What Are UTM Links and Why Are They Important?

Understanding where your website traffic has come from is essential when it comes to optimising campaigns. One of the most effective ways to do this is to track data through the use of UTM links. But what exactly are UTM links and why should you incorporate them into your marketing strategy? Let’s take a look. 

What are UTM Links?

UTM is an acronym for Urchin Tracking Module. In 2005, Google acquired the Urchin Software Corporation, eventually leading to the development of Google Analytics, hence the term Urchin Tracking Module. 

A UTM link is a URL that contains specific parameters that can be used to measure the performance of different traffic sources. 

UTM links typically include five key parameters: 

1. utm_source - identifies the traffic source, e.g. Mailchimp or Facebook. 
2. utm_medium - defines the marketing medium, e.g. email or Instagram.
3. utm_campaign - helps you distinguish the specific campaign that the link is part of, e.g. summer sale.
4. utm_term - an optional parameter used to track paid search keywords or ad targeting terms.
5. utm_content - another optional element, this helps to differentiate between different types of content e.g. image or text link. 

A UTM link will look something like this:

https://www.example.com/?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=summersale

When a user clicks a UTM link, the parameters are sent to your analytics platform, allowing you to gain a better understanding of the success of each campaign and traffic source. 

Why Should You Use UTM Links?

Offers Accurate Performance Tracking and ROI Measurement 

Without a UTM link it can be difficult to determine how visitors arrived at your site and which campaigns and sources are successfully driving traffic. By tagging links with UTM parameters, you can track and measure your campaigns with precision, giving you more insight into which campaigns, ads, or social platforms are delivering the highest return on investment. 

This also makes it easier to report the success of campaigns to stakeholders and justify or increase specific marketing budgets. 

Promotes Data-Led Decision Making

UTM links provide more accurate performance tracking and give you a deeper understanding of which channels are offering the most effective ROI. This allows you to fine-tune your strategies and pour more money and resources into high-performing areas and put less into those which are underperforming. 

Enhances Collaboration 

UTM links simplify communication across departments as internal teams and external agencies are able to monitor data more consistently and report on campaign performance with better accuracy. 

Improves Analytics Segmentation 

Most analytics platforms allow you to segment your website traffic based on UTM parameters, allowing you to view more detailed reports that break traffic down by source, medium, campaign, and more. This gives you a clear idea of how users are behaving so you can refine your content to better meet your audience’s needs. 

How to Create a UTM Link 

You can build UTM links manually by following the basic structure in the example we provided above. But there are free tools such as Google’s campaign URL builder, which make it quick and simple - just fill in blanks and copy your link. 

UTM Link Best Practices

• Don’t overcomplicate parameters - keep it simple and only use parameters that will be useful for your analytics and to avoid confusion. 
• Be consistent - use consistent naming conventions for your UTM parameters. For example, always use lower case in your parameters to avoid disparity that can affect tracking accuracy. 
• Remain organised - you may want to keep a spreadsheet of UTM links if you’re running multiple campaigns so you don’t lose track. 
• Shorten your URLs - UTM links can become lengthy, so consider using an online URL shortener to make your links more user friendly. 

Need Help Running Your Next Marketing Campaign? 

UTM links are a simple way to track the effectiveness of campaigns, measure ROI, and gain more detailed insights. With this, you can make more informed decisions that will drive your business forward. 

UTM links are relatively easy to use but if you’re looking for expert guidance with them or with your wider marketing campaigns, then feel free to get in touch with us today!