Analyze range and conversions with UTM parameters

Optimize your campaigns and make them even better

What are UTM parameters?

With the help of UTM parameters you can distinguish between identical URL hits, coming from different sources. While there are no real requirements which parameters to use, those are the five well known parameters:

  1. utm_source
  2. utm_medium
  3. utm_campaign
  4. utm_content
  5. utm_term

From a purely technical view, they are simply URL parameters which you can easily add to any URL. Let’s explain the established meaning and usage:

Where do you book your ads?

As the parameter utm_source hints, it’s about the source of the campaign. If you place a link e.g. on twitter, buy an ad on google ads, tag a reel on instagram or even print a QR code, this is the parameter to distinguish those sources. You can then easily track what worked best and decide for the next campaign.

Which medium is used?

utm_medium describes exactly that. Typically used values are email, social, cpc or print.

You can easily gather insights on which channels work best for your audience. Maybe your followers prefer posts in social networks over classic eMail newsletters. Highly recommended to use this.

Name your campaign

To distinguish between your campaigns, use utm_campaign with a speaking name like spring sale 2022. For advanced users it’s common to use more of an id scheme for the campaign identifier, but often this requires other campaign management software. For the rest of us, simple works well. Highly recommended to use this parameter.

Multiple ways to goal

Say we send a newsletter containing a nice image, a big button and a linked headline of our product currently on sale. Which one did the user click on to reach your product? Use utm_content to distinguish between the different links.

You only need to use this parameter if you have different links. But if you do, make sure to analyze your campaign content with it.

Do you place ads for different keywords?

This parameter is used to transport the originating keyword. If you buy ads on e.g. google adwords you decide for which keywords the ad might be shown. To analyze how each keyword performed, they are added with utm_term.

Ad software normally automates this, but there might be cases where you want to do it yourself.

Example

Say you have a shop product which is important to your revenue stream and you want to place ads to increase sales. You’re a regional bike shop in Mannheim and said product is one of those fancy fixie bikes .

Your URL: https://bikes-mannheim.de/en/super-bike-123

You want to invest EUR 200 to start a campaign on google ads. The link should then look like:

https://bikes-mannheim.de/en/super-bike-123?utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=bike-123