An Introduction to UTMs (with examples)

UTMs can be used as the backbone of many marketing efforts as they provide high level insight into traffic sources, the effectiveness of particular campaigns, messages and platforms and also are fantastic at measuring ROI for specific marketing efforts. However, getting to grips which how to read UTMs and what the best practices are can be difficult. But you need not worry, here is our quick and simple introduction to UTMs! 

What is a UTM? 

UTMs (Urchin Tracking Module) or UTM codes/tags are small sections of text added to the end of a URL, designed to help track the source of website traffic when clicked.  

Usually, a UTM tracking code will follow the sequence of source, medium, campaign, content, and term, with the last two parts being optional/interchangeable, depending on if you want to add more context to a specific UTM code. 

UTMs can look quite complicated and code heavy when not fully understood but once you break down each section and learn the basics, they become much easier to understand and can be optimized to greatly improve your tracking, data collection abilities and overall ROI.  

UTM Parameters 

UTM parameters refers to the source, medium, campaign, content, and term sequence above. But what does each parameter actually mean/refer to? 

Source (required)

Identifies exactly where traffic has come from. For example, Ads, social media newsletter, blog and so on 

Displayed as: (utm_source) 

Medium (required)

Identifies which marketing channel a lead has originated from, for example, email, social, paid social and so on.  

Displayed as: (utm_medium) 

Campaign (required)

Identifies which specific campaign a lead followed, for example, a seasonal offer, regional campaign, product campaign and so on. 

Displayed as: (utm_campaign) 

Content (optional)

Usually used during A/B tests, this parameter allows for further tracking refinement when driving traffic to the same URL from different audiences/experiences. 

Displayed as: (utm_content) 

Term (optional)

Identifies the key referral keyword from a paid search campaign, for example, keywords, categories, search terms and so on. 

Displayed as: (utm_term) 

What makes UTMs so powerful? 

Did you know that 37% of marketers struggle to understand which channels work best? UTMs are used by marketers to fully understand where specific website traffic has come from, for example traffic could be sourced from an ad, social media post or even a Google search. This level of tracking allows marketers to examine which channels and messaging are garnering the most interest, giving teams the tools to further develop and expand winning channels, and perhaps improve or ignore other channels which aren’t doing so well.  

Top 3 Benefits of UTMs 

• Track the value of campaigns and measure ROI
• Provide precise data about conversion and traffic sources
• Allow marketers to test individual posts in classic A/B testing style

UTM Best Practices 

We have run through a lot of different aspects of UTMs so far but understanding how to read them and what each parameter means is only the beginning. Here are 4 of our recommended best practices for UTMs 

1. Be Consistent: Make sure that all of your UTMS and URLS are set up in the same way and easy to read. This will save you time and effort in the future when trying to understand where a source has come from. 
2. Have a Single Source of Truth: Prepare a list with all of the links needed and used so that the greater marketing team are all using the same UTMs, giving you cleaner, better data. 
3. Look After your Format: UTMs are case sensitive so try to remain consistent when using capital letters 
4. Keep it Short: Establish a balance between creating short UTM codes while also making sure they are descriptive enough 

Source 

Final Thoughts 

UTMs are an incredibly powerful tool for marketers to use for tracking and working out campaign ROI, but they can look daunting when not fully understood. In this introduction to UTMs we have broken down what UTMs are, defined their parameters and established four best practices to help marketers like you begin to understand and use UTMs effectively.