UTM Tags: Boost Your Marketing with UTM Tracking

UTM tagging is a tool that helps you track the effectiveness of online campaigns and better understand which channel your traffic is coming from. Thanks to the additional settings of a regular link, you get more information about user interaction and can make more informed marketing decisions.

In this article, together with Promodo's PPC and web analytics specialists, we will look at what is UTM in marketing, why you should use UTM tags, and how to do it correctly so that all the information gets into Google Analytics.

What Are UTM tags?

UTM tags are custom URLs that can be customized with special parameters. They help you track a user's journey if you need to understand which channel they came from or want to analyze what type of campaign caught their attention and made them visit your website.

‍UTM tags are added to the original link using additional components. After that, the content is distributed with customized links, and you can analyze how they worked in analytics.

In Which Channels Are UTM Tags Most Often Used?

Social networks (Facebook, Telegram, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn) to track organic traffic.
PR posts to track clicks. For example, you post a post announcing an event on one of the Telegram channels - in addition to interaction, it is important for you to understand how many clicks to your website a particular channel brought to analyze the success of cooperation.
Paid promotion to track the effectiveness of content. It allows you to understand which advertising campaigns, keywords, and ads work best.
UTM tags can also be used for A/B testing. Banner color, text, call-to-action - everything matters when it comes to attracting user attention.
Email for tracking activity in newsletters, web push, and viber messages.

Why do you need UTM tags?

1. Tracking traffic sources

UTM tags help you understand where traffic comes from. They can be a part of a content strategy, as they help to track how each channel works and what results one campaign can bring from different traffic sources.

‍2. Publications in external sources

By adding a UTM tag to the content you publish on another platform, you can track its effectiveness in your own analytics. This can apply to announcements, guest posts, and even promotional publications posted by your partners.

3. Analysis of user behavior

Using UTM tags allows you to get data on how users interact with your content across different channels. This can be especially useful during the testing phase or if you are running one campaign across different channels and want to track which channel brought in the most traffic.

3. Measuring ROI

One of the key reasons to use UTM tags is to measure the return on investment (ROI) of your marketing campaigns. In analytics, you can track the revenue generated from a specific campaign and calculate how profitable an investment in a particular channel or campaign was.

4. Personalization and A/B testing

UTM tags can be used to personalize content or conduct A/B testing. For example, you can test different ad variations to see which version performs better, allowing you to optimize your campaigns based on real data.

5. Facilitate reporting

UTM tracking data can be easily integrated into analytics tools such as Google Analytics, which helps marketers gain a deeper understanding of campaign performance and identify areas for improvement.

What Do UTM Tags Consist of?

UTM tags are created with the help of additional components. There are five of them in total:

utm_source
utm_medium
utm_campaign
utm_term
utm_content
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UTM Tag	Description	Example Value
utm_source	Indicates the source of traffic from which users came (social networks, email, website).	utm_source=facebook
utm_medium	Indicates a channel or method of advertising (email, social, cpc, etc.).	utm_medium=email
utm_campaign	The name of the campaign or promotion by which you can track the tag in analytics.	utm_campaign=black_friday
utm_term	It is used to track keywords, especially in paid advertising.	utm_term=running_shoes
utm_content	Allows you to distinguish between different elements of one ad or email, such as buttons or banners.	utm_content=cta_button

The first three are mandatory, while the last two are optional. They are used for more specific tracking, which is not always necessary in all campaigns. Moreover, their absence does not affect the operation of other UTM tags.
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‍But: if you miss one of the required parameters (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign), the UTM label will not perform its function and you will not be able to track it accurately in analytics.

The UTM label also contains three characters:

The “=” sign combines components and their values. For example, utm_source=facebook
the “&” sign (ampersand), which, on the contrary, separates UTM parameters from each other. For example, utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
a question mark “?” that separates the original link from the UTM label

Types of UTM tags

Let's take a closer look at each label and tips on how to configure it.

1. utm_source

It is responsible for the name of the site where you place the link. Example: utm_source=telegram, utm_source=facebook, utm_source=google

2. utm_medium

The utm_medium UTM tag is used to indicate the type of channel through which users are accessing the site. Examples:

‍utm_medium=email - for traffic from email newsletters

utm_medium=social - for traffic from social networks

utm_medium=cpc - for paid contextual advertising (pay-per-click)

utm_medium=referral - for links that came from other websites

utm_medium=affiliate - for affiliate links

This is one of the key UTM tags that, along with utm_source, helps to track which channel the traffic is coming from.

3. utm_campaign

It is used to designate a specific campaign, by the name of which you can understand where the traffic is going. Since utm_campaign is not a standard classified name, you define this UTM label yourself. And it's important to immediately evaluate what tasks and what type of content you most often use UTM tags for.

‍If it's for an advertising campaign, then just a sale won't be enough, because sales are frequent and there are many of them. You need to specify the event timed to coincide with the launch of the campaign, for example, Blackfriday, and add the date to make it clear that it is about this year's season. As a result, we will get the UTM tag: utm_campaign=sale_blackfriday_2024

4. utm_term

The utm_term tag is used to track keywords that drive traffic to a website and is most often used in PPC. It helps to understand which search queries or keywords bring the most conversions.

5. utm_content

The utm_content tag is used to distinguish between the effectiveness of different ads within the same campaign if other parameters are the same.

How to Correctly Create a UTM Tag

To create a UTM label that will be displayed correctly in analytics, we recommend that you

Make sure that the name of each channel is spelled correctly. If you utm_source=facebook accidentally write utm_source=fasebook, the traffic you receive from the link may be attributed to the wrong or new source.

Unify the spelling of all sources in UTM tags. Google Analytics distinguishes between Facebook, Facebook, and FACEBOOK as different sources, so to avoid problems, you need to choose a single style of writing the source. Most often, the name of the source in UTM tags is written with a small letter - facebook, telegram, linkedin, etc.

Write in English. If the web analytics system interprets the Cyrillic alphabet incorrectly, the link becomes unintelligible or unsuitable for analysis.

Shorten the link if necessary. UTM-tagged links are longer than regular links, so you can use link shortening services, such as Bitly, to save space and make your post look more attractive.

How to Add a UTM Parameter to a URL

If you know all the components of a UTM label, you can add it manually, but to simplify this process, there are online generators that automatically generate UTM links.

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What is UTM link? It works simply: you already know which label is responsible for what and how to write it correctly. So all you have to do is enter each component in the suggested section and copy the ready link.

Google Campaign URL Builder is the official Google tool for creating UTM links.‍
Google Play URL Builder - generates links for tracking applications in the Google Play Market.
iOS Campaign Tracking URL Builder - generates links for tracking applications in the App Store.

Automatic Tag Addition in Google Ads, Meta, and Merchant Center

Google Ads

Google Ads has a gclid parameter (Google Click Identifier) - a unique click identifier that allows you to associate a specific ad with a customer or conversion. This Google Ads auto-tag automatically imports Ads data into Google Analytics, which helps you track user actions on the advertised website.

To enable auto-tagging, log in to your Google Ads account, go to Account Settings, and enable Auto-Tagging.

It is not recommended to manually modify the gclid as this can lead to errors in Google Analytics reports.
If you use both types of tags, make sure that UTM tags do not duplicate data that is already transmitted via gclid.

Dynamic Parameter	Description	Example of Use
{{ad.id}}	A unique identifier of a specific ad. Tracks results at the level of individual ads.	utm_content={{ad.id}}
{{adset.id}}	Ad set identifier. Analyzes the results of specific ad groups in a campaign.	utm_term={{adset.id}}
{{campaign.id}}	Campaign ID. Tracks traffic generated by a specific campaign.	utm_campaign={{campaign.id}}
{{campaign.name}}	Makes it easy to track traffic by campaign name.	utm_campaign={{campaign.name}}
{{placement}}	Placement of the ad on the platform (for example, Facebook Feed, Instagram Stories).	utm_source={{placement}}

Merchant Center

Google Merchant Center adds parameters that help you track conversions from Google Shopping. It works like autotags in Google Ads - when a user clicks on a Google search result that directs them to your online store, the srsltid parameter is automatically added to the URL.

Read more about Google Merchant Center autotags in Support.

Where to Track UTM Links

If you have already set up Google Analytics for your website, Google will automatically track inbound campaigns. To view the results for links with UTM tags, you need to