So how do you know if paid ads are worth the investment, or if your campaigns are even driving traffic to your website? The answer: UTM tracking links.

What exactly are UTM codes or parameters?

Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) codes are small snippets of text added to the end of a URL to improve campaign tracking. They also come in handy when trying to understand your audience.

Here’s an example of what a thread of UTM tracking looks like attached to a URL:

https://www.revkey.com/blog/instagram-update-new-reels-display-for-multi-advertiser-ads?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_campaign=2023_blog_post&utm_content=multi-advertiser-display-update

Or for an even more simplified version:

https://www.yoursite.com/shop/product?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social-ad&utm_campaign=igproductlaunch0323

Everything after the “?” is the UTM code. Corresponding data is housed in Google Analytics, where you can review it by campaign.

Here’s a breakdown of each element in links with UTM codes:

Source: The platform where the traffic is coming from
Medium: The type of campaign
Campaign: The campaign name
Term: Used in paid search campaigns to specify the target keyword
Content: The specific content the user clicked

In the simple example above, you're saying that once traffic comes in from people who click this link, the traffic should be attributed to Instagram. The "medium" is social media, while the "source" is Instagram.

It’s important to note that adding these snippets of code after the question mark above does NOT affect anything on the page — it just lets you know that someone arrived through a specific source inside an overall marketing channel when reviewing your analytics.

For a deeper understanding let’s explore each UTM parameter in more detail.

Source

The source parameter identifies the specific website, publication, or advertiser sending traffic to your site.

You’ll see it expressed in the URL as “utm_source=[source].”

This parameter can include different referring sources, such as the following:

Social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or LinkedIn
Search engines, such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo
Other sources, such as a newsletter, a paid ad, a sponsored post, or a billboard

Medium

The medium parameter identifies the type of channel driving the traffic. It’s useful to determine if one channel is more successful than another for a specific campaign.

You’ll see it expressed in the URL as “utm_medium=[medium].”

This parameter can include different marketing channels or categories, such as the following:

Pay-per-click (PPC)
Organic search
Paid or Organic social
Email

Campaign

Campaign-based tracking tags group all of the content from one campaign in your analytics. The example UTM code below would help you attribute website traffic to links that are meant to show traffic to blog posts from 2023.

You’ll see this parameter expressed as “utm_campaign=[campaign].”

Or “utm_id=[campaign]” in GA4.

Term

The term parameter identifies the specific keyword driving traffic to your site. It’s used to determine which keywords in your PPC campaign are performing well. So you can adjust your bidding strategy accordingly.

You’ll see the term parameter expressed in a URL as “utm_term=[term].”

If you pay for a Google Ads campaign to rank under the keyword, "marketing software" you might add the following UTM code to the end of the link you submit to Google to run this ad.

Content

This parameter helps identify the different content a user can click on within the same campaign. For example, it can help determine if a user clicked on a header link or a button in the same email.

This parameter is useful for emails or landing pages with multiple CTAs.

You’ll see it expressed as “utm_content=[content].”

The best part about UTM parameters is that you can use them in any combo to your heart’s content — use the bare minimum (campaign, source, and medium) to track all of your links or use all of them to get super specific about your tracking.

Now that you know what each parameter means and how they can help your campaign tracking let’s get into how to actually create them.

How to build UTM codes

There’s more than one way to create URLs with UTM parameters. You can use Google’s free URL builder (which is what we do) or build them manually.

Note: For apps, use the Google Play URL builder for the Google Play Store and the iOS Campaign Tracking URL builder for the Apple App Store.

First, make sure you have Google Analytics set up on your site. (If you don’t have that done yet then you’re skipping ahead just a bit. For help with getting your Google Analytics started contact us and we’ll get you there.)

The next thing you want to do is open Google’s URL builder and toggle UA on the sidebar.

From here it’s pretty straightforward. Just fill out the form with the info you want related to your campaign.

Start with the full website URL and then add the remaining campaign information.

Note: Remember that you need to fill in the source, medium, and campaign fields. The other parameters are more optional, depending on your campaign needs.

A box at the bottom of the page will appear with the words, “Share the generated campaign URL.”

Copy the URL with UTM tracking codes and use it in your specified campaign item.

See, easy! Now that you know how to create your specific UTM codes let’s go over how you can actually use them to track results.

Measure your Success

The good thing is if you already have Google Analytics set up for your site, Google will automatically track your campaigns.

To see your campaign data in GA4, head to “Reports.”

Then “Acquisition” > “Traffic acquisition.”

Next, you want to scroll down until you see a table grouped by traffic channel and sorted by number of users. From here you’ll select the drop-down arrow to change the parameter (how your traffic is grouped).

Then you’ll choose from the options listed and you’ll be able to see all necessary analytics related to each campaign.

There you have it, a breakdown of everything you need to know about UTM parameters. Use the steps and tools we’ve listed above to start creating and using UTM tracking so you're able to see the performance of your marketing campaigns and content. That way, you can reliably boost your metrics and improve the ROI of your digital marketing strategy.

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UTM Codes Explained: A Guide including UTMs in Google Analytics