Google Analytics UTM Tracking and the Impact it has on your Campaigns

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Within the Marketing universe, we rely heavily on being able to track the success of our campaigns. Whether it be our social media or an email we’ve sent. We want to know what works and where our leads are coming from. No one wants to waste their time ploughing effort into a certain email campaign if it’s the post in LinkedIn that’s doing you more favours. UTM values are our greatest asset when evaluating our results.

So, What is a UTM Value?

UTM, or Urchin Tracking Module, was introduced to the world by Google and is a set of parameters within your URL to a specific landing page to track where your contact is coming from. This allows platforms such as GatorLeads and Google Analytics to grab information from your Social Media, PPC and Email Campaigns and deliver you an abundance of information to help you analyse and improve your marketing strategies.

Here’s an example of a URL with UTM Parameters:

https://www.communigator.co.uk/event/generate-roi/?utm_source=Events&utm_medium=seminar&utm_campaign=September

What are these Parameters and how do I put them into practice?

*Source: Use to identify the referrer location or platform where your traffic originates e.g. search engine, newsletter, etc.

*Medium: Which channel your lead came through e.g. email, banner, PPC.

*Name: Allowing you to identify the specific campaign origin e.g. product, promo code etc.

Term: Used primarily to identify paid keywords.

Content: A necessary addition for A/B testing and content-targeted ads. This allows you to differentiate between links that point to the same URL.   

*Required Fields

There are various methods of using UTM values. You can use them in Email, Social Media or PPC, among others. Within the CommuniGator product, you have the option to specify your UTM values when creating a campaign. Make sure you use UTM Values in all your campaigns to accurately track your traffic with fewer variables.

In GatorMail, you can add link tracking. Within our traditional URL builder, you can define exactly what values are used for each UTM parameter, and which to use. From our drag and drop editor, all links are automatically tracked, with UTM parameters added. So, you don’t need to worry about what to add. It will make your analytics much clearer.

How does using UTM Values improve my Marketing Strategy?

Using UTM Values can assist in your marketing strategy and marketing research quite drastically. The more knowledge you have of your customer base and when / with what they’re interacting, the more likely your campaigns are to do well.

For example, at CommuniGator we use Oktopost. Within the platform, Oktopost has an array of features within it’s reporting section that highlights the topics our potential and current client base is interacting with and where they’re from.

This is all done via a UTM link we have embedded within Oktopost. This allows us to see where the posts are being viewed at what time and the level of engagement involved. Letting us produce the best content for our audience and posting it at the optimum time. No brainer!

Implemented correctly, UTM Values have the potential to increase your insights and knowledge much further, leveraging a goldmine of data at the click of a button. The more knowledge you have the better right? Jump in and get using them now![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]