PDF One of the key benefits of the online advertising world is that you are enabled complete tracking of your ad campaigns in real-time (or almost real-time). You can find out what is or is not working and make changes instantly. Generally, you can see which sites clicks are coming from and if they convert or what they do once users get to your site. What if though, you have several links and ads in place on one website? How do you know which links are being clicked? Another scenario might be an ad or links placed in an email newsletter. How do you know if links are coming from those? That’s where Google’s UTM trackable urls come into play.
Google provides a service where you can create a custom trackable URL using its “URL Builder“. The builder allows you to enter your destination URL as well as campaign information for your link. Once all the information is added, you can click “Generate URL” and you will be provided with a trackable URL. Use this URL for your banner ad or email link. Change the information in the url builder each time, to create a separate URL for each link location. Now every time that URL is clicked you will know exactly where it came from.
The following fields may be defined when composing your URL, not all are necessary (* are required fields):
Campaign Source: * (the website or newsletter where your ad will be placed )
Campaign Medium: * (what type of ad will you be placing? banner ad, text link, etc)
Campaign Term: (identify any paid keywords that will cause the ad to display)
Campaign Content: (use to differentiate ads, e.g. “free shipping” or “buy one get one free”)
Campaign Name*: (product, promo code, or slogan)
Unless you want to be very granular in your tracking abilities, only the * fields need to be used. Note that the more information you provide here (fields you complete), the longer the generated URL will be.
I Want to Use This in Twitter, But the Long URL Wont Fit in My 140 Character Limit Twitter Post. Can I Still Use UTMs?
As well as Twitter, there are other times when the long URL cannot be used, all is not lost! UTMs can be entered into a URL shortener like bit.ly to have the URL size reduced. The UTM will still record the clicks and traffic from the URL since the shortener service is redirecting the URL to the trackable URL NOT directly to your site. Now you can use Google’s UTM feature for tracking specific Twitter posts. In the past you would only have been able to record the number of clicks for Twitter in general. Now you can see which links were clicked the most, and more importantly , which clicks generated the most conversions.
What Does UTM Mean?
The term UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module and is the format/coding that Google uses to track your unique urls.
Useful Links
Understanding campaign variables
About Sam Beamond