How To Set-Up UTM URLs For Successful Campaign Tracking

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    UTM URLs can help you to effectively track the success of your marketing plans, so you can see how effective the strategies you’ve implemented are at driving traffic to your website.

    If this sounds like something that will be of use to you, then what are you waiting for? Get reading!

     

    Top Tips:

    1. To complete this blog successfully, you’re going to need to have access to a Google account which is connected to a Google Analytics account.
    2. You’re going to need to download this free spreadsheet to help you along the way.

     

    Benefits:

    • By setting up UTM URLs you’re going to have a lot more tracking control over the campaigns you’ve created.
    • This process can be a brilliant tool for helping you to identify the impact different campaigns are having on your overall marketing’s success rate.
    • Helping you to keep track of multiple campaigns using Google Analytics.

     

    How You Can Use The Campaign Builder For UTM

    The purpose of this freebie spreadsheet that you can get can simplify the process for creating and recording the campaigns you create for UTM.

    Here are some insights to keep in mind when using the sheet:

    • First things first, you’re going to need to input the campaign-specific information.
    • We’d advise that you use numbers and letters – we’d advise against inputting any special characters.

    You will notice that the URL the sheet presenting:

    1. Is lowercase – this is due to case sensitivity of UTM tags
    2. No spaces – instead there are dashes.
    3. The date that you inputted into the sheet.
    4. Helps you to log in the campaign-specific information – as you can go through and select the relevant ones from the dropdown menus available.

     

    Now you need to take a look the spreadsheet you’ve downloaded and make sure that you have tailor the document to suit your business specifically.

    1. Origin/Platform/Placement” – you will need to change some of the data that you’d like to appear in the dropdown – you can edit via the “Data Validation” option from the “Data” dropdown header. 
      • Basically, alter the values of Origin, Platform and Placement to reflect what you use within your organisation.
    2. Here are the columns you’re going to need to populate:
    1.   Creator – this is who has set up the URL.
    2.   Campaign URL – The site page that you’re planning on linking to
    3.    Date – input the date you’ve worked on creating the URL
    4.   Origin – select the option which reflects the origin of the traffic– i.e. LinkedIn/Google
    5.   Platform – The channel you’re planning on using for link sharing.
    6.   Name Of Campaign – The specific focus point that the campaign is going to be built around.
    7.   Key Campaign Phrase – Here you can outline a key phrase which are going to be used in ads directing to the URL specified.
    8.   Placement Of Ad Content – Outline where the ads will be presented – specifically those directed to the URL.
    9.   Content For Campaign ­– Input the content which is going to be shared via the campaign.

    You will be able to see that the UTM URL that has been created depending on the data you’ve inputted. This means that all of the traffic that your Google Analytics takes into account will be recorded properly. We would advise that you make sure to test the URLs created before you go onto publish campaigns.

     

    Going Through The UTM URLs  

    To go through this section successfully, you are going to need to use this Google extension for Chrome: “Google Tag Assistant”.

    1. You’re going to need to go through the UTM URLs (open them) and select the aforementioned extension icon which you’ll be able to see beside the address bar, and finally click this button: “Record”.
    2. Now you will need to refresh the webpage – make sure to select the icon for the extension and finally select “Stop Recording”.
    3. You just need to hit the button: “Show Full Report”.
    4. At this point, you’ll be taken to a report – you’ll need to look up at the header and select “Google Analytics Report”.
      • You should keep in mind that if you see a notification mentioning: “No hits” this will mean that the website traffic is not successfully recording – this can be as a result of ad blockers or something of the equivalent.
    5. In the event that you have various views presented in your dashboard for Google Analytics, then you should choose the views that you are intending to analyse and finally select the “OK” button.

     

    Finally, you’ll need to find the section labelled “Acquisition” – all of the inputs you’d put into the spreadsheet should be visible. 

    And… you’re done!

    Congrats, you’ve successfully gone through the process of creating UTM URLs for the purpose of campaign tracking.

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