The ultimate guide to UTM parameters
Learn how to use UTM parameters to track how many website visitors, leads & customers you are getting from your marketing campaigns.
Are you struggling to track how many website visits, leads & customers you get from your various marketing initiatives (I.e. Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc)?
If so, it’s likely a big problem for your business. If you don’t know how many visits, leads & customers you’re getting from your ads, then you could be wasting a lot of money on ads that don’t work for you.
This is where UTM parameters come in.
In this mega guide, we’ll show you what UTM parameters are and how to use them to track which of your marketing campaigns are actually working for your business.
What are UTM parameters?
Put simply, UTM parameters are little bits of text that you add to the end of the URL’s you are sending people to from your ads.
So if I was running some Google Ads and wanted to send people to attributer.io, then the URL I would put behind my ad would look a bit like this:
https://attributer.io?utm_medium=ppc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=brand-campaign
These little bits of text are then picked up by analytics tools (like Google Analytics, Attributer, Piwik, etc) and used to determine where a user has come from. So using the example above, most analytics tool would see that the utm_medium=ppc and utm_source=google and know that this user came from the ‘Paid Search’ channel.
There are 5 different UTM parameters in total, and they are designed to be a hierarchy.. UTM_Medium is typically considered the highest level and is used to determine the top-level channel (I.e. utm_medium=paidsearch) while utm_content is typically considered the lowest level and could be used to determine the particular ad or creative (I.e. utm_content=red-ad).
The table below outlines each one in more detail:
| Parameter | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| utm_medium | The highest level of information, usually used to see the top-level channel (like Paid Search, Paid Social, Organic Social, etc.) | ppc, cpc, paid, paidsearch, paidsocial |
| utm_source | The second level of information. Usually used to see what site, network, etc the user is coming from | google, facebook, instagram, linkedin, bing |
| utm_campaign | The third level of information, usually used for the name of the campaign the user came from. | brand-campaign, holiday-campaign, competitor-campaign |
| utm_term | The fourth level of information, often used to show ad group or ad set the user came from. | australia-adset, dropbox-competitor-adgroup |
| utm_content | The fifth and lowest level of information, often used to capture the particular ad they clicked or the keyword that triggered it. | red-ad, discount-offer, attributer |
Ultimately, by using UTM parameters you can achieve the following:
- Understand where your visitors, leads & customers are coming from - Using UTM parameters helps you understand how many visitors, leads & customers each of your marketing initiatives (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc) are generating for you.
- Optimise campaigns - Using UTM parameters can help you see which of your campaigns (i.e. your Google Ads campaigns) are performing best, and you can use these insights to optimise your ad spend (I.e. by putting more budget behind the campaigns that are performing well and cutting the ones that aren’t).
- Get more leads & customers at a better ROI - By understanding which channels & campaigns are working best and putting more budget and resources into those, you’ll be able to get generate more leads & customers for your business at a lower cost.
Where to use UTM parameters?
You want to include UTM parameters in any place you are linking to your website. Some of the most common places to use them include:
- Search Ads - If you’re using Google Ads or Bing Ads to place ads in search engines, then you’ll want to include UTM parameters behind those ads.
- Social Ads - If you’re advertising on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc then it’s a good idea to include UTM parameters in the links.
- Email Campaigns - When you send email campaigns to your contacts, include UTM parameters behind the links in the email campaign so that you can see how many people visited your website, became a lead, made a purchase, etc.
- Social Posts - If you have a social media presence for your business (I.e. a Facebook page or LinkedIn Company Profile) and are posting updates & content, then it can be beneficial to include UTM parameters behind any links in these posts so that you can see which of your posts actually drove visitors and leads.
- Publications - If you’re running ads on another website (like an industry news site), then you’ll want to include UTM parameters behind those ads as well.
- Trade Shows - If you’re giving out flyers at a trade show, including collateral in attendee bags or something similar, you’ll want to include UTM parameters there as well. A simple way to do this is to include a short link or QR code on the flyer and then put UTM parameters on the link that the QR code or short link sends people to.
- Offline Campaigns - If you are sending direct mail pieces, doing letterbox drops, or just generally marketing your business offline and including a link to your website, it’s a good idea to include UTM parameters there, too, so you know how these campaigns are performing. Putting them behind a short link or QR code is an excellent way to do this.
One thing that is important to note here is to not include UTM parameters on internal links. Only links from another website to your website. If you are linking from one page of your website to another page, you would not put UTM parameters on that link. This is because analytics tools use them to determine how a user initially got to your site, not how they navigate around it.
How to create UTM parameters
The best way to create UTM parameters is to use some sort of UTM builder.
This is because they can be pretty tricky to write out manually. You need to include some very specific characters (I.e. you need to separate the main website address from the UTM parameters with a question mark), you need to separate each parameter correctly (with an & sign), and there are certain characters (like spaces) that aren’t allowed.
Generally speaking, there are two types of UTM builders out there:
Free tools
There are a ton of free tools out there to help you build them. They are usually pretty basic (you enter some information and they give you back a UTM-tagged link) and are best for smaller organisations that don’t need to create UTM-tagged links very often.
Some free tools you can use to create UTM parameters include:
Attributer's UTM builder & suggestion tool
Our free tool makes it easy to create UTM parameters. The thing that sets it apart from others is that it provides templates for the most common channels (like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc) which helps you create well-structured UTMs.
Google’s Campaign Builder
This little tool from Google is another helpful way to build UTM parameters. It doesn’t include templates or anything fancy. You simply enter the information and get a link back.
Paid tools
There are also a series of paid tools as well.
The main difference between these and the free tools is that they allow you to define rules about what information can be put in each of the 5 different UTM parameters, and then those rules are enforced on whoever is creating the UTM parameters.
These tools are best suited to larger organisations, where multiple people or agencies might create UTM parameters for different things (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, trade shows, etc.) and you need to control what information gets put in the UTM parameters.
Some paid tools you can use to create UTM parameters include:
UTM.io
UTM.io is a great tool for defining UTM structure and rules and then allowing others to create UTM’s within the rules. It has a nice, easy to use interface and their free plan is quite generous.
Terminus
Terminus is similar in functionality to utm.io, but it has a more complicated interface and tends to be more focused on larger organisations. It does not offer a free plan, and pricing starts at $79 per month.
What data to include in your UTM parameters
Fundamentally, your UTM parameters should include whatever information you want to capture about the visitor's source.
So if you want to capture the fact they came from your Google Ads, which campaign they clicked, and what ad they clicked, then that is what you would include.
If you’re not sure, though, and are looking for recommendations, the table below outlines how we generally think about the 5 UTM parameters and what information to include in each.
| Parameter | What to include | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| utm_medium | Include the channel type, like Paid Search, Paid Social, Email, Display, Organic Social, etc.) | ppc, cpc, paid, email, paidsearch, paidsocial, affiliates, display |
| utm_source | Include the name of site, network, etc the user is coming from | google, facebook, instagram, linkedin, bing |
| utm_campaign | Include the name of the campaign the user came from. | brand-campaign, holiday-campaign, competitor-campaign |
| utm_term | Inclue the name of the ad group or ad set the user came from. | australia-adset, dropbox-competitor-adgroup |
| utm_content | Include the name of the ad they clicked or the keyword that triggered it to show | red-ad, discount-offer, attributer |
To take it a step further, here is what we would probably recommend for some of the most popular places to include UTM parameters:
Google Ads
- UTM_Medium=ppc
- UTM_Source=google
- UTM_Campaign=[Name of your campaign]
- UTM_Term=[Name of your ad group]
- UTM_Content=[Name of ad or keyword]
Facebook Ads
- UTM_Medium=paid
- UTM_Source=facebook
- UTM_Campaign=[Name of your campaign]
- UTM_Term=[Name of your ad set]
- UTM_Content=[Name of ad]
LinkedIn Ads
- UTM_Medium=paid
- UTM_Source=linkedin
- UTM_Campaign=[Name of your campaign group]
- UTM_Term=[Name of your campaign]
- UTM_Content=[Name of ad]
Email campaigns
- UTM_Medium=email
- UTM_Source=[Name of email creator, so if it’s your own email campaign you might use something like ‘mailchimp’ or ‘internal’, or if you are sponsoring a 3rd-party newsletter you might put the name of that]
- UTM_Campaign=[Name of your campaign]
- UTM_Term=[Name of the offer you made, like ‘30% off’ or ‘free ebook download’]
- UTM_Content=[Name of link clicked, which is useful if you have multiple banners in the email campaign or are using both a button and a text link]
Organic social posts
- UTM_Medium=social
- UTM_Source=[Name of social network, like facebook, linkedIn, twitter, etc]
- UTM_Campaign=[Name of your campaign, if this post is tied to a larger marketing campaign]
- UTM_Term=[Name of the specific post, like ‘30% discount offer’’ or ‘free ebook download’]
- UTM_Content = Not Used
How do you add UTM parameters to your ads?
Generally speaking, the simplest way to add UTM parameters to your ads is just to place them in the URL you are sending people to from your ads.
Here's how to do it in some of the most common places you'd need to add them:
Google Ads
If you only have a small number of ads, then the simplest way to add UTM parameters to them is to simply place them in the final URL.
But if you have lots of different campaigns and ads, this can be time-consuming and prone to errors (like forgetting to put UTMs behind one of your ads).
If that's the case, check out this article on using tracking templates to add UTM parameters to all your Google Ads in one go.
Facebook Ads
Depending on how many ads you are running, the easiest way to add UTM parameters is add them into the Website URL field.
But if you're running multiple campaigns and ads, this can be time-consuming and prone to errors.
Fortunately, you can use a feature called URL Dynamic Parameters to make this easier. Check out this article on how to set it up.
LinkedIn Ads
Just like with Google & Facebook Ads, the simplest way to add UTM parameters to LinkedIn Ads is to add them to the Destination URL field
Again though, if you're running many different campaigns and ads, it may be better to use URL tracking parameters, and this article will show you how to do it.
Email campaigns
Most email marketing software (Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, ActiveCampaign, etc) allow you to set the UTM parameters you want to use at the account level, and then they will be applied to every email campaign you send. They typically call this a 'Google Analytics Integration'
As you can see from ActiveCampaign's help doc above, when you turn on the 'Google Analytics Integration' they'll automatically append the following UTM parameters to your email campaigns:
- utm_medium = email
- utm_source = activecampaign
- utm_campaign = The name of your campaign
- utm_content = The subject line of your email
This is definitely the easiest way to add UTM parameters to your email campaigns, and virtually every email marketing tool has similar functionality.
Social posts
Adding UTM parameters to social media posts will differ depending on how you actually post to your pages.
If you're using a social media posting tool like Buffer or Hootsuite, they will have functionality to automatically add UTMs to all links (similar to email marketing tools).
As you can see from the screenshot above, Buffer gives you the ability to set what UTM parameters you want to use and it will automatically apply them to all social posts.
Alternatively, if you're not using a social posting tool and instead just posting new content to your company pages directly, then your best bet is to use a free UTM builder to create UTM-tagged links and then posting them manually.
How to use them to track visits, leads & customers
Now that you understand what UTM parameters are, which ones to use, and how to apply them, it’s time for the fun part: using them to understand which channels and campaigns are working best for you.
Website Visitors
You can find out how many website visitors you got from each of your channels and campaigns by looking in whichever web analytics tool you have installed on your website. For many people, this is Google Analytics, but it could also be the built-in reports that come with your website builder or another tool like Piwik.
If you are using Google Analytics, you can see this data in the User Acquisition report.
By default, you’ll see your users grouped into high-level Channels (Like Paid Search, Paid Social, etc). Google Analytics uses the UTM parameters you put behind your ads to categorise visitors into these different channels.
If you want to go deeper, you can do so by adding Secondary Dimensions. Simply select the + icon and then choose either First User Medium or First User Source. It looks a bit like this:
Alternatively, if you want to see website visitors broken down by the utm_campaign, utm_term or utm_content parameters, then you’ll need to create an Explore.
Leads
If you’re like most businesses, the majority of your leads come from completing forms on your website.
In this case, the easiest way to track the number of leads you’re getting from your various campaigns is to capture the UTM parameters with each form submission.
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.
Customers
If you’re using a tool like Attributer to capture the UTM parameters with each form submission, and you’re sending it to a CRM (or something similar where you track which leads became customers, how much revenue the deal was worth, etc), then you can easily run reports that show how many new customers you’ve gotten from each channel or campaign.
Best practices for using UTM parameters
Now that you’re fully versed with using UTM parameters to track your various marketing campaigns, let’s finish up by looking at a few best practices.
Make sure the UTM’s match the rules your analytics tools use
If you want your visitors to be categorised into the correct Channels, then you’ll need to make sure the UTM parameters you are using match the rules that your analytics tools use to categorise visitors into different channels.
So for instance, if you use utm_medium=ppc AND utm_source=google, then most analytics tools (Google Analytics, Attributer, etc) would categorise these visitors into the Paid Search channel.
The rules that your analytics tool uses will be outlined in a help article on their support site, but the rules that Google Analytics uses can be seen here and the rules that Attributer uses can be seen here.
If you follow the recommended UTM parameters we included earlier in this article, then users should be categorised correctly in most analytics tools (including Google Analytics and Attributer).
Use dashes instead of spaces
Spaces auto-convert to ‘%20’ when they are placed in a UTM parameter and someone clicks it, which can cause weird inconsistencies when you try to use the data to run reports.
So instead of using spaces, use dashes. For example: utm_campaign=brand-campaign
Always use lowercase
UTM parameters are case-sensitive, which means if you have some of your campaigns tagged with utm_source=facebook and others with utm_source=Facebook then they will be considered two different sources of traffic when you run a report.
So make sure you always use lowercase.
You don’t have to use all 5 parameters
It isn’t compulsory to use all 5 UTM parameters in your links, so if you don’t need them, don’t use them.
If you’re not going to use all 5 though, make sure you use the ones higher in the hierarchy first, which is:
- UTM_Medium
- UTM_Source
- UTM_Campaign
- UTM_Term
- UTM_Content
This is because analytics tools generally give preference to those higher in the hierarchy. For instance, you can use Google Analytics pre-built reports to break down your website visitors by utm_medium or utm_source, but you have to build your own custom ‘Explore’ to break it down by utm_term or utm_content, which is much harder.
Wrap up
If you want to be able to track where your website visitors, leads and customers are coming from, then you’re going to need to place UTM parameters behind any links to your website (in your ads, email campaigns, etc).
Hopefully though, resources like this article and our free UTM builder can make it easy for you to create, apply and ultimately use UTM parameters to understand which channels & campaigns are working for your business.
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