A better way to get UTM Parameters into Nimble CRM
Keep track of UTM parameters in Nimble CRM and get to know what marketing campaigns are effectively bringing in leads and customers
It is important to identify which marketing channels and campaigns are the most effective in generating leads and sales.
Without the ability to do so, it is almost impossible to make smart decisions on which marketing strategies are the most impactful.
One way to identify the right channels and campaigns is to pass marketing attribution information (such as UTM parameters, landing page, and other marketing channel data) into your CRM. That way, you can create reports that identify what channels are driving leads, opportunities, customers, and revenue.
In this article, we'll show you how you can track marketing attribution information (such as UTM parameters) in Nimble CRM.
4 steps for capturing UTM parameters in Nimble CRM
Using Attributer to capture UTM parameters in Nimble CRM is easy. Here's how to do it in 4 easy steps:
1. Add UTM variables to your ads
Attributer won't be able to capture UTM parameters if they don't exist, so you need to make sure you add UTM codes to all of your ads and campaigns.
This includes ads on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & LinkedIn as well as search engines like Google & Bing. You should also add UTM codes on bespoke campaigns you conduct on other sites and publications (such as industry news sites, partner websites, etc).
2. Add hidden fields to your forms
The next thing you need to do is to add hidden fields to your lead capture forms (I.e. Your Request A Demo form and/or your whitepaper download form). Hidden fields, as their name suggests, are fields that are technically on the form but are not visible to your website visitors. We'll explain the significance of this in the next step.
The hidden fields that you need to add are:
- Channel
- Channel Drilldown 1
- Channel Drilldown 2
- Channel Drilldown 3
- Landing Page
- Landing Page Group
In most form builders, adding hidden fields is simply a case of dragging it into your form or changing a setting on a standard text field. If you're working with a custom HTML form, you can define a hidden field by adding input type=”hidden” to the form field.
3. Attributer automatically completes the hidden fields with UTM data
When a visitor to your website fills out a form, Attributer - which can 'see' the hidden fields - populates these fields with the UTM data from the first step above.
Here's a scenario to help you picture Attributer at work:
Aaron is in dire need of a tool that can automatically sync files so he can access them offline. He sees a Dropbox ad in a Google Search, gets interested, and clicks. On the site, he fills out the Request A Demo form.
In the background, Attributer has detected that he came from Google Ads (based on the UTM parameters) and completed the hidden fields on the Request A Demo form.
It would have added the following values to the form:
- Channel: Paid Search
- Channel Grouping 1: Google
- Channel Grouping 2: Brand Campaign
- Channel Grouping 3: Dropbox
- Landing Page Group: Features
- Landing Page: www.dropbox.com/features/sync/
The 'Channel' fields are based on the UTM parameters, and the Landing Page and Landing Page Group fields are based on Aaron's interaction with the website.
4. UTM parameters are passed into Nimble CRM
Now when Aaron submits the form, the channel data (extracted from the UTM variables) is then passed into Nimble CRM. Along with this is the landing page data and of course, Aaron's contact info that he entered in the form.
It's now up to you to do whatever needs to be done so your marketing efforts will be guided accordingly. It's always a good idea to report on it using a business intelligence software that works for you.
Through this process, you should be able to view how many Closed Won deals a channel has brought in, what the current conversion rate is, and which of your channels can be credited for bringing in the most leads like our friend Aaron.
What is Attributer?
As you can see from the steps above, Attributer makes it easy to get UTM parameters into Nimble CRM.
But what is Attributer, and how does it actually work?
When placed on your website, Attributer collects visitor data, such as where they came from before landing on your site. After collecting the technical data, Attributer categorises the visit into a series of channels (such as Paid Social, Paid Search, or Organic Search) and stores it in a cookie in the browser the visitor is using.
When the visitor completes a form and submits it, the visitor becomes a lead, and Attributer sends off the lead's information as well as the technical data to your customer relationship management software.
Attributer was born from a need to know exactly which channels were bringing in genuine leads, not just visitors. Built by a B2B marketing consultant who initially just wanted to make working with clients easier, Attributer is now available for digital marketers and B2B owners who want to get more out of marketing analytics.
Why using Attributer is better than capturing raw UTM parameters
There's no shortage of tracking tools for online marketing campaigns and capturing UTM parameters, so why use Attributer?
Well, Attributer isn't like other tools that simply capture UTM parameters and send these off to Nimble CRM raw. It also:
1. Captures all traffic
Attributer is able to capture all traffic sources, and we mean all of them, including those where UTM parameters aren't present. For instance, Attributer captures channel information on visitors who land on your site through channels that may not have UTM parameters, such as Organic Search, Referral, Organic Social, Direct, Email, and more.
Attributer sends all of this information into Nimble CRM and so you know where all of your leads are originating from, regardless of whether they're coming from paid ads or not.
2. Provides cleaner data
Capturing raw UTM parameters is usually chaotic and you end up with a lot of messy data.
Here's an example. Imagine some of your LinkedIn campaigns are tagged with UTM_Source=LinkedIn.com (capital L and I), others with UTM_Source=linkedin (lowercase, no domain), and others with UTM_Source=li.
When you want to see how many leads your LinkedIn campaigns brought in and you try to run reports in Nimble CRM, you'll be presented with three different sources of traffic that are really just the same. You'll need to manually stitch all these together just to know how many leads came from your LinkedIn campaigns.
Attributer helps you avoid this extra step because it already takes the possibility of inconsistencies (like capitalization and such) into account. It will attribute leads to Paid Social, and you get cleaner data.
3. Captures landing page data as well
You work so hard at creating quality content on your blog, so wouldn't it be great to know how it's performing?
With Attributer, you'll be able to. Attributer not only captures UTM parameters and other channel data but also captures info such as the landing page (I.e. dropbox.com/blog/collaborate-word-docs) & the landing page category (I.e. Blog). This lets you see if your hard work is paying off or if you may need to tweak your content to bring in more leads.
Wrap up
If you're looking for ways to make capturing UTM parameters in Nimble CRM more efficient, then Attributer is the tool to have.
Not only does Attributer excel at capturing and passing UTM codes into Nimble CRM, but it also seamlessly captures and gives you data on leads coming from channels without UTMs, such as Organic Search, Referral, Organic Social, and others.
The best thing about this is that it costs nothing to get started using Attributer - so claim your free trial today!
Get Started For Free
It's free to get started with Attributer, and paid plans start at just $49 per month