The term UTM is an abbreviation for "Urchin Tracking Module" or also "Urchin Traffic Monitor", it is a mechanism used to parameterize and thus make it possible to track a URL (internet link). The parameters of a UTM are read by data analysis and/or marketing tools, for example, Google Analytics, HubSpot, RD Station, Salesforce, Mailchimp, etc., and with this it is possible to identify the performance of marketing strategies.
UTM is very useful for identifying data from marketing campaigns, whether for paid traffic campaigns, such as Google Ads, Bing Ads, Meta Ads, etc., or links in content, be it a blog or newsletter/email marketing, if you notice the way the parameters exist will see that it follows a campaign pattern, something like:
| Parameter | Required | Example | Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| utm_source | Yes | utm_source=google | Used to identify the source where the visitor came from, in the example we are indicating that the visitor came from Google |
| utm_medium | Yes | utm_medium=cpc | It is the means by which the visitor came, it is how he arrived at the website, in the example we have cpc, that is, he came through a click-through advertising campaign. |
| utm_campaign | No | utm_campaign=tennis | Although not mandatory, utm_campaign is very useful for those who work with many campaigns, where it is possible to indicate that that visitor came through campaign X. |
| utm_term | No | utm_term=nike | A campaign can have many ad groups and keywords, through this utm you will be able to view in your Google Analytics or Marketing tool which term a given lead converted. |
| utm_content | No | utm_content=buy | In campaigns, utm_content is used to carry out tests, allowing you to test an ad in two different versions, for example, nike-version-a and nike-version-b, while in email marketing it is very useful to indicate when you have more than one button, and you can give it a name, for example, top-button or bottom-button, this way you can understand the user's behavior. |
There is also utm_id, we do not use it in the generator and we did not list it above because we understand that its application ends up being a little redundant.
In general, it is uncommon to use all utms, this is because just with utm_source and utm_medium you can already have the information you need, in any case, using them all together will give you a range of information, so , use them in a way that you can extract what you need, after all, generating data and not having anything to do with it is a waste of time.
Let's say we have some campaigns in progress and looking at the marketing tool we want to know which one is performing best, we see that the link below has stood out in generating leads, let's analyze it to find out more details about it:
https://converteonline.com/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=display&utm_term=shoe+dress&utm_content=shoe+dress+black
utm_source=facebook, here we see that the origin of the visitors is from Facebook
utm_medium=social, additionally, users see from a social network
utm_campaign=display, here we see that the leads are from the display campaign, that is, it is an image campaign.
utm_term=shoe+dress, Now we know which campaign and which type of product has generated the most leads, it's dress shoes.
utm_content=shoe+dress+black, Finally, we see that it is black dress shoes that have generated the most conversion.
It is important to say that the marketing tools already provide this detailed information, there is no need to split the url to identify the information, the example above was just so you know clearly what the structure of a url with utm parameters is like.
