thisdoesn’thelpyouatall.Itonlymakesmoreworkforyoubefore,anditgivesyousuperfluousdataafterward.Youdon’tneedtouseeveryparameterineverycampaign. 4.OnlyuseUTMparameterswithoutboundcontent.ThemoreyougetcomfortablewithUTMparameters,themoreyou’llusethem—inemail,socialmediaposts,andhey,whynotinternallinks,too?Thisiswhy: Let’ssayyoupublishedanewblogpost,AnAwesomeWaytodoSomethingAwesome.YoushareditonTwitter.Oneofyourfollowersclicksonthelinkandarrivesatwww.yoursite.com/blog/awesome-post.Whentheyaredonereading,theywanttogotoyourhomepage.Theyclickonalinkthattakesthemtohttp://www.yoursite.com/?utm_source=blog.YoujustlosttheinformationthattheusercamefromTwitter.YouranalyticsreportwillsaythatthevisitorcamefromblogandnotfromTwitter. UTMparametersarefinetouseinoutboundcontent,butdon’tusetheminternally.They’llonlyscrewupthetrackingofyourotherparameters,deliveringyouafalsereportinGA. CreatingUTMparameters Whilecreatingone,two,orthreeparametersiseasy,themoreyouneed,themoretedioustheprocessgets.Fortunately,therearesometoolstohelpyougeneratethemfaster,like: GoogleCampaignURLBuilder GoogleCampaignURLBuilderisafreetoolyoucanusetosimplyplug-and-publishUTMparametersrelevanttoyourcampaign.AllyouhavetodoisentertheURLandtheinformationrelevanttoeachGoogleUTMparameter: Then,below,Googlewillgeneratethefully-formedcampaignURL: Then,click“CopyURL”andplugitintoanychannelsyouwantassociatedwiththecampaign.IfyouuseBitly,youcanevenshortlinktheURLwiththe“ConvertURLtoShortLink”button. GoogleAuto-tagging Auto-taggingmakesaneasyprocesseveneasierandtakestediousnessoutoftheequation.Whenyouenablethisfeature,GooglewillautomaticallytagyourGoogleAdstraffic,which,thecompanyclaimsofferssomemajorbenefits: ItsavesyoutheworkofmanuallytaggingeveryfinalURL. IteliminatestheerrorsyoucanintroducewhenyouattempttomanuallytageachURL.Forexample,utm_source=Googleisdifferentfromutm_source=google. ItallowsyoutoimportAnalyticsgoalsandtransactionsintoGoogleAdsConversionTracking. URLsthatareauto-taggedalsooffermoreinthewayofreporting.WhenyoutagyourURLsmanually,you’llbeabletoseethefollowinginformation: QueryMatchType(Howyourkeywordwasactuallymatchedtothesearchquery) AdGroup(Theadgroupassociatedwiththekeyword/creativeandclick) FinalURL(GoogleAdsFinalURL) AdFormat(text,display,video) AdDistributionNetwork(GoogleSearch) PlacementDomain(thedomainonthecontentnetworkwhereyouradsweredisplayed) GoogleAdsCustomerID(theuniquethree-partnumberthat’sassignedtoyourGoogleAdsaccount) URLsthatareauto-tagged,however,canreturnadditional,richdata,like: HourofDay Placements(Whereyouradsonthecontentnetworkwereplaced) KeywordPositions(WhatpositionyouradappearedinonGoogleSearch) DisplayTargeting VideoCampaigns ShoppingCampaigns Toturnonauto-tagging,followthestepslistedhere. TheInstapageUTMaudiencebuilder TheInstapagePersonalizationSolutionisthenewestwaytocreatefullypersonalizedexperiencesbasedonUTMparameters.Withinthenewtool,simplyopentheUTMtrackingcodebuilderbyclicking“NewExperience”andnavigatingtothe“Audience”tab: Then,specifyyourparametersbyenteringeachintheirrespectivebox.Atthebottom,you’llnoticethebuilderhascreatedthelinkforyou: Then,onceyourlayoutandcontentareready,yourconversiongoalsareset,andyourexperienceisfinalized,simplyclick“publishexperience”tobegindrivingandtrackingandoptimizingtraffic: FindingdataonUTMparameters Nowthatyou’vepublishedyourlinks,runyourcampaign,andtrafficisflowing,you’llwanttomonitoryourresults.TofinddataonyourparametersinGoogleAnalytics,navigateto“Reporting,”then“Acquisition,”then“AllCampaigns:” Beneaththelinegraphofyourtraffic,youshouldseecategoriesofparameters,whichyoucanclickonandsortbysource,medium,andwhicheverothersyou’vespecified. Then,personalizeyourcampaignsfurtherbyusingthatdatatocreateevenmorespecificexperiences.Areyouready?Signupforademotoseewhatyou’llbeabletodowiththenewInstapagePersonalizationSolution. GetaPersonalizationDemo Seehoweasyitistocreateuniqueexperiencesforanyaudienceyoutarget. IWANTADEMO SubscribetotheInstapageBlog Getthelatesttrends,tactics,andthoughtleadershipforadvertisingconversionandpost-clickautomation. Youwillonlyreceivequalitycontent. by TedVrountas TedVrountasisacontentwriteratInstapagewhohatesmostmarketingcontent.Asahumanamongmarketers,hisgoalistowritewordspeopleactuallywanttoread. Readytoturnmoreadclicksintoconversions? Trytheworld'smostadvancedlandingpageplatformtoday.Scheduleaproductdemotolearnmore. GET STARTED SubscribetotheInstapageBlog Getthelatesttrends,tactics,andthoughtleadershipforadvertisingconversionandpost-clickautomation. Youwillonlyreceivequalitycontent. 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