In this handy blog, we’ll help you understand what UTM tracking is, how to use and why it’s so important. Tracking your website links will help you to have a greater understanding of how your website users are interacting with your website, what content is most popular and even what social media posts (if they contain a website link) are most effective.
What Is UTM Tracking?
UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module which is just a snippet of code that can be added to any URL link which helps to generate Google Analytics data. This means if you have Google Analytics setup for your website you can understand how traffic is coming to and flowing on your website.
This data is super important to help you understand website behaviour overall and also pick up the finer details that may be attributing to certain hinderances or successes.
The tracking link is made up of specific parameters to help offer precise data that is specific to certain campaigns or traffic sources and offers the benefit of split testing.
How To UTM Track
Generating a UTM link is incredibly easy thanks to Google Analytics handy tool, Campaign URL Builder. Here are the simple steps to use the tool:
1. Paste in the website URL to the specific field.
Example: https://www.themarketingbungalow.com.au/
2. Enter the campaign source which can be Facebook or Instagram for social media, Mailchimp for emails etc.
Example: facebook
3. Enter the campaign medium, e.g. content (for organic social posts), blog, cpc (for paid social) or email.
Example: content
4. Finally, the name of your campaign. Ensure this is specific so you know exactly what source the link is accompanying. Example: December2020
5. Then you can copy the link, or get the Bitly Short URL, add it to your content or campaign and away you go! Full URL: https://www.themarketingbungalow.com.au/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=content&utm_campaign=December2020 Short URL: https://bit.ly/2J9Gstu
Why It’s Important
Understanding how effective your organic and paid social media efforts plus your email marketing initiatives are will help you to best understand where to allocate resources and where your marketing strategy could use a little more work. Understanding how much a lead is costing you, what social media ads are generating more website visits and conversions and what email campaigns are encouraging recipients to perform your desired call to action will help inform your marketing strategy. Think of it this way, you’ll no longer be flying blind – you’ll have actionable data that will help to rationalise any future marketing decisions and help to increase the performance of the initiatives mentioned above.