Build URLs to Track Performance in GA

Step-by-step Playbooks
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@victoriadynamicdata-agency

Business Benefits

Track marketing campaign performance.

Identify the page where campaign traffic will be sent.

  • Pages, where users arrive, are called landing pages.
  • To track campaigns in Google Analytics, parameters need to be appended to the landing pages and they are called UTM parameters.
  • There are 5 UTM parameters and they are for Google Analytics exclusive use:
    • Source: represents the advertiser, site, or publication that is sending traffic to your website, for example: google, newsletter, billboard.
    • Medium: is used to state the type of advertising campaign, for example, cpc, email, banner.
    • Campaign: identifies the name of the running marketing campaign, for example, summer_sale, discount50, affiliate_program.
    • Content: is used to differentiate similar content or links within the same ad.
    • Term: is used to identify paid search keywords
  • To add them to the landing page we use the following parameter names: utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content, and utm_term with their respective values, for example, utm_source=google.
  • The first parameter must be preceded by “?” and the following parameters preceded by “&”.

Define the Source parameter and append it to the url.

Define the Medium parameter and append it to the url.

Define the Campaign parameter and append it to the url.

Define the Content and Term optional parameters and append them to the url.

  • Content and Term parameters are optional and can be used when more information is needed to send to Google Analytics.
  • For example: https://www.mysite.com/landing/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpcl&utm_campaign=cars-for-sale&utm_content=red-car&utm_term=car

Add the UTM parameters to the landing page URL.

  • For example, an email is sent with a discount in a loyalty program with a button for the users to click on: https://www.mysite.com/landing/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=june-discount&utm_content=red-button
  • Some of the best practices are:
    • Avoid special characters and spaces.
    • Use underscore or middle dash to separate word.
    • Keep you naming convention simple to understand.
    • Never use UTM parameters within links in your website which aims to another page of your website.

Last edited by @hesh_fekry 2023-11-14T11:45:17Z