For any online business, whether it's a small company or an enterprise, it is essential to track the traffic. 100% of traffic doesn't always work in full scale. Even when the overall conversion shows positive results, after discovering more detailed, one advertising campaign produces a high conversion, and another one pulls the rate down. How can you learn which ad brings customers to the site, and which one slows the growth?
UTM tags are a useful tool for evaluating the effectiveness of advertising and marketing campaigns. Learn from our previous articles about what UTM tags are, as today we'll walk you through six smart ways on where to use UTM parameters for andvanced conversion tracking.
Short.io provides UTM-tags for free. You can shorten an already UTM-tagged link or add UTM parameters straight in the URL shortener.
UTM-tags on Short.io
DiscoverWhere to Apply UTM Parameters
You can set up different UTM values depending on the purpose of a campaign. In case there is a button, link, pop-up window, or a banner, attach UTM tags to track the effectiveness. Below are the tips of where UTM parameters could be helpful. Let's dive deeper.
1. Blog Posts
Say you published a blog post to tell your audience about launching a new feature. You want to find out which of the page elements users will click more often: a CTA object in the middle of the article or a banner in the footer. To track this, add UTM tags to both URLs to discover which one engages users better. The utm_content value needs to be changed. Look at the URL examples below.
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.../?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=url-feature&utm_campaign=button&utm_content=middle
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utm_source=blog&utm_medium=url-feature&utm_campaign=banner&utm_content=footer
Source: HubSpot
2. Google Ads
To estimate the results of contextual advertising, firstly, you need to separate the visitors of contextual advertising from the organic traffic.
You can stick as many parameters as you need. The number of values depends on the campaign's purpose. Manual value adding allows you to determine the data that will be displayed in the statistics; i.e., you can exclude the content parameter, but include the term parameter.
When launching an ad from AdWords, you can evaluate sales in a particular city dividing ads for different groups of queries.
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.../?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=group-1&utm_content=sale
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...?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=group-2&utm_content=sale
Source: Organizepx
3. Email Marketing
Do you remember to add links to the CTA buttons to redirect users to a source? The advanced step is adding UTM-tagged links. By applying UTM-parameters, you track the conversion for the email campaign in general and each element of emails separately.
On the example below we describe 3 email objects that need to be tracked: the first button, the image, and the second button. The elements contain UTM-tagged URLs for further analysis. The utm_source=email-campaign and utm_campaign parameters are involved.
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.../?utm_source=email-campaign&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=regular-mailing&utm_content=headerbutton
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.../?utm_source=email-campaign&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=regular-mailing&utm_content=image
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.../?utm_source=email-campaign&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=regular-mailing&utm_content=footerbutton
Source: Wufoo
The source parameter will show you the amount of traffic received from the email campaign. On the other hand, the content parameter allows discovering the amount of traffic received from a specified element of the email. When the campaign is finished, you conclude the overall email marketing success and the most engaging element.
4. Social Networks
How will you find out which of the social channels are the most engaging? Add UTM tags to the URLs that you share on social networks and to the URLs in the profile descriptions.
When publishing a link to some social networks, use different source parameters to track the effectiveness of each channel.
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.../?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=new-feature
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.../?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=new-feature
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.../?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=new-feature
5. A/B Testing
Say you want to test the placement of a call-to-action button on a website. The first testing position is the landing page; the second one is a user menu. With the utm_content parameter, you keep things simple and track the effectiveness of 2 places separately.
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.../?utm_source=website&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=button-test&utm_content=landing
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.../?utm_source=website&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=button-test&utm_content=menu
6. Offline Marketing and QR Codes
A major offline marketing issue is based on difficulties to analyze the advertisement effectiveness. Any advertisement, whether it's online or offline, is applied to promote a brand and track the success of a promotion.
The fact that printed ads are limited with space does not mean that you cannot use URLs. It is where UTM-tags and short branded links come in handy.
While conducting offline campaigns, marketers use links in a variety of printed media — banners, brochures, clothes, packs. Using UTM tags allows you to learn the number of users coming from each place. Test different placements and ad formats.
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.../?utm_source=banner&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=new-collection&utm_content=qr-code
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utm_source=banner&utm_medium=clothes&utm_campaign=new-collection&utm_content=short-link
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.../?utm_source=banner&utm_medium=pack&utm_campaign=new-collection&utm_content=qr-code
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utm_source=banner&utm_medium=brochure&utm_campaign=new-collection&utm_content=short-link
Wrapping Up
The above-mentioned tips are implemented in a matter of seconds and allow for realizing precise statistical data. Test the feature and share with us your results :)
What did you learn?
- google analytics url builder;
- short links with utm tags;
- utm link shortener;
- why do you need utm tags;
