What Are UTM's And How Do Marketers Use Them For Campaigns

UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters are tags that you can add to the end of a URL to track specific metrics of your online marketing campaigns. These metrics include the source, term, content, medium, and campaign name of the traffic to your website.

UTM's are used by marketers and digital advertisers to track the effectiveness of their online marketing campaigns by providing data on where the traffic to their website is coming from. This data allows them to determine which campaigns are the most successful and adjust their strategies accordingly.

There are five different types of UTM parameters:

1. utm_source: This parameter is used to track the source of the traffic, such as "google" for traffic from Google or "facebook" for traffic from Facebook.
2. utm_medium: This parameter is used to track the medium of the traffic, such as "cpc" for cost-per-click advertising or "social" for social media traffic.
3. utm_campaign: This parameter is used to track the specific campaign that the traffic is associated with, such as "spring_sale" or "new_product_launch".
4. utm_term: This parameter is used to track specific keywords associated with the campaign, such as "running shoes" or "dresses".
5. utm_content: This parameter is used to track different versions of a campaign, such as "banner_ad" or "email_blast".

Using UTM parameters is relatively simple. To add a UTM parameter to a URL, you simply add "?utm_source=", "&utm_medium=", "&utm_campaign=", "&utm_term=", or "&utm_content=" to the end of the URL, followed by the corresponding value.

For example, if you wanted to track a Google AdWords campaign for a sale on running shoes, your URL might look something like this:

www.example.com/running-shoes?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=spring_sale&utm_term=running_shoes

Once your UTM parameters have been added to your URLs, you can use a tool like Google Analytics to track the metrics associated with each campaign. This will allow you to see how many people are clicking on your links, where they are coming from, and what actions they are taking on your website.

Alternatively you can use an ad tracking software like Cometly to track events from your website or store back to the correct ads. Many Shopify stores use shopify utm tracking with Cometly to help track purchases back to the correct ads.

In conclusion, UTM parameters are an important tool for marketers and digital advertisers to track the effectiveness of their online marketing campaigns. They provide valuable data on the source, medium, and campaign name of traffic to a website, allowing marketers to adjust their strategies accordingly. Using UTM parameters is simple, and tracking the metrics associated with them is easy with tools like Google Analytics and Cometly.

Learn more about how Cometly can help attribute revenue back to the correct ads and understand where customers are coming from → Cometly Free Demo