Understand what Google Analytics UTM parameters are and how they can be useful for your campaigns

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Finally, you can check multi-source tracking in your Google Analytics dashboard .

In other words, you can measure traffic that comes specifically from a Facebook post, tweet, image, or email sent to your list.

Once you do that monitoring, it will be easier to do A/B testing that leads to correct decisions in your digital marketing strategy .

So if this tool is so useful in theory, why aren't marketers using it more often?

This is generally because it can actually be a complex resource at business owner database first, from a practical point of view.

With that in mind, we've written this article to show you what Google Analytics UTM parameters are and what they can be used for.

What are Google Analytics UTM parameters?
Why are UTM parameters so important?
What can you track through UTM parameters?
How to create UTM parameters in digital marketing?
What are Google Analytics UTM parameters?
UTM parameters are text strings that you can attach to your URLs to track every time they are clicked.

They cause Google Analytics to show specific results regarding the source of traffic to that URL .

Thus, UTM parameters allow you to analyze traffic taking into account where it comes from, that is, how it reaches you.

This information is very important because it allows you to understand the exact behavior of your audience for different digital channels in relation to a specific campaign. Therefore, it can be interesting in different attribution models in Marketing.

If you don't know the path your audience takes to get to you, how do you expect to reach them?

Why are UTM parameters so important?
In any marketing strategy, results are much more valuable when they are measured and understood .

If you can't understand which ads or links are driving the most clicks to your site, as well as conversions and sales , there's no way to know which is the right way to spend.

For example, if you create three different ads and find that they are driving clicks to your website, that's great!

But the work is not done yet.

In the end, you need to know which of these ads are bringing you the most clicks and conversions.

With a UTM parameter, it is possible to identify which one works best.

So instead of continuing to invest in all three ads, you can invest more money in the one that is getting the best results.

The math is simple: why continue paying for ads that don't deliver results?

Analyzing UTM parameters allows you to understand the value of a campaign and reallocate your investments.

What can you track through UTM parameters?
Some of the channels to track are:

Social networks
UTM parameters allow you to see which content is most effective on each social platform for your business.

They provide the ability to understand which social network your company uses to reach more people and engage your target audience.

E-mail
In the links you insert in emails, you can attach a UTM parameter.

If you notice, when you open a link to a newsletter , it is much larger than the original.

This happens because of the connection of the UTM parameter.

That way, you can check how the click performance of the emails you send is going.

For example, do people click more on the top or bottom of sent messages? Knowing this makes it easier to write emails that perform better .

One tip is to perform actions differently and use UTM parameters to see which works best.

Another example: you can send emails to your list that have one CTA in the form of a link and another in the form of an image.

Since each has different UTMs, it is possible to know which one had more clicks.

Advertisements
Paid media ads can also be tracked via UTMs.

This can be done in any type of ad, from a banner to a sponsored link .

This analysis is very important to know which ads deserve marketing investment. UTMs allow for greater assertiveness when investing, by supporting the definition of ROI .

Otherwise, you could lose money if you continue paying for campaigns that don't generate results.

Other media
Basically, whatever you need to monitor that involves a link or URL that takes the user to your site can be monitored through UTM.

Even images that have your website address written on them can be used as a monitoring source.

However, one important fact: every time a user clicks on a link that has a UTM, Google Analytics identifies it as a new visit.

That is, if that user browses your site multiple times, the report will show that there were several new users at that time.

How to create UTM parameters in digital marketing?
A UTM parameter has the following format:

https://www.example.com/?utm_source=ads ... delanuncio
To create custom URLs using UTM parameters that you must follow, access the Google URL Builder .

Once that is done, you need to fill out the Google Analytics form with each of the UTM parameter fields.

Origin of the campaign
It is the platform from which traffic originates, indicating the name of the channels and what Google recommends.

This identification is done through the URL fragment "utm_source = channel" (the "channel" is the channel, for example, Facebook or email).

For example:

https://namedelsitio.com/?utm_source=tw ... _term=word
The “channel” in this case is Twitter. Therefore, utm_source identifies Twitter as the traffic source.

Origin or means of the campaign
Here you can identify how the traffic is coming to you, whether it's through a post, a CPC, an affiliate link, etc.

https://namedelsitio.com/?utm_source=tw ... _term=word
We can see that, in this case, the origin of the traffic is social (social networks).

Campaign media can usually be viewed in the Google Analytics dashboard.

Simply go to Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Media to check all UTM parameter activities according to each source which can be, for example:

Social networks
Email
CPC
Display
Affiliates
Ebook
QR Code
Campaign content
If you are doing A/B testing of your ads, this metric is very useful to bring details of each one.

Additionally, you can use it to distinguish links that take the user to the same URL.

https://namedelsitio.com/?utm_source=tw ... _term=word
In that case, utm_content refers to "direct-ongoing".

So, utm_content specifies the ad or link that generated the traffic. You can test different versions of the same ad and see which one performs best.

Content campaigns can also be applied to marketing campaigns. For example: you can use different links in the emails sent to your list, inserting the UTM parameter in the image, text, CTA buttons and check which one has the best result.

Campaign name
This field is used to identify your campaign, for example:

https://namedelsitio.com/?utm_source=tw ... _term=word
In that example, utm_campaign is a blog post, which identifies that the purpose is to track traffic coming through blog content.

To view it in Google Analytics, go to Acquisition > Campaign > All Campaign.

This way, you can check and conclude which campaigns have been most successful and deserve more attention in future actions.

Now let's see how to apply UTM parameters to the main channels.

End of the campaign
This field is used to track keywords used in Google Adwords campaigns.

https://namedelsitio.com/?utm_source=tw ... _term=word
In that case, the term would be "word."

If you have paid campaigns outside of Google, like Bing or Yahoo for example, you will also need the UTM parameter to crawl those search engines .

Otherwise, Google Analytics won't detect the difference.

How to insert UTM parameters in social networks
Let's say you have your target audience focused more on Facebook and since a lot of your traffic comes from there, you want to measure traffic from the channel.

UTMs can do that.

Additionally, each link can be tracked separately. Here are some examples:

?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=profile&utm_campaign=email

?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=promote&utm_campaign=email

So once you start getting data, Google Analytics will start sending reports taking into account each of the URLs.


How to insert UTM parameters into emails
Do you tend to send a lot of emails to your contact list? Would you like to know how much each of those emails contributes to your website traffic?

So, let’s see how adding UTMs to your URLs can help.

For example, let's say you send an email to your list that has three different types of CTAs.

Each of these links should be linked to different UTM parameters.

In the end, let's imagine your email has something like this:

"Hello! Everything okay?"

I noticed you came across our article and was curious to know what prompted you to read it.

How about we schedule a chat?

If you want to know more about this topic, check out this other article as well."

Using UTM parameters, you can find out which links were accessed the most. This is essential for optimizing your next email marketing actions.

How to enter UTM parameters in paid media
If you also run paid media campaigns regularly, you may want to know which ads perform best.

Well, through UTMs you can find out which ones bring you the most traffic as well as which formats are the most effective.

For example, let's say you have two banner ads of different sizes.

By inserting the UTM parameter in both, it is possible to know which one is giving more results and which one deserves, therefore, to receive a greater investment in future campaigns.