The best way to capture UTM parameters in WordPress
Learn the best way to capture UTM parameters in your WordPress website and send them through to your CRM and other tools
Use Attributer to capture UTM parameters in WordPress forms. Simply add hidden fields to your forms, and Attributer writes the UTM data into them. It stores the UTMs as visitors browse your site and even provides information on leads from organic channels (e.g., Organic Search, Organic Social).
Want to know which of your marketing campaigns are actually bringing in leads and customers?
The best way to do that is to capture UTM parameters with each submission of your WordPress and forms and send the data to your CRM or a spreadsheet.
Once that data is flowing in, you can run reports that show exactly how many leads came from a specific campaign or channel, how many of those turned into customers, how much revenue they generated, and more.
In this article, we'll walk you through how to capture UTM parameters and other attribution data on your WordPress website and pass it through to your CRM and other tools, so you can start making smarter decisions about where to invest your marketing budget.
4 steps for capturing UTM parameters in WordPress
Using Attributer to capture UTM parameters in WordPress is easy. Here's how to do it in 4 easy steps:
1. Add the Attributer code to your website
When you sign up for a 14 day free trial of Attributer, you'll get a small piece of code to install on your website.
Depending on your WordPress setup, you add usually add it through your theme's settings area or by using a plugin like Insert Header and Footer Code. If you've got Google Tag Manager set up, you can add it through there too.
2. Add hidden fields to your WordPress forms
Next, add a set of hidden fields to your lead-capture forms (e.g., your Contact Us or Request a Quote forms). Hidden fields are form fields that your visitors can't see, but they still exist on the form so that a tool like Attributer can write data into them behind the scenes.
Here are the hidden fields you'll need to add:
- Channel
- Channel Drilldown 1
- Channel Drilldown 2
- Channel Drilldown 3
- Landing Page
- Landing Page Group
Depending on which form plugin you're using, adding these should be straightforward. In most cases, you just drag and drop a "Hidden" field type into your form builder.
If you're using Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, WPForms, Formidable Forms or any of the other popular WordPress form builder plugins, you can find detailed instructions here.
3. Attributer automatically completes the hidden fields with UTM data
Now that you've set up everything correctly, Attributer will begin to record the source of all incoming traffic to your site (including UTM parameters) and write that information to your form’s hidden fields.
To illustrate how this work, we'll use Dropbox as an example.
Imagine a Google user searches for "How to share enormous files," comes across a Dropbox ad, clicks through to their website and fills out the form on the website.
Attributer would write the following information to the hidden fields (depending on the UTM parameters Dropbox uses):
- Channel = Paid Search
- Channel Drilldown 1 = Google
- Channel Drilldown 2 = Share Files Campaign
- Channel Drilldown 3 = Free Trial Ad
On top of this, Attributer also passes through information about the first page the visitor saw on hour website, which might look a bit like this:
- Landing Page = www.dropbox.com/features/share
- Landing Page Group = Features
Of course, all of this is dependent on the UTM parameters Dropbox is using behind their ads, but should give you an idea.
4. UTM parameters are captured with the form submission
When a visitor submits the form, the UTM parameters are captured with the form submission alongside all the other information they entered (like their name, email, etc).
You can then see this data in the Submissions/Entries section of your chosen form plugin, or you can send it to your CRM and other tools.
And once that data is in your CRM, you can run reports that show you things like:
- How many leads your Google Ads campaigns are generating
- How many customers came from your Facebook Ads
- How much revenue you've earned from leads who found you through Organic Search
- And much more
What is Attributer?
So those are the basic steps for capturing UTM parameters in WordPress forms with Attributer. But if you're curious about what's happening under the hood, here's a quick look at how it all works.
Attributer is a small piece of code that sits on your website. When someone visits your site, it analyses technical information like UTM parameters, HTTP referrer data, device type, and more to figure out where that visitor came from.
It then categorises each visitor into a specific channel (like Paid Search, Organic Search, Paid Social, and so on) and stores that information in the visitor's browser.
When that visitor fills out a form on your site, Attributer writes the channel data into the hidden fields on your form, and it is captured with the form submission (alongside everything the lead entered, like their name, email, and phone number).
Attributer was originally built by a marketing consultant who needed a better way to track which channels were actually turning visitors into leads and customers. He initially created it just for his own clients, but quickly realised it could help a lot of other businesses too.
Today, Attributer is used on thousands of websites and tracks attribution data on over 15 million visitors every month.
Why using Attributer is better than capturing raw UTM parameters
There are other tools and methods for capturing UTM parameters in your WordPress forms, so why use Attributer?
Here's why it's so much better:
1. Captures all traffic
Attributer gives you attribution data for every lead that comes through your forms, not just those from paid campaigns with UTM parameters.
Whether someone finds your site through Organic Search, Organic Social, Direct traffic, Referral, or any other channel, Attributer will still capture their source and pass that information with the form submission.
This gives you a complete view of where your leads come from, making it easier to determine where to focus your marketing budget. For example, you might find that Organic Search is generating more leads than Paid Search, which could indicate it's worth investing more in SEO and reducing Google Ads spend.
2. Remembers the data
Most other methods for capturing UTM parameters in WordPress forms only work if the visitor fills out a form on the exact same page they landed on. And that's a real problem.
Think about it this way: someone clicks one of your Google Ads and lands on your homepage. They read through it, decide your product or service looks great, and click the "Get a Quote" button. That takes them to a separate page with your quote request form. Because they're no longer on the original landing page, the UTM parameters are gone.
Attributer handles this differently. It stores the UTM parameters in the visitor's browser, so no matter which page they end up completing your form on, the data is always passed through.
3. Captures Click ID's
Attributer can also capture click IDs like the Google Click ID (GCLID), Microsoft Click ID (MSCLKID), and Facebook Click ID (FBCLID) and pass them through with each form submission.
You can then send these click IDs to your CRM and other tools. When a lead hits a key milestone in your sales process (like becoming a paying customer), you can send that click ID back to the ad platform as an offline conversion.
This means you can track real, paying customers directly in your ad platforms rather than relying on something like thank-you-page visits aas a conversion.
4. Captures landing page data as well
Ever wanted to know how many leads and customers you get from your blog?
On top of capturing UTM paraneters, Attributer also captures the landing page (I.e. attributer.io/blog/capture-utm-parameters) and the landing page category (I.e. /blog) and sends it through to your CRM.
This means that you can run reports that answer questions like:
- How many leads came from my blog?
- Which blog posts got me the most leads?
- How many customers do I get from the blog?
- How much revenue has the blog generated?
- What's the ROI of our blogging efforts?
- What's the most effective blog post in terms of revenue generated?
Helping Non Plus Ultra understand the ROI of their digital marketing campaigns
Non Plus Ultra (NPU Events) is a company that turns iconic properties, like the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco and Sports Castle in Denver, into event spaces.
They were running Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other campaigns to drive bookings for these venues. Google Analytics could tell them how many visitors each campaign was sending, but they had no way to figure out which campaigns were actually generating event bookings.
That's when they started using Attributer.
Now, whenever someone fills out their event booking form, Attributer automatically passes through data on where that lead came from and it flows into their CRM with each new lead.
With this data, the NPU team was finally able to connect the dots between their marketing campaigns and actual revenue. Rather than just looking at website visitor numbers, they could see how many leads from each campaign went on to book an event, how much revenue those bookings brought in, and whether each campaign was delivering a positive ROI.
They also discovered something they didn't expect. Because Attributer tracks the source of all leads (not just those from paid campaigns), they found that referral traffic from the websites of the venues they manage was driving a significant number of bookings. It's something they never would have spotted otherwise.
The result? The NPU team can now see which ad platforms, campaigns, ads, etc. are driving the most leads and event bookings, and can make more informed decisions about where to spend their ad dollars.
“Attributer allows us to go beyond just measuring form completions in Google Analytics and truly understand which of our marketing initiatives are generating event bookings and revenue."
Maria Redin - COO, Non Plus Ultra
4 example reports you can run when you capture UTM parameters in your WordPress website
If you are using Attributer to capture UTM parameters in your forms, then you can send that data into a CRM or a spreadsheet and run the following reports (among others):
1. Leads by Channel
Attributer captures the source of all your leads (not just those from your paid ad campaigns), which means you can build reports like the one above that show you the number of leads you received each month grouped by the channel they came from.
This helps you see which channels are actually generating leads for your business (as opposed to just driving visitors to your site) and can be useful to help understand where you should be focusing your marketing resources.
As an example, if most of your leads are coming from Organic Search but most of your budget is going into paid ads, then it may be worth shifting your focus.
2. Leads by Facebook Ads Network
Facebook's ad platform allows you to run ads on all their networks (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, etc) from one central interface. It can even dynamically resize your ads so that the same ad can run on all platforms simultaneously.
But even though you can run it all through one ad platform, it doesn't mean you shouldn't measure them separately.
Each network is its own unique environment and ads that work well in one may not work well in others.
So by tracking the number of leads you get from each platform (which is what the above chart shows) you can understand what's working for you and what isn't, and adjust your strategy accordingly.
3. Customers by Google Ads campaign
This shows how many customers you're generating each month from your various Google Ads campaigns, broken down by campaign.
This can help you understand which campaigns are actually generating customers (as opposed to those that are just driving visitors that don't convert) and can ultimately show you where you should be focusing your budget and resources to get more customers..
4. Revenue by Keyword
By using tracking templates, you can actually dynamically insert the keyword the lead used to find your business into your UTM parameters where it will then be captured in your form tool by Attributer.
You can then run a report like the above, which shows the amount of revenue generated by each keyword you are bidding on.
Not only can this help you to understand which keywords are working and which ones arent (and subsequently which to bid higher on in Google Ads), but it can also give you insights into what keywords you should be focusing your SEO efforts on, the kind of language you should be using in your messaging, and more.
Wrap up
As you can see, Attributer is a great tool for capturing UTM parameters in your WordPress website and sending them through to your CRM and other sales & marketing tools.
Beyond that though, it also captures data on organic traffic, ensures it isn't lost when visitors go from page to page, and cleans it to make it easy to run reports.
So what are you waiting for? Start a 14-day free trial to see if Attributer is right for you.
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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.