What does UTM mean?
UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module and is simply a small piece of code that can be attached to all URLs that subsequently generate data in Google Analytics, where you as a marketer can follow a digital marketing campaign.
What does a UTM consist of?
Creating a UTM code is quite simple, you don't even need to be a developer. The code itself is made in very small chunks of information, as you can see here:
- Website URL. You start by inserting your website's URL. In the example above, we have simply inserted our own URL: https://inboundcph1stg.wpenginepowered.com (remember to always include https:// in this field).
- Campaign Source. Next, you need to write which source your link, and thus also your UTM code, should be inserted on. In the example above, we have used a campaign on the entrepreneur portal Amino as a starting point. It could also have been a social media, your email signature, a website you collaborate with or your own newsletter - if your newsletter provider does not automatically add a UTM code for you (check this first).
- Campaign Medium. In the above example, the campaign on Amino is through a banner, which is why we call campaign medium for display, as Google Analytics' Default Channel Grouping has pre-grouped all your website traffic into the following: Direct, Organic Search, Social, Email, Affiliates, Referral, Paid Search, Other Advertising, Display and (other) Campaign Medium is about the type or nature of the link.
- Campaign name . Since it is our SEO bookIn the example, if we want to market via a banner on the entrepreneur portal Amino, the Campaign Name is of course SEO book. It could also have been a product name, mail_signup_Facebook or offer_august_2020
In the example above we have only filled in the mandatory fields, but as you can see in the image it is also possible to write a Campaign Term and Campaign Content. This is rarely necessary, but let's look at them anyway.
- Campaign Term. Campaign Term is used for paid searches. For example, you can use utm_term to record the keywords for your ad.
- Campaign content. Campaign content is used for A/B split test and content-targeted ads. For example, you can use utm_content to differentiate ads or links pointing to the same URL. For example, whether it's a logo link or a text link
Once the above is filled in satisfactorily, you can press copy URL and paste it where you want your UTM to work from - it's that easy 🙂
Example of copying the URL/UTM code:
Link to UTM tool
There are various tools that can create UTM codes.
We use this: https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/
Important UTM rules of thumb
Last but not least, we'll go over some good UTM rules of thumb you should know if you're going to start working with UTM codes:
- Use only lowercase letters
- Never use æøå
- Do not use special characters
- Never use spaces but use _ (underscore) or - (hyphen)
- Don't create UTM codes for internal links on your website
- Check if your newsletter provider and other ad platforms insert UTM codes for you, if they do, don't create one yourself.
Have a great time.
