How Marketers Can Use UTM Codes to Track Conversions

UTM codes are the newest form of online marketing tracking. They provide data on how your campaign is performing by letting you identify where traffic is coming from and how they interact with your conversion points (e.g., email sign-ups or product purchases).

These codes allow you to measure the success of your marketing strategies, which can help inform future marketing decisions. But not all UTMs are created equal! To get the most out of this powerful tool, it helps to know what they’re all about.

UTM codes can also be used to track email campaigns. When someone opens an email that contains a code, it will be automatically activated and tracked. This information can help you determine how successful your email campaigns are and which ones are most popular with your audience.

Using UTM codes is a great way to track your website’s traffic and measure the success of your marketing campaigns. Through them, you can gain a better understanding of how your audience interacts with your website and what marketing strategies are most effective.

UTM code example

http://www.mywebsite.com/?utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=mycamp

In this example, a user would see http://www.mywebsite.com in a browser bar when they clicked on the ad from google express ads with the source being "adwords", the medium being "cpc" and the campaign being "mycamp". This would allow for website owners to see how many people clicked on the ad from google express and attribute that data to the corresponding google express campaign.

5 UTM tracking best practices

Tracking an ad campaign is one of the key parts of measuring its success. It helps you to determine which channels are performing well and what content is engaging your target audience.

Your channel selection, creative assets and calls to action (CTA) play a huge role in determining your campaign's trackability. For example, using keywords and hashtags in your ads can increase its visibility. You can also use online tracking tools to measure the impressions, clicks and performance of your social media campaigns on various networks.

Tracking is essential for measuring several key metrics such as:

• How many people saw your ad?
• What actions did people take after seeing your ad?
• How many people took the desired action, such as buying a product or signing up for a service?

Here are some best practices to help you track your ad campaigns:

1. Use UTM tracking codes in your links: UTMs (Urchin Tracking Modules) are a collection of alphanumeric characters inserted into links that help you to track campaign information such as the traffic source, campaign name and any custom parameters.

Here's an example: Let's say your online clothing store is running a sales promotion on LinkedIn. Your landing page has a form that collects visitors' email addresses so they can be notified of the next sale. You could create a UTM tracking code for this campaign as follows:

utm_source=LinkedIn&utm_medium=Paid%20ads&utm_campaign=Sales%20Promotion&utm_term=Email%20subscription

This code will help you to track how many people clicked on your ad, where they came from and what actions they took on your site.

1. Use different tracking codes for each campaign: This will help you to track the performance of each campaign separately. You can use a different UTM code for each social media platform, paid channel or organic channel.
2. Use the same tracking code for similar campaigns: This will help you track your conversions accurately. For example, if you’re running several email marketing campaigns to promote a product launch, use the same UTM tracking codes for all of them.
3. Use different channels for different content types: It's best to avoid mixing social media and paid ads with organic search. For example, if yo’are running a social media campaign, use paid ads to promote your content on social media. This will help you to track the performance of each channel separately.
4. Use UTM tracking for retargeting campaigns: Retargeting is a form of online advertising that helps you to reach people who have already visited your website or used your app. You can retarget people based on:

• Website visits: People who visited a key page on your site, such as the blog or contact us page, but didn't perform an action such as subscribing to your email list
• App installs: People who installed and used your app, but didn't perform an action such as purchasing a product
• Lead capture: People who submitted their email address on your site and did not complete the desired conversion (e.g., signing up for a newsletter)

UTM elements

UTM codes are composed of three elements: a source, a medium and a campaign. The source is the website or other location where the ad was clicked on. The medium is the type of advertisements, such as email, search engine results or social media posts. The campaign is the name given to the marketing effort.

Campaign

This is the name given to your marketing effort. It can be anything you want it to be, but many businesses call it after their company name or product name so they know what the ad was for.

Medium

This is the website or other location where the ad was clicked on. For example, Google, Facebook or a company website.

Source

This is the website or other location where the ad was clicked on. For example, Google, Facebook or a company website.

Piece of content

A piece of content is any specific article, web page, video or other form of digital media that you want to track. Using UTM codes made it easy for users to understand what they're clicking on and how. This helps us better measure the performance of our online campaigns.

How to build UTM codes in Google Analytics

Now that you understand what UTM codes are and how they work, it's time to learn how to create them in Google Analytics. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open Google Analytics and sign in
2. In the top menu bar, click "Acquisition" and then "Campaigns"
3. Click the "+Campaign" button and then select "UTM Source/Medium"
4. In the "Campaign Name" field, enter the name of your campaign
5. In the "Campaign Medium" field, enter the medium you're using, such as email or Google search
6. In the "Campaign Source" field, enter the source you're using, such as Facebook or your company website
7. Click "Apply"
8. Repeat these steps for any other campaigns you want to track with UTM codes
9. Give your content a unique identifier

Every piece of content that you want to track must have a unique identifier. In our example, we're going to use the article's title as its unique identifier.

10. Add your content tracking code

In order for Google Analytics to keep track of your content, you must add a tracking code. Here’s a sample of how each piece of content should be tracked:

You should also include the unique identifier for your content. Let's assume that our title is "Social Media Marketing" and it has an ID of 1. Your code would look like this:

utm_source=socialmedia&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=5ways&utm_content=1

You can now copy and paste this code into the URL of any social media post, email or website page you want to track.

11. Verify that UTM tracking is working

Once you've added your UTM tracking code, it's important to verify that it's working properly. To do this, open Google Analytics and click "Acquisition" in the top menu bar. Then, click "Overview."

Under "Source/Medium," you should see a list of all the sources and mediums that are sending traffic to your website. If you see your UTM tracking code listed here, it's working correctly.

Wrapping up

UTM codes are a great way to keep track of your website traffic and measure the performance of your online campaigns. By using them, you can ensure that you're getting the most out of your marketing dollars.

Tracking your marketing efforts can be a big part of your business's success. Utilizing UTM tracking tags on your marketing efforts allows you to better understand how various types of marketing campaigns are working, and can be a great way to see your return on investment.