There are many ways to determine whether your demanding and equally costly advertising campaigns are successful. One of these methods is the use of UTM codes created for advertising campaigns. By measuring your advertising campaigns with UTM codes, you can see the level of interest they generate. Now, let us take a closer look at what UTM is, how UTM codes should be structured, and why we should use them. Although there may be changes in the places where you can track campaign data and differences in which UTM parameters can be monitored in Google Analytics 4, you will still be able to use UTM parameters.
What Is UTM?
To achieve success in digital marketing, understanding and optimising campaign performance is critically important. This is exactly where the Urchin Tracking Module, more commonly known as UTM, comes into play. UTM is a special tagging system used by Google Analytics that enables you to track your campaigns, links, and advertisements. It allows you to analyse the behaviour of visitors arriving on your website in detail, determine which sources generate traffic, and monitor conversions. Through user-friendly tags, UTM parameters make it possible to track and evaluate various digital marketing strategies, from search results to social media campaigns. The measurements you obtain can help make your digital marketing efforts more effective and allow you to manage your budget more intelligently.
Why Is UTM Tracking Important?
UTM tracking is critically important for digital marketers because it provides valuable information for measuring and improving the effectiveness of online campaigns. UTM parameters, particularly when integrated with analytics tools such as Google Analytics, provide important clues about where, how, and under which conditions marketing efforts are effective. In this context, UTMs can be described as snippets added to the end of URLs.
Through UTM tracking, you can distinguish between different campaign sources and channels and separate visitors coming from organic searches from those arriving through social media campaigns. This allows you to identify which strategies generate more traffic and conversions and allocate your marketing budget accordingly.
When we look specifically at GA4, we can collect data through eight UTM parameters. These parameters, or snippets, are useful for measuring and analysing different traffic channels and marketing campaign performance. In the following sections, we will discuss what these parameters are and how they should be structured.
To optimise our budget and avoid spending on unsuccessful strategies, it is highly important to add UTM codes to specific campaigns, advertisements, and even promotional copy in order to measure performance. For this reason, we generally use UTM parameters to analyse incoming traffic.
What Are UTM Parameters and How Are They Used?
UTM parameters are codes that contain information identifying the source, medium, campaign, or keyword associated with a campaign. They store eight different types of data that we want to track and help transfer this data to tools such as Analytics. Three of these parameters are required and should be used, while the others are optional. While Universal Analytics had five parameters, GA4 increased this number to eight, allowing us to track more data. Let us take a closer look at the UTM parameters available in GA4.
Source
The utm_source parameter provides information about where the traffic comes from. It identifies the source from which the visitor who clicked on the campaign arrived. For example, this parameter may contain values such as “facebook”, “newsletter”, or “google”.
utm_source=google
utm_source=facebook
utm_source=newsletter
These values allow you to track incoming traffic sources. All the codes above are examples.
Medium
The utm_medium parameter provides information about the medium associated with the traffic source. It identifies the medium or media type through which the visitor clicked. For example, it may contain values such as “cpc”, cost per click, “email”, or “organic”.
Example:
utm_medium=ppc
Campaign
The utm_campaign parameter identifies the campaign associated with the visitor’s click. This parameter can be used for a product launch or a specific promotional campaign. Imagine that you created a campaign for Black Friday this year. By assigning this parameter to the campaign, you can distinguish and measure it separately from your other campaigns.
Example:
utm_campaign=blackfriday23
From this point onwards, all additional parameters are optional, but they can be highly useful for attribution and obtaining richer insights from your data.
Term
The utm_term parameter refers to the keywords defined for the campaign. It is generally used in Google Ads paid search campaigns. This parameter allows you to go into greater detail within campaigns and can even help you analyse the performance of the products or services included in the campaign.
Example:
utm_term=running+shoes
Content
The utm_content parameter is used to distinguish between different content variations when you have multiple advertising assets within a campaign. It is not limited to advertisements, as its use may vary according to your strategy. It can be particularly useful when conducting A/B tests.
For example, if a newsletter contains multiple URLs and you want to see which one users clicked, you can use the following structure:
utm_content=kriko_blog_second_content
utm_content=kriko_blog_first_content
Source Platform
The utm_source_platform parameter provides information about the platform sending traffic to our website. It may collect values related to Google Ads, Shopping, Search Ads 360, and Display & Video 360.
Example:
utm_source_platform=Google_Ads
Creative
The utm_creative parameter is particularly useful for visual advertisements or different content variations. It can be used to compare the performance of different creative elements within a campaign.
Example:
utm_creative=dog_image
Marketing Tactic
This parameter is used to provide more information about targeting strategies, such as remarketing or audience targeting. It may also contain other information, including bidding strategies and audience details.
Example:
utm_marketing_tactic=90days_remarketing
Note: The utm_creative_format and utm_marketing_tactic parameters are not currently available in GA4 reports. These parameters may be added to GA4 in the future and become available for use at that time.
Finally, an example UTM code using all required parameters together is shown below:
https://www.example.com/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=summer_sale
From this URL, we can see that the visitor arrived through Facebook using the CPC method and was associated with the Summer Sale campaign.
How Is a UTM Code or Parameter Created?
Creating a UTM parameter is a very simple process. You can create a UTM code manually or use online tools. The important point is to understand the logic behind creating UTM parameters.
We can evaluate the UTM parameter creation process in three stages.
Define the UTM Parameters
- Determine which campaign you want to track,
utm_campaign. - Define the source,
utm_source, and medium,utm_medium. - Depending on your needs, define the keyword,
utm_term, content,utm_content, creative,utm_creative, and placement or marketing tactic,utm_marketing_tactic.
Use UTM URL Builder Tools
Various online tools are available, including Google’s UTM URL Builder. When you enter the parameter values, these tools generate a complete UTM-tagged URL for you.
Create and Share the URL
- Obtain the UTM-tagged URL created through the tool.
- Copy this URL and use it instead of the standard links in your campaign.
To create a web UTM code for GA4:
https://ga-dev-tools.google/ga4/campaign-url-builder/
Example image:
To create a UTM code for Google Play:
https://ga-dev-tools.google/ga4/campaign-url-builder/play/
The UTM-tagged URL you create by following these steps will allow you to monitor your campaign’s performance in greater detail. By using Google Analytics 4 or another analytics tool, you can understand which sources, media, and content influence your campaign and optimise your strategies accordingly.
Where Can I View UTM Codes in GA4?
After accessing your GA4 account, click the Reports section.
On the screen that opens, follow Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition.
By clicking the highlighted section of the screen, you can access campaign data associated with sessions and select the report you want by following the steps above.
After clicking the plus sign, you can access session-based or user-based campaign details from the menu that opens.
Once you have made the relevant selections, you can review the data associated with all the UTM codes you have defined.
What Should Be Considered When Creating UTM Tags?
As seen in the previous example, we noticed that some source and medium data appeared as “Unassigned” for session content, and this may be related to the way the URLs were tagged.
To make the best use of campaign data, it is important to follow certain best practices. If the structure is not configured correctly, your data may be classified as Unassigned and you may experience measurement problems.
Naming Standards
Creating naming rules to standardise your URLs makes your data easier to understand. This creates a structure that anyone reviewing the data can understand, even years later. It also keeps your data clean and organised and prevents fragmentation. For example, you should decide whether to use “facebook” or “facebook.com” and apply the selected format consistently.
Keep It Simple
Use names that are easy to understand for your campaigns, content, and keywords. Keeping UTMs close to GA4’s default channel grouping names may also be highly useful.
Who Created the URL?
Adding the name of the person who created the UTM links makes it easier to contact them when a problem occurs and may also help others understand the logic behind the UTM structure.
Lowercase and Uppercase Letters
Decide whether you will use lowercase or uppercase letters when creating UTM links. Lowercase letters are generally recommended.
URL Shorteners
People may feel concerned when clicking on complicated or lengthy URLs. URL shorteners can help reduce this concern.
Following these practices not only helps you obtain clean data in GA4, but also makes the data easier for other users to understand when you are not available.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: What is UTM and how does it work?
Answer: UTM, Urchin Tracking Module, is a special tagging system used to track and analyse online campaigns. Through parameters added to URLs, it allows us to monitor campaign sources, media, and performance. It can be integrated with analytics tools such as Google Analytics to analyse the resulting data.
Question: Which UTM parameters are used?
Answer: The main UTM parameters are source, utm_source, medium, utm_medium, campaign, utm_campaign, keyword, utm_term, and content, utm_content. Additional parameters such as creative, utm_creative, or marketing tactic, utm_marketing_tactic, may also be used.
Question: Why should we use UTM codes?
Answer: UTM codes are critically important for tracking and analysing the effectiveness of online campaigns. By identifying the sources, media, or content associated with each campaign, they help optimise marketing strategies.
Question: How are UTM codes created?
Answer: UTM codes are created through parameters added to URLs. UTM-tagged URLs are generally created by entering parameter values into various online tools or free resources such as Google’s UTM URL Builder.
Question: What should I consider when creating UTM codes?
Answer: Certain best practices should be followed to use UTM codes efficiently. These include creating naming standards, using simple and understandable names, identifying who created the URL, preferring lowercase letters, and using URL shorteners.
Question: Which data can I analyse using UTM codes?
Answer: UTM codes allow us to monitor campaign sources, media, and performance. This enables us to analyse which campaigns are effective through which channels and optimise marketing strategies accordingly.
Question: Where can I find UTM data in Google Analytics 4?
Answer: You can find UTM data in Acquisition Overview, User Acquisition under First User Default Channel Group, and Traffic Acquisition reports. You can also create custom reports using UTM data in the Explore section of GA4.
In conclusion, UTM codes are among the important tools used to monitor and analyse the effectiveness of digital marketing campaigns. These codes are used by adding parameters such as source, medium, campaign, and content to a URL. When correctly tagged UTMs are used with analytics tools such as Google Analytics, they show which campaigns are effective and through which channels. To make the best use of this data, certain best practices should be followed, including creating naming standards, using simple and understandable names, identifying who created the URL, preferring lowercase letters, and using URL shorteners. These practices not only help produce clean data, but also make the information easier to understand, allowing marketing strategies to be optimised more effectively.
