7 Links You Need To Track with UTM Parameters

You’ve heard that UTM parameters can help you keep track of the links you use in your marketing efforts. Awesome, right? You’re going to know exactly where everyone’s coming to your site from, and what campaigns are working. Your job is about to get easy.

Except…when you really think about it, you’re sending out a lot of links. Like, really, a lot. All of a sudden this is sounding like a lot of work. And a little scary.

Okay, back up a little. The reality is that marketers are doing just about a bazillion things at once (believe us, we researched that number) and if you’re just getting started, chances are UTM tracking is not going to be a magic bullet that grants you god-like insight into all of your campaigns and all of your users’ behavior. So, start small. Here’s seven kinds of links that UTM tagging is sure to result in meaningful (and digestible) new information for you:

Email newsletter links
If you’re sending out a few different newsletters, create a source specific to each one. Or, if you only have a single newsletter, leverage the content field to differentiate between the various items you include and see which are resonating with your audience.

Social posts
Hopefully, you’re sharing the awesome content you pour your heart and soul into creating (blog posts, ebooks, infographics, etc.) across all of your social networks. Use the source field to figure out which channels are getting you clicks, or take advantage of the campaign or content fields to get a pulse on the specific pieces of content your audience is craving.

Embedded CTAs in blog posts
You blog for a reason (we blog to tell the marketing world how cool marketing attribution is, and hopefully get you started doing so with CampaignTracker). So, why not figure out if your readers are doing what you want them to? Create a campaign and source for your blog, and start tagging your CTAs to see what makes readers take that next step you want them to.

Campaigns for special promotions
Maybe you’re trying to generate new leads with a giveaway, incentivize customer engagement with a usage contest, or build excitement for a brand new product with a promo code. Whatever kind of promotion you’ve schemed up, UTM tagging can help you keep track of how effectively it’s helping you move the needle towards your goals, and which channels it’s gaining the most traction on.

Adwords campaigns
You’re spending good money on your AdWords campaigns; UTM tracking can help you make sure that money is well spent by showing you which terms are bringing prospects and customers to your website. Plus, Google formatted the UTM tracking model to play super nice with AdWords, creating the “term” tag for with AdWords specifically in mind.

Display advertisements
The internet has become a pay-to-play world, and nearly all marketers are doing at least some paid advertising at this point. This almost inevitably means using a digital advertising provider, whether you’re doing prospecting, retargeting or social advertising. You’re devoting plenty of time to crafting awesome creative and compelling landing pages to send to your provider for these campaigns; take a couple extra minutes to a tagged URL along with those landing pages. Of course, your provider will track conversions and happily tell you how many visitors the ads are driving to your site, but UTM tracking can provide you with an extra layer of traffic insight that you maintain complete control over.

CTAs on your website
One of the super-powers of UTM tracking? It’s an awesome tool for testing. So, the next time you want to try experimenting with a sidebar button to drive traffic to a new piece of content, attract new email subscribers with a slide-in, or implement a banner to promote a specific product, tag the link in your CTA. It’s a great strategy to gain insight into what design approaches, wording decisions, and content types resonate with your audience.

Have we taken some of the intimidation factor out of this whole UTM tracking thing yet? We promise, it’s totally doable! And, CampaignTracker can make it downright easy.