Demystifying UTM tracking parameters for your startup marketing campaigns
The Six Percent Entrepreneur
Demystifying UTM tracking parameters for your startup marketing campaigns
August 17, 2021
In this episode, we are going to demystify this whole world of UTM tracking parameters.
So in the previous episode we talked about how to start tracking traffic from all of your startup marketing distribution channels and taking an inventory of all your marketing distribution channels. And I also talked about UTM Parameters Urchin Tracking modules so you can be able to actually track where your traffic is coming from. 

So in this episode we are actually going to demystify this whole world of UTM tracking parameters because as I said even the most tech savvy as the people struggle with this thing because there's just a lot to go on and there's not that many resources that explain it really well. 

So your UTM Parameter. What it quickly is you're just adding these little pieces of code on the end of your your your website link you're so let's just say you're you are l and you know what I'm gonna use Robin Copernicus.com as an example just because I get to say Robin Copernicus a million times. But let's say that you're you are less Robin Copernicus.com. Well if you wanted to add these tracking parameters, these U. T. M. Tracking parameters then you've probably seen this before. Where at the end of the link it'll be like a question mark and then we'll have all this different information. Right? So this different information that you're seeing in this code. These are this is a little piece of code that will help us track where traffic is coming from and you know what the flow is based on this user's habit. 

So I mentioned that in terms of tracking your UTM so You can use google analytics. I use an app called Market Plan.Io. There is also a bunch of other apps that will let you do this. And essentially what they will have you do is they will have you install a tag. So if you think of like your pixels, your google tag manager etcetera, this is like a some code that you actually install on your website. So when people do go to the website, Marketplan.Io does this actually pretty well then it can get a more holistic view of like how people are coming in and out of your website where the traffic flows is going. Um and again you can also do this with google analytics which is completely free. 

So what you need to know about UTM parameters is there's three parameters that you need for every single link. So when you're building your UTM Parameters, how you build it is not important right now, all we're doing is we're just trying to make this as easy as possible. Just know that there's ways to track your UTM Links. You have platforms. So you just have to sign up for one of those platforms and then now we're talking about how to build these U. T. M. Links. So in order to build these UTM Links there's three different things. Three different pieces of information that you have to know that you have to be putting in there. 

So the first one is the source and the source is what platform is this traffic coming from. So your source could be LinkedIn, it could be your podcast, could be google search, it could be any of these platforms that are actually sending you traffic. Right? So that's the source. Then the second parameter is the medium. So the medium is how is this link um getting to the audience? And I think I kind of like butchered that up. But let me give you an example, let's say that it's Robin Copernicus.com and I have a call to action on the top bar. So if you've ever looked at a website, you know that top bar, there's like this immediate thing that they have out for me, it is a link to the vertical method audio course. And this is my top bar. So for me, the medium would be the top bar. This is like where people are finding the link. If I sent this link in a DM then my medium would be DM, a direct message. Right? So you just want to think about like what the medium is, how you're transmitting this link, it could be an area on a website, it could be through a DM, or email or any of these other transmission channels. This is where the medium is how this information is being sent. 

So we talked about the source which is the platform and then the medium in terms of how this link is being transmitted to the user, right? Like where they're finding, this link could be in the DMs, the top bar etcetera. Then the final one is the campaign. So you will have different campaigns in your marketing. For example, for me, I am going on a bunch of other different podcast. One of the podcast that I'm actually going on is the entrepreneurs on fire podcast with John Lee Duma's and for his podcast, I am definitely going to be giving away a free B and for me to be able to track this free B. My UTM parameters are going to be okay. So let's look at this, right. My UTM parameters is going to be the source, which is going to be a podcast then the medium, which is going to be word of mouth because it's something that I'm going to announce to give you a word of mouth, it could be a live event. Um you would have to come up with your own nomenclature, that makes sense to you. 

If you want a copy of my nomenclature, I can definitely share that with you. No problem. Um send me a email or a DM on Instagram letting me know that you heard this episode and you want a copy of my, my tracking parameters, the nomenclature and I'll send that to you. 

So for this John Lee Beaumont's podcast, I have my sources, the podcast, the medium as a live event or you know whatever nomenclature that I use and then finally the campaign would be you know whatever thing that I'm giving away. So this lead magnet, let's just call it free B and then I would attach it with like the campaign like where it's going right? So this is the entrepreneurs on fire campaign. Maybe my campaign tracking parameter would be like free B hyphen entrepreneurs on fire or just or just free b hyphen fire that way. Whenever people click on this link, what I would do is I was short and use that link, shortener, just shorten this huge links so people can actually click on it listening to it from a podcast episode. But then this will allow me to track where my traffic flow is coming from and based on me being able to track this traffic flow, I can figure out what I'm doing wrong what I'm doing right and I can optimize a little bit better. 

So then after I built up my UTM Links and in terms of building out your UTM Links, Google actually offers an online tool that lets you do it. I actually found a spreadsheet that someone made, I can't remember the name of the person but I can share you, his name and stuff and he was like will or something like that. But he made a google spreadsheet that will put together your tracking links for you. And for me I just found that you know this google spreadsheet is so much easier because then you can just build all your links at once instead of doing it individually using google's proprietary tool. Right? 

So what you're doing is essentially first step what we learned in the previous episode, you're you're taking inventory of all the different places where you have your hyperlinks. Then the second step is you want to build out all your UTM Links. So you're building out your adding the little pieces of code onto your links. So you could be tracking where your traffic is coming from. And then the third step is just putting this into your UTM Tracking site. So this could be google analytics, it could be more planned out. I owe you could be UTM.io. I'm sure there's like millions of others that will allow you to track this and then once you've done that then you will have a much clearer picture of where your traffic is coming from, how they're behaving, what campaigns are working, what campaigns aren't working and this will give you a little bit more discipline to be able to optimize whatever your end goal is. 

So I hope this demystified you team tracking parameters for you. If not if you have more questions I want to be able to create as much clear and helpful content as possible. Let me know what was helpful, what wasn't helpful. And I will strive to create better content for you. So I do hope this helps. This is Robin Copernicus, boom bam. I'm out. 

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