Tracking where website traffic and conversions (purchases, donations, etc.) come from is one of the biggest challenges for digital marketers. Since we spend time and money on email marketing, social media, and paid ads, we need to know which channels are most valuable.

One of the easiest and best ways to do this is by using Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters. You should add these to all external links to your website. This article explains UTM parameters and offers tips for their efficient use.

What are UTM parameters, and what are they for?

UTM tracking links are special URLs with extra code. This code helps you track where a website visitor comes from in tools like Google Analytics.  As an example, let’s consider how we might link to this blog post on our company’s Facebook page:  

Normally, the link would likely look something like this:

–https://blog.thebrickfactory.com/2024/10/how-to-use-utm-parameters-to-track-website-traffic-and-conversions/

However, when using UTM parameters to attribute the traffic specifically to Facebook, the link would have more detail attached to the end of the URL:

–https://blog.thebrickfactory.com/2024/10/how-to-use-utm-parameters-to-track-website-traffic-and-conversions/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=blog-post

The resulting data from adding the UTM parameters can easily be viewed in Google Analytics under Traffic and User Acquisition Reports. This report shows me how much traffic I drove to the website from that specific Facebook post. 

What UTM tracking options do I have?

Most marketers use the five standard UTM parameters.  Note you can use any or all of these parameters when creating a link.  At Brick Factory, we typically use Medium, Source, and Campaign Name, with Term and Content rarely used.

• Campaign Medium – The broad category used to characterize the link. A typical value might be “social_media” or “email”.  
• Campaign Source – The platform from which the traffic originated. When you post a link on social media, it often displays the name of the network. This could be Facebook or Instagram, for example.    
• Campaign Name – The content or campaign that leads to the link. For example, if you are running a Halloween sale, your campaign name might be “halloween_sale_2024”.  
• Campaign Term – The relevant ad-based keywords, such as those from a Google Ads search campaign.
• Campaign Content – The distinguishing factor between two pieces of content that share other parameters. For example, if you were to make two social posts about the same Halloween sales, you would use this parameter to distinguish the two emails.  

Using these parameters in your shared links helps you track your traffic and conversions. You can use them in links from different channels, such as email, social media, and ads. This way, you can see where your visitors are coming from. 

Using the example above, I could see how many sales came from my Halloween sale. I could also find out which channels, like social media and email, brought in the most money. Additionally, I could see which sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, were responsible for the highest revenue. 
You can create additional custom parameters if anything you want to track falls outside the above options.  This article outlines how to customize your UTMs.

What tools can I use to create URLs with UTM parameters?

There are many free online tools to create URLs with UTM parameters. The most popular one is the Google Campaign Builder tool. 

Once the UTM parameters are created, many of our clients use Google Sheets to track the parameters they create.  Our team has created two templates to help with systematically building these URLs. These templates allow you to provide default values for fields such as “Medium” and “Source”, where the same options are used repeatedly.

• Robust Template – creates the URLs and stores them permanently for future reference. It is useful if you want to make a permanent record of the URLs that you have created.
• Simple Template.  It replicates the Google Campaign Builder tool but allows you to set default values for repeated use.

Clicking on the links above will prompt you to copy the Google Sheet templates into your own Google Drive.

What tips can help me get the most out of my  UTM parameters?

Make sure your UTM parameters are all lowercase.

Google Analytics and other tools are case-sensitive. This means that using “Facebook” and “facebook” as your source parameters will create two separate entries. This requires extra work to compile accurate tracking numbers.

Do not include spaces in any of the UTM parameters. 

In most analytics tools, spaces will appear as “%20” in your analytics platform. For example, if you enter a UTM medium of “paid social” in Google Analytics, it will appear as “paid%20social.”  To avoid that, use either dashes (-) or underscores (_), or simply don’t separate words.  In the example above, effective alternatives include “paidsocial”, “paid-social”, or “paid_social”.    

Establish naming conventions for each parameter that is used consistently across your organization.

Consistency is the key to getting the most out of your UTM parameters. Consider employing these brief guidelines for each of the three most used parameters:

• Medium – Create a name for each of your main channels, like “email,” “social media,” “paid social,” and “paid search.” Keep the names consistent.
• Source – Develop clear rules for how this is used. Typically, this is as straightforward as using the name of the site where the link is posted (i.e. “instagram”).  For email marketing, you might use source to categorize the type of email that is being sent (i.e. “newsletter”, “sales”, etc.).
• Campaign – Develop a consistent naming convention – because campaign information in Google Analytics can get messy very quickly. For example, campaigns could consist of content descriptor + campaign purpose + year. A sales effort around Halloween would then use the parameters “halloween_sales_2024.”  

Use URL shortener services with UTM parameters

Many organizations use URL shorteners, such as Bitly or Rebrandly, to make the URLs they post on social media more attractive and to help track those links. UTM parameters work exceptionally well with these platforms, and many of the shorteners have tools you can use to add them as you create the shortened URLs.  Alternatively, you can always add URL parameters to the URL prior to shortening.