How to use UTM tags? What are they and how can you build them?
We at Digital Movers create lot ‘s of campaigns for our clients and within these campaigns we use a lot of channels. To get a better insights of where visitors come from it is important to understand what channels you’ve used in your campaign and how much this channel added value within your campaign. Google Analytics is the perfect tool for providing you these insights. Within Google Analytics (GA) you can find Acquisition, which shows you where your visitors come from. You can see that there is traffic coming from direct, from refferals, by social, organic etc. sources. GA offers you the possibility to show which channel is responsible for your visit but it doesn’t show you from which post or ad this visitor came from.
But there is a solution for it, taddaaaaaa here is the solution: UTM tagging.
What does UTM stand for?
Most people use UTM and don’t know where it stands for. UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module. Easy and simple
What is UTM tagging?
A UTM code consists of a number of UTM tags. UTM tagging is the addition of UTM tags to a link. By using an UTM tag you can get a better understanding of the results that your campaign delivered. The UTM codes can easily be created by a UTM code builder within the Google Analytics development tool.
These tags send additional information to Google Analytics to gain more insight into where visitors come from. There are five tags in total. Below you can see all five tags and examples of what you can fill in with these tags.·
- utm_medium. The medium from which the visitors come from. With a Facebook post you enter Facebook here. You can also use the medium social here.
- utm_source. The source of origin: where does the visitor come from? Can be found in Google Analytics as Source (Source). The source must always match (or fall under) the medium.
- utm_campaign. The campaign in which you share the link. If you share the link in the March newsletter, for example, you can put “newsletter March” here.
- utm_term. ‘Official’: the keyword that the visitors click on your link. But this variable is not mandatory and can also be used for other options.
- utm_content. Originally meant to describe the clicked content, the subject of your message or article to which you link.
The challenge in making good UTM codes lies in ensuring recognisability, consistency and clarity. This is important because different people make UTM codes in an organization. When these are not all the same, the Google Analytics account becomes unclear So how does a URL looks like when it is made with an UTM tag in it?
You’ve probably have seen some strange URL’s in your life when after clicking on an ad. One example could be like this: www.digitalmovers.nl?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=blogpost&utm_campaign=UTM_tagging&utm_term=100
Everything after the question mark (?) consist out of information that can be used within Google Analytics. This helps when you are analyzing your campaigns and check how successful it is.
In a nutshell
When building an online campaign it is important that you can track the results of this campaign. This is where UTM tagging can play part. You can add UTM tags within your regular posts on social channels but also add them to your activated content. This helps you better track the resulst and let you understand what channels are valuable and which are less valuable.
