How to Create UTM Codes in WordPress & Track in Google Analytics

Posted on October 11th, 2021

What is UTM tracking Code? As a blogger, you will require to keep an eye on the marketing activities on the website. It’s the backbone of a successful marketing campaign. From adding Google analytics to inserting Google ads, you need to regularly monitor marketing activities to understand which links or ads are more clickable by visitors. While creating a marketing campaign, UTM tracking codes are essential for identifying what kind of specific links or ads clicked on the most. It tells you which landing pages on your website are getting the most interactions and can even track which links within a specific ad campaign are clicking on the most.

UTM tracking codes will give in-depth analytics of every landing page on your website. It will provide you the information on which ads or links are getting more impressions and engagement. When a UTM tracking code is sets up correctly, it can provide valuable information about where your website visitors are coming from, how they are getting to your website, and what kind of products and services they are looking for. When appropriately used, UTM tracking codes in Google Analytics can double, even quadruple, your clicks and conversions. So let’s dig into the article in order to understand how to create a UTM link in Google Analytics.

What is the UTM link?

UTM code is a unique URL for tracking marketing activities that redirect to your website or any targeted landing page. It can be used in social media campaigns, marketing campaigns, SEO campaigns, or email marketing campaigns.

You can even place the UTM parameters within any link of a specific page in order to track that particular page on your website, as mentioned in the above example. You add the UTM tracking code to a specified URL so that it can help you identify and track that specific ads or links.

It helps bloggers and digital marketers track the most clickable links and digital ads that convert visitors into their clients. But it is essential that the UTM tracking code should be placed correctly. If it is placed correctly, it will provide you with valuable information about your website’s visitors, such as from which source you are getting visitors and what services they are searching for.

You don’t need to spend a single penny on a marketing campaign in order to get the information. Just create a UTM link, and you will be able to make effective strategies for marketing campaigns.

Importance of UTM Tracking Codes

  1. UTM links are useful for Email tracking. Thus, you can easily track the links through Email as well.
  2. These links are helpful in tracking social media engagement. UTM links are helpful in social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., to track the users.
  3. It is very helpful to track activities on your website banners & advertisements. You can also create marketing campaigns and track them directly in Google Analytics.
  4. It will help you to understand how your visitors interact with your website. Using the UTM tracking codes, you will be able to get an idea about the source of traffic and devices as well (Mobile, tablet, or desktop).
  5. They are also very useful to understand the performance of your content. Moreover, by interpreting these tracking records, you can easily enhance your site’s content quality or service.
  6. It has great importance in Digital marketing to know the potential of marketing activities. Digital marketing using UTM tracking codes helps you to grow and improve your business.

UTM refers to the “Urchin Tracking Module,” which is a unique URL or link that you can add to a targeted page in order to track the source of traffic on your specific landing page. The tracking code sends the data to your analytical tool. UTM codes are added to the end of the regular URL, which provides more information to your analytical tool about marketing activities and their performance. It has great importance in digital marketing nowadays as marketing relies on accurate statistical data, which is beneficial to measure the potential of marketing activities.

Although you can also understand which part of your campaign resulted in conversion and which part of your campaign has no worth implementing, you can use UTM codes on social media in order to track the performance of recent posts. Moreover, you can easily set the goals to get the records of conversion rate. This will provide you information about how many users are converted into clients.

How to Create the UTM Link to Track the Campaign or Ads?

Google ads don’t require any custom UTM codes if you have added Google Analytics to your website. Google Ads has a unique auto-tagging tool that exchanges data with Google analytics. Auto-tagging has been set as a default, but you can turn it off from your account settings.

However, if you want to track the performance of other marketing campaigns, then you will require custom UTM links or codes to retrieve the data. One of the best options to create manual UTM links is Google’s URL Page Builder.

From Google’s URL page builder, you can generate the UTM link to track the efficiency of your marketing campaigns. It will create custom trackable links to measure the potential of your advertising platform. There are three essential parameters in tracking URL – utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign. You can use these parameters in the URL in order to get the data about the referring campaign.

There are five fields in the form which are mandatory,

  • Campaign Source: In this field, you need to enter a platform or search engine from where traffic will be originated, such as Facebook or Google, or Newsletter.
  • Campaign Medium: It basically refers to the marketing medium which will use the links such as Email or PPC, or banner.
  • Campaign name: This field is the identity of your campaign. It refers to the purpose of your campaigns, such as a website or article.
  • Campaign Term: You can use this field to track the keywords. However, this is optional but important to get more information.
  • Campaign Content: You can use this for content targeted ads and A/B testing. You can also use it to differentiate ads or links that point to the same URL. This field is also optional.

Follow the steps mentioned below to create UTM links by Google’s URL Page Builder.

Step 1: First, you will need to enter your website’s URL in the “Website URL” field.

Step 2: Now, fill up other mandatory fields step by step. Add the campaign source. It is basically search engines that you will use for advertising.

After that, add a campaign medium. It refers to the type of advertising campaign that’s using links such as Email or PPC, or banner.

Now, insert your campaign name. It is based on the purpose of your campaign.

Step 3: Once you fill-up the mandatory fields. The UTM link will be automatically generated. Scroll down to copy the UTM URL of your campaign.

Step 4: Now copy the URL, or you can also convert the URL into a short link; however, that requires authorization. If you want to shorten the URL link, then click on “Shorten” below the campaign URL. You will have a Bitly sign up page. Thus, you just need to sign in with any social media accounts or create a new account on Bitly. You will easily shorten the campaign URL links once you sign in.

Make sure you fill up all the mandatory fields. The UTM links will be generated shortly after adding the information. Now you can use this UTM link on any marketing campaign.

You can place the link anywhere on the site, like the home page, landing page, maintenance page with a redirect URL. We have mentioned the example of the home page. It will provide you the complete tracking of traffic and users. Now, you will see where to place UTM links with the example,

In the above example, You can place a link as the button “Facebook” under the social link.

UTM parameters within the link are,

  • utm_ Source: Facebook
  • utm_ medium: PPC
  • utm_campaign: Special offer

Where to track the UTM tracking link?

You can use UTM links on social media platforms to track the source of traffic. Moreover, you can also use UTM links within any targeted landing page to gain the track records of specific advertisements. The UTM links provide complete track records of marketing campaigns. You can easily track it in Google analytics without adding Google Analytics.

UTM links give a thorough report of over performance of your PPC campaigns that are ultimately helpful for your marketing budget.

Step 1: After creating a tracking URL, you just need to use the URL instead of adding Google Analytics to your website.

Step 2:

  • Now, click on “Acquisition
  • SelectCampaignsunder the acquisition section.
  • Then check the “All Campaigns tab in Google Analytics to measure your success.

When you click on “All Campaigns”, You will see the campaigns you have created to track the traffic sources and medium. You will be able to track the users and their devices as well. You can also track conversions if you have set a specific goal. However, it is highly recommended to set the goal so that you can also track the traffic that is converted to your client.

Important:

If you are advertising on the Android app, you can use Google Play Builder to generate URLs to the app on Google Play Store. If you are advertising on iOS builder, then use the iOS Campaign Tracking URL builder to generate URLs to the apps on the Apple app store. Other than that, you should use Google Analytics Campaign URL Builder.

Conclusion:

UTM tracking codes are essential to track the performance and efficiency of your marketing activities. It is far more helpful in digital marketing to understand each specific ad or link traffic analytics. When a UTM tracking code sets up correctly, it can provide valuable information about where your website visitors are coming from and how they are getting to your website. Moreover, it also provides what kind of products and services users are looking for. If the UTM links are correctly used, UTM tracking codes in Google Analytics can be used to double, even quadruple, your clicks and conversions. It is used in digital marketing to know the potential of marketing activities. Digital marketing using UTM tracking codes helps you to grow and improve your business.

It’s straightforward to create a UTM link with the help of Google’s URL page builder by entering your campaign information. The procedure mentioned above will guide you, how you can create UTM links in google analytics. We hope this article will help you to understand the UTM tracking codes thoroughly.

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