UTM tags (or parameters) are added to links to help analyze traffic sources. Everyone who runs Google advertising campaigns, does affiliate marketing, or any other digital activity needs them.
For example, without UTM tags, we see the Direct / none channel with (not set) sources in Google Analytics. Where did these people come from? From what site or application did they come to us? Who knows – there are no parameters added to track links they’ve used.
At the same time, UTM parameters are automatically added to our emails so that we understand how many people are coming to us from email marketing. And this is also visible in Google Analytics:
That is, UTMs are parameters in links where you can specify information about the traffic source. It can be only basic information (only source: email, paid search, social media) or some detailed data (name of an advertising campaign, ad ID, keyword, user device type …).
When to use UTM tags
Why and who needs UTM parameters? The 3 most common cases:
- You set up advertising campaigns in Google Ads, Bing Ads and any other traffic channel. In order to later analyze which advertisement brought more users to you, you should use UTM parameters;
- You are engaged in affiliate marketing: exchanging posts on social networks with other companies, writing guest articles on other people’s blogs or news portals. UTM parameters will help you understand how many people came to you from guest posts and which website gives the most “return”;
- You are creating an email campaign with links to website pages. Likewise, tags in emails help you understand how users click through links – which means how effective those emails are.
Of course, UTM parameters are not only needed in these three cases. Using the link? You will probably want to know how many people came through it. Adding your company to the market catalogue? Add UTM parameters to the link – you will understand how many people actually come from it. Wherever there are links and you need to analyze the results, you should add UTM tags.
How to create a link with Urchin Tracking Module variants
There are special tools for creating Urchin Tracking Module variants, in which you can simply enter values and get ready-to-go links. For example, the UTM generator in Komondor PPC Software.
In the UTM generator, you need to insert a link, enter the parameter values – and that’s it, you can create a link! You can specify any label values – the systems do not have strict restrictions on this. Another thing is that with active and constant marketing, after a couple of months it is easy to get confused in dozens of marks. And in a couple of years, especially if you are not the first marketer in the company… Well, just imagine.
We recommend you to develop your own marking system for UTM links. For example, for email newsletters, we use the following scheme:
- channel – email;
- source – [service name]
- campaign – [month] (for monthly newsletters), as well as system (for system messages) and promo (for regular promo messages).
The URL with UTM tags is huuuuge. We mean, reaaaally huge. In the UTM generator, it is immediately shortened – it is more convenient to use short links linker.tools/xxxxx.
How to track website performance using UTM parameters and Google Analytics
The source and channel parameter (utm_source and utm_medium) will be displayed on the Traffic Sources tab → All traffic → Sources / medium.
By default, 2 parameters are shown at once. You can also add other parameters to this report right away.
If you want to analyze ads, go to Traffic Sources → Campaigns → All Campaigns. In the advanced options, select the options you want. Now the report will have metrics segmentation by UTM parameters.
For a more detailed analysis, you can, as usual, customize the report with additional data.
UTMology: technically about how UTM tags work
Link for ads without UTM:
komondorische.com
UTM link for advertising:
komondorische.com/utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=agency&type={source_type}&type=search&source=none&block=premium&position=2&keyword=blablabla
Everything after the slash is the parameters. There can be many labels in the link at once, they are separated by &. One label consists of a static name (utm_source =) and a variable value (google).
So any link will contain utm_source =, but then there will be the name of the advertising system: it can be google, yandex, bing and anything else where you advertise.
Types of UTM parameters
Thera are required UTM tags and there are optional ones. Mandatory data is always used, this is the basic data that is needed for analytics: channel, medium, campaigns. The optional ones are not required, but they help to refine the data in analytics: keyword, ad.
We advise you to always use mandatory UTM tags, and add optional tags only if you really have enough resources to analyze them. If you don’t know what to do with additional tags in the Google Analytics report, you probably don’t need them.
| Mandatory UTM parameters | Optional UTM parameters |
| utm_source – traffic source. Values: google, yandex, facebook, youtube | utm_term — keyword |
| utm_medium – traffic medium. Values: cpc, cpm, display, link, post, banner | utm_content – content of ads |
| utm_campaign — name of the ad campaign |
There are also dynamic parameters of UTM tags for Google Ads, Bing, and social networks. They help you get even more information!
What are the dynamic UTM parameters for advertising:
| How it looks | What it means | What it will contain |
| {campaignid} | campaign ID | 11111111111 |
| {adgroupid} | ad group id | |
| {creative} | ad ID | |
| {targetid} | targeting ID | Indicates what triggered the ad:kwd goes for keyword;dsa – dynamic search ad;aud – target of the remarketing list;pla – product segment |
| {network} | the network where the ad is shown | g — Google Search;s — Search Partners;d — GDN |
| {adtype} | ad unit type (only for product-targeted campaigns) | pla – Shopping ad.pe – extension “additional information about the product” |
| {adposition} | ad position on search | 1t2 – first search page, top ad unit (top), second placenone – when displayed in the GDN |
| {placement} | ad placement in the GDN | URL of the website where the ad was displayed |
| {target} | category of website (for GDN) | Display Network Site Category |
| {keyword} | shows the keyword | keyword |
| {matchtype} | keyword match type | e — exact;p — phrase;b — broad |
| {device} | device type | m — mobile;t — tablet;c — desktop |
| {ifsearch:search} | display on search | search |
| {ifcontent:content} | display in GDN | content |
| {copy:допссылка} | text of additional links or product information | additional link |
| {ifmobile:mobile} | display on a mobile device | mobile – if the click came from an ad |
The system will add dynamic parameters values by itself, i.e. there is no need to invent your own meaning for different devices or placements.
Komondor PPC Software has adapted the UTM generator to work with all major advertising platforms. In your personal account, you can add UTM tags for campaigns in Google Ads, Yandex Direct, VK Ads, Facebook Ads + any other system. All links will be generated in a standard format:
or shortened one:
https://linker.tools/3BqZq
Try it!