The best way to add UTM parameters to your LinkedIn Ads
Learn the best way to add UTM parameters to your LinkedIn Ads so you can accurately track how many visitors, leads & customers your ads are generating
Are you trying to add UTM parameters to your LinkedIn Ads?
It’s a good idea. By adding UTM parameters to each of your LinkedIn Ads, you can use various analytics tools (Google Analytics, Attributer, etc) to track how many visitors, leads and customers you get from your ads.
But what’s the best way to do it?
In this article, we’ll show you how to use a feature called URL tracking parameters to make it easy to add UTM parameters to your ads.
The best method for adding UTM parameters to your LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn Ads has a feature called URL tracking parameters, which makes it easy to add UTM parameters to your ads.
URL tracking parameters are essentially placeholders that you put in your UTM parameters that then get automatically overwritten with the real data when someone clicks an ad. An example might look a bit like this:
utm_medium=paid&utm_source=linkedin&utm_campaign={{CAMPAIGN_GROUP_NAME}}&utm_term={{CAMPAIGN_NAME}}&utm_content={{CREATIVE_ID}}
So if I was running some LinkedIn Ads to promote Attributer and someone clicked one of my ads from the brand campaign, they would get sent to the following URL:
https://attributer.io?utm_medium=paid&utm_source=ig&utm_campaign=attributer-campaign-group&utm_term=brand-campaign&utm_content=123456
As you can see from the example above, the placeholders have been overwritten with the real details of the ad the user clicked.
Then, whatever analytics tools you have installed on your site (like Google Analytics or Attributer) would pick up these UTM parameters, use them to determine that this person came from your LinkedIn Ads, and then allow you to see which campaign groups, campaigns, etc. were generating the most visitors, leads, and customers.
LinkedIn offers a number of these URL tracking parameters and the full list can be seen below (note that all caps needs to be used):
- {{ACCOUNT_ID}} - This will be replaced with the ID of the ad account that the ad the user clicked belonged to.
- {{ACCOUNT_NAME}} - This will be replaced with the name of the ad account that the ad the user clicked belonged to.
- {{CAMPAIGN_GROUP_ID}} - This will be replaced with the ID of the campaign group that the ad the user clicked belonged to. It will be a long string of numbers and isn’t overly useful in most cases.
- {{CAMPAIGN_GROUP_NAME}} - This will be replaced with the name of the campaign group that the ad the user clicked belonged to.
- {{CAMPAIGN_ID}} - This will be replaced with the ID of the campaign that the ad the user clicked belonged to. It will be a long string of numbers and isn’t overly useful in most cases.
- {{CAMPAIGN_NAME}} - This will be replaced with the name of the campaign group that the ad the user clicked belonged to.
- {{CREATIVE_ID}} - This will be replaced with the ID of the ad the user clicked. It will be a long string of numbers and isn’t overly useful in most cases.
Ultimately, using URL Tracking Parameters enables you to create your UTM structure once and then you can apply the same structure to all your ads. It has the following benefits:
- Easier to implement - Defining your UTM parameter structure once and then placing it behind each ad makes it much quicker and easier to add UTM parameters to your ads.
- More consistent data - By defining the UTM structure once and then having LinkedIn automatically fill in the details for each ad, you help ensure the correct data is put in the UTM parameters behind each ad.
- Easier, more insightful reporting - Ultimately when you have consistent, reliable data coming in to your analytics tools, it much easier to run reports and understand which campaign groups, campaigns, etc. are generating your leads & customers.
4 simple steps for adding UTM parameters to your LinkedIn Ads
Now that you understand URL tracking parameters, let’s look at how to add them to your LinkedIn Ads.
1. Define what information you want to include
The first step in creating your UTM parameters is to determine the information you want to capture in your analytics tools.
This will primarily depend on your business goals and how you have structured your campaign groups, campaigns, etc. However, here are some general recommendations:
- UTM_Medium=paid
- UTM_Source=linkedin
- UTM_Campaign=[Name of your campaign group]
- UTM_Term=[Name of your campaign]
- UTM_Content=[Name or ID of Ad]
2. Build your tracking URL
Now that you know the information you want to include in your UTM parameters, it’s time to create your tracking URL.
The best way to do this is by using a text editor, such as Google Docs or Microsoft Word, to write it out.
You can use our tracking template as a starting point:
utm_medium=paid&utm_source=linkedin&utm_campaign={{CAMPAIGN_GROUP_NAME}}&utm_term={{CAMPAIGN_NAME}}&utm_content={{CREATIVE_ID}}
Simply copy the above, paste it into your text editor, and change any parts of it you need to.
3. Add the tracking URL to your account
LinkedIn Ads provides a way to add the tracking URL at the account-level, and it then automatically applies this same tracking URL to all ads in your account.
To do this, navigate to the URL Parameters section of your account.
Then copy and paste the tracking URL you created in Step 2 into the box and click Save.
That’s it! LinkedIn will now append these UTM parameters to the end of the Destination URL you put behind each ad, and it will automatically overwrite the placeholders with the real data (I.e. the {{CAMPAIGN_NAME}} parameter will be automatically overwritten with the actual campaign name).
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.
The easiest way to do this is to preview your ad, click the CTA button, and check if the UTM parameters are in the URL when you arrive on your website.
To do that, navigate to the ad you want to test in LinkedIn Campaign Manager and then click the title.
Once clicked, you will be taken to a mockup of your LinkedIn Newsfeed and you'll see your ad there.
If you click your ad, you’ll be taken to the website URL you put behind your ad and you should see the UTM parameters in the URL.
How to use these UTM parameters to track how many visitors, leads & customers you get from your LinkedIn Ads
Now that you've successfully set up the UTM parameter behind your LinkedIn Ads, let's have a look at how to use them to track how many visitors, leads & customers you get.
Visitors
If you have Google Analytics installed on your website, then you can track how many visitors you get from your LinkedIn Ads with the User Acquisition report.
By default, your users are categorized into broad channels, such as Paid Search, Paid Social, etc (Google Analytics uses the UTM parameters you include in your ads to sort visitors into these different channels).
So at a high-level, you can use this report to understand how many visitors you are getting from your Paid Social ads, but if you want to explore the data further, you can add Secondary Dimensions. Just click on the + icon and select either "First User Medium" or "First User Source." It will appear as follows:
This would allow you to drill down and see how many visitors you got from your Instagram Ads.
And if you want to drill down further (and see visitors by campaign for instance), then use the other options in the dropdown (such as First user campaign)
Leads
The best way to track how many leads you get from your LinkedIn Ads is to capture the UTM parameters you placed behind your ad with each form submission.
This is where tools like Attributer can help.
When a user arrives on your site from one of your LinkedIn Ads, Attributer grabs the UTM parameters you put behind your ad and saves them in the visitor’s browser.
Then when the visitor fills out a form on your website, Attributer automatically writes the UTM parameters into a series of hidden fields that you can 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.
Customers
If you are using a tool like Attributer to capture UTM parameters with each form submission, and you send this data to a CRM or a similar system where you track which leads convert into customers, you can easily create reports based on this information.
These reports can provide insights into how many new customers you've acquired from your LinkedIn Ads, which campaigns generated the most customers, and other valuable metrics.
Wrap Up
Adding URL tracking parameters at the account level is by far the best way to add UTM parameters to your LinkedIn Ads.
It's much quicker and easier to set up, and helps ensure you have accurate, consistent data coming in to your analytics tools.
So go ahead and implement UTM parameters behind your LinkedIn Ads today!
Need to capture UTM parameters in your CRM?
Start your 14-day free trial of Attributer today!
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.