One of the quickest ways to boost your marketing results is by adding UTM parameters to your conversion tracking, but what the heck is that supposed to mean?
To start, conversions are actions noted by Google Ads whenever a user takes an action on your website.
Tracking these conversions can become quite tricky when dealing with multiple channels, but given the importance of having multiple sources of traffic to your website today, UTM parameters are your new best friend.
UTM parameters, in short, are tags you can add to a website URL allowing you to track conversions and website traffic. Adding these elements will reveal where your users are coming across your marketing platforms as well as the actions they took when they arrived.
If you take a look at Google Ads and go to “add a conversion”, it will give you the option of importing offline conversions (UTM):
After the UTM parameters are added, every click of the URL will send the data that your parameter is asking for back to your analytics program. They come in five types:
Source - Identifies which marketing channel brought the traffic
Ex: utm_source=Facebook
Medium - Identifies what type of link brought the traffic. Mostly used to identify whether the link was found organically or a paid promotion.
Ex: utm_medium=videoad or utm_medium=newsfeed
Campaign - Identifies the overarching ad campaign or promotion that your link falls under.
Ex: utm_campaign=fall_sale
Term - Identifies targeted keywords or search terms. Might be used to differentiate ads when the other parameters happen to be identical.
Ex: utm_term=conversion+tracking
Content - Identifies what the user specifically clicked that brought the traffic.
Ex: utm_content=bannerad or utm_content=textlink
Knowing where your digital marketing is actually paying off will allow you to make better budgeting decisions.
While they can sound complicated, UTM parameters are a lot simpler than they seem. By taking advantage of them, your company can test the detailed performance of your newsletters, go beyond like or follow analytics, and flush out low performing marketing channels to save you tons of time and money!
Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash