As an online marketer you want to know where the traffic on your website comes from. And not only through which site or through which keyword. It is interesting to find out throughout which campaign the visitors ended up on your website. This can be done by a code (or tag), namely; the UTM tracking code.
What is a UTM code?
First of all, UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module. A UTM code is a kind of label that you give to a URL, so it is easy to see through Google Analytics which visitors have come to your website via that particular URL. For example, campaigns with certain advertisements often have such a UTM code in the URL. In Analytics you can see which path a visitor takes to get to your website and what he does. This makes it easy to monitor (for example Twitter, LinkedIn, newsletter, FB etc.) the traffic and is a very useful way to compare campaigns and then optimize them.
How do you create a UTM code?
You have to create a UTM code yourself. This consists of a number of ‘tags’. Fortunately, this is all but complicated. Google has even made a handy tool for it; the URL builder.
Measuring in Analytics
Marketing campaigns naturally revolve around ROI. That’s why online marketers use Google Analytics to measure the results and optimize the various marketing campaigns. Analytics has become almost indispensable in online marketing. However, Analytics only shows whether it is direct or indirect traffic. So you don’t know if a visitor has entered via your social media campaign, or via a newsletter. But if you provide a UTM code, Analytics can show the traffic per campaign. So the two work together fantastically. Important to know is that AdWords nowadays has a so-called ‘auto-tagging’ option. This means that you don’t need to create UTM codes for your AdWords campaigns yourself.
Tag your URL
This is how you can ‘tag’ your traffic. The added value of this speaks for itself. You give your Analytics account a kind of boost. The incoming traffic is more specific and offers more insights. You know immediately which campaigns are successful, and which don’t. So you also know whether you should invest in it or stop the campaign. A great tool for good optimization.
Hi Linda, great read!
I think it is a very handy tool from a company’s perspective and it can definitely enhance anyone’s online marketing. It is however questionable whether a small company has the resources available to really use this in their online marketing strategy.
If you look at the customer’s perspective, I think that it goes quite far in collecting data on customer behavior on websites. With the ongoing debate about customer privacy in mind, I really doubt whether this technique is sufficiently anonymous. What do you think about this?