The best way to add UTM parameters to your Bing Ads
Learn the best way to add UTM parameters to your Bing Ads, so you can accurately track how many visitors, leads & customers you're getting.
Are you trying to figure out how to add UTM parameters to your Bing Ads?
It can be challenging because Bing Ads has several different features (like auto-tagging, tracking templates, customer parameters, etc.) that give you several different ways to approach it.
So, what’s the best way? For most businesses, the best option is to use UTM auto-tagging. With one click, you can automatically add UTM parameters to all your ads.
In this article, we’ll show you how to use a feature called UTM auto-tagging to automatically add UTM parameters to your Bing Ads (and then show you how to use them to track how many visitors, leads & customers you're getting from your ads).
The best method for adding UTM parameters to your Bing Ads
The best way to add UTM parameters to your Bing Ads is by using a feature called UTM auto-tagging.
This is basically an account-wide setting that, when turned on, means Bing Ads will automatically append UTM parameters to every ad in your account.
By default, it sets the following UTM parameters:
| Parameter | What Bing Ads includes |
|---|---|
| utm_medium | cpc |
| utm_source | bing |
| utm_campaign | The name of the campaign |
| utm_term | The name of the ad group |
| utm_content | The keyword the user searched for |
So if I was running Bing Ads to promote Attributer, and someone clicked one of the ads from my Brand campaign, then the URL they would get sent to would look something like this:
https://attributer.io?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=bing&utm_campaign=brand-campaign&utm_term=attributer-ad-group&utm_content=attributer
Using UTM auto-tagging is the best way to add UTM parameters to your Bing Ads for the following reasons:
- Easier to implement - With this option, you can add UTM parameters to all your ads in just one click.
- More consistent data - With this option, you’ll never forget to add UTM parameters to your ads, or accidentally add the wrong information. It will ensure the correct information is added to every ad, every time.
- Easier, more insightful reporting - Ultimately, when you have consistent, reliable data coming into your analytics tools, it is much easier to run reports and understand which campaigns, ad groups, keywords, etc., are generating your leads and customers.
How to turn on UTM auto-tagging in Bing Ads
To turn on UTM auto-tagging, open up your Bing Ads account and navigate to Campaigns - Settings - Account Level Options.
Then on the screen that appears, tick the ‘Add UTM tags to my destination URL’s checkbox.
That’s it! Now Bing Ads will automatically add UTM parameters to each of your ads.
How to test it's working
Now that you have everything set up, the last thing you need to do is test it’s working.
To do this, select the ‘Test’ button the Account level options page.
A popup will appear that will contain the URL's (with UTM parameters) from 10 randomly selected ads from your account. If you hover over each one, it displays a dialog box showing how this URL was calculated.
You should just be able to review this table and make sure the UTM parameters are being added correctly.
How to change what information gets included in the UTM parameters
Unfortunately you cannot edit the information that gets added to the UTM parameters through Bing’s UTM auto-tagging feature.
So if you want more control over the data that gets included, you’ll need to use another feature called tracking templates.
A tracking template is basically a template you create that tells Bing Ads how to add UTM parameters to your ads. An example tracking template might look a bit like this:
{lpurl}?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=bing&utm_campaign={Campaign}&utm_term={AdGroup}&utm_content={Keyword}
If I added this to the Bing Ads account for Attributer and someone clicked an ad from the brand campaign I am running, they would get sent to this URL:
https://attributer.io?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=bing&utm_campaign=brand-campaign&utm_term=attributer-ad-group&utm_content=attributer
As you can see from the example above, the tracking template essentially defines what UTM parameters get added to the URL when someone clicks the ad.
You may have also noticed that there is some strange text in the curly brackets in the tracking template. Let’s look at what each of these are:
- {lpurl} = This stands for landing page URL. You would almost always put this at the beginning of your tracking template as it tells Bing Ads to send people to the URL you place behind each of your ads (I.e. https://attributer.io).
- {Campaign} - This is a tracking parameter. You can place these in the tracking template and they are then swapped out for whatever value you specify. So by using the {Campaign} parameter in my tracking template, it would automatically get swapped with the name of the campaign that contains the ad the user clicked. You can see a full list of available tracking parameters here.
The easiest way to set up a tracking template is to add it at the account-level, and it will then apply to all ads in all campaigns. You can do so by pasting your desired tracking template (feel free to copy ours above and edit it) into the tracking template box:
How to use these UTM parameters to track how many leads & customers you get from your Bing Ads
Website analytics tools like Google Analytics make it easy to track how many website visitors you get from your Bing Ads, but how do you track how many leads & customers you get?
That’s where tools like Attributer come in.
When a user lands on your site from one of your campaigns (with UTM parameters), Attributer stores the UTMs in the visitor’s browser. This ensures that they are remembered as the user browses around your website (or if they leave and come back later).
Then, when that visitor completes a form on your website, Attributer automatically writes the UTM parameters into a series of hidden fields you add to your form.
Finally, when the visitor submits the form, the UTM parameters are captured by your form tool along with the information the lead manually entered into the form (like their name, email, phone, etc).
You can then see this information in the submissions table of your form builder, include it in the new lead notification emails that your form tool sends, or send it over to your CRM or other sales & marketing tools to run reports.
Wrap Up
If you're trying to set up UTM parameters behind your Bing Ads, then turning on UTM auto-tagging is the easiest way to do it.
It's a one-click operation, and it includes all information (like campaign name, ad group name, keyword, etc) that most businesses would want to capture about their visitors, leads & customers.
And if you need to tweak it, then you can simply create a tracking template and place it in the box. It's pretty simple!
So go ahead and setup UTM parameters behind your Bing Ads today, and then use tools like Attributer to help track how many leads & customers your Bing Ads are generating.
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About the Author
Aaron Beashel is the founder of Attributer and has over 15 years of experience in marketing & analytics. He is a recognized expert in the subject and has written articles for leading websites such as Hubspot, Zapier, Search Engine Journal, Buffer, Unbounce & more. Learn more about Aaron here.