Congrats!!! If you are here for UTM Tracking Code, then your hard work finally paid off. Your website is now generating enough traffic and you are curious to analyze it. Working out on the UTM code is a Sucess signal that shows the progression of your SEO journey.
Let’s drop a Fact here. If you are able to analyze your traffic efficiently and run your marketing campaigns accordingly then you are on the right path.
The world is changing. Data are making more sense than ever before. What if your boss asks the stats on the top traffic driving source to your website. All you do is, look up in the sky and start counting stars.
Does that make an impression?
Definitely a BIG NO. And how on earth anybody is supposed to memorize all the stats (Only a Genius could).
Well, thanks to UTM tracking Code things don’t have to be this rough. Following a simple procedure, you can exactly track your traffic.
Today we will be exploring what it takes to track the exact source of the traffic you are generating.
UTM tracking code provides you enough statistics to prove that your marketing campaign is working and the right medium to focus on. Evaluating the progression of your marketing campaigns is now easier with the UTM tracking code.
What is UTM Tracking Code?
UTM tracking code is a bunch of snippets that starts with “UTM” in the URL and helps you to track the performance of your campaigns. They appear in the last section of the URL.
UTM stands for Urchin Traffic Monitor. Google Analytics is only possible due to the Urchin Tracker. They are responsible for everything you see in Google Analytics.
UTM codes appear in the analytics reports giving you all that is needed to make your next move.
What Can you track with UTM tracking Code?
This snippet helps you to track five different variables through URL. They are
- Source: The source in the UTM tracking code simply indicates the website that is draining the traffic into your website. If you are running a Facebook ad then the source is Facebook within the paid category.
- Medium: Medium acts as a channel. The different forms of marketing patterns available. Examples may be Social, Email, Paid, Organic, Etc.
- Campaign: They are the individual marketing campaign that you are running. They are just the generic type word used to indicate your Marketing Activities. They are usually used to identify the products that are recently launched or you need to sell out.
- Term: If you are thinking of targeting the specific keywords for your campaigns. It is rarely used as Google Adwords already does the job for you.
- Content: Content fields are used to differentiate the multiple links within the same campaign by simply adding the content. It’s an optional field.
UTM Tracking Code Example:
The normal URL without using UTM looks like this:
websiteName.com/post-title/
After using a UTM tracking Code:
websiteName.com/post-title/?utm_source=facebook
The only difference between these two is ?utm_source=facebook
The URL that starts with UTM is the UTM Code. There can be multiple numbers of variables like medium, campaign, etc.
The individual UTM code used to track five different variables has two components each. They are:
UTM parameter: starts with utm_ indicating the various variables.
Tracking variables: These are the unique values used to identify the attributes of the UTM parameters: This value is separated by “=”.
Here’s how one of mine looks:
How to build one? UTM Tracking Code Generator
You can build your UTM codes in various ways. A lot of analytics tools are offering their services. However, they are not free. Here I will be discussing two ways to build the UTM code.
1. Manual way:
As the name suggests, it’s done by manually typing the different UTM parameters at the end of your URL.
It’s not that complicated but there can be a lot of mistakes on the way. So. I recommend the second option.
2. Google’s Campaign URL builder.
One of the greatest advantages of this sector is we get a lot of tools to do our jobs done.
If you are having trouble generating the UTM codes then this tool can be your savior.
Just click here, you will go to the campaign URL builder. You just need to fill the details.
Enter the URL, Campaign source, campaign medium, Campaign Name, Campaign Term, Campaign Content and you are all set.
You will now see the generated URL by scrolling down. You can either copy the URL or convert a URL to a short link.
It’s easier than we thought, isn’t it?
Advantages of Using UTM Tracking Codes:
After you are able to create them, you will be getting the raw data. Google Analytics helps you to process the data to your benefits.
- The major reason for using the UTM tracking codes is to know the traffic sources. These codes give your tracking more accuracy. You can view the results in Acquisition in google analytics.
- Now you will know the links people are preferring in your campaign. As you can now track between different links inside the same campaign.
- You can now focus on the particular medium that is generating yours traffics. This approach helps to know your powerful medium to run the campaigns and evaluate the shortcomings in other mediums.
- Tracking the exact traffic in your every campaign is now possible.
Best Way of doing things here in UTM tracking Codes
UTM tracking codes are here for reducing the complexity. Hence the easier approach should be taken to build one.
- Use understandable names that won’t confuse yourself between different campaigns. Using easier names is always convenient as they are a great way of identification.
- Use the short URLs.
- If you are working in a team then it would be best to develop some generic conventions that will help the communication between your team members.
Conclusion:
UTM tracking codes are great when you are building a Custom traffic report from Google Analytics. The data now will now be more insightful and meaningful. They help you categorize the traffic you are getting and build a resourceful strategy.
What are you waiting for? Give it a try and feel the difference.
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Sayonara!!!!
