We figure out why marketers insert additional symbols into links and how they help evaluate the results of promotion.
What are UTM tags?
What UTM tags consist of
Types of UTM tags
How to set UTM tag
Methods for creating UTM tags
Expert advice
What are UTM tags?
Table of Contents
UTM tags (Urchin Tracking Module) are text that is added to links to determine where users come from. This helps evaluate the results of promotion. Let’s take UTM tags for a sportswear store website as an example.
The parameters show that the visitor got to the product page from the search engine results – this is indicated by the tag that comes immediately after the main address, “utm_source=yandex”. Moreover, judging by the next tag “utm_medium=cpc“, the visitor came from a paid ad.
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What UTM tags consist of
Tags include parameters that are inserted after the main part of the URL:
1. utm_source
tells where the person came from: from the advertising system or from the partner’s placement;
2. utm_medium
specifies the type of traffic, for example, CPM — cost per thousand impressions, or CPC — cost per click.
3. utm_campaign
promotion can be launched for different groups of keywords, different products or promotions;
4. utm_term
shows the keywords that are used in the launch, for example: “order boots”, “winter boots”, “black boots”;
5. utm_content
specifies the creative, for example: “blue banner” or “promotion banner”.
Types of UTM tags
There are two types of tags:
● mandatory
source, traffic type and campaign name. Without them, it will be unclear which advertisement attracted visitors to the site;
● optional
keywords and content. They can be neglected if the advertising campaign is small, with one creative or a minimum number of keywords.
You can learn how to correctly set UTM tag parameters and how to analyze them later on the “Internet Marketer” course .
How to set UTM tag
To add a UTM tag to a link, you need to create a URL with the required parameters. It is important to follow the rules for creating tags:
1.● After the main URL, before the labels, a question mark “?” is placed
2.● Between the parameter and its value, an equal sign “=” is written
3.● Parameters are separated by an ampersand “&”
4.● Parameters are added without spaces, if you need to separate words, you can enter a hyphen “-” or a lower space “_”
For example, you need to create a UTM tag for a campaign to promote a dry cleaner on VKontakte. The task is to attract users’ attention to the “-20% on all services” promotion. Here’s how to do it:
1. Specify the source — «utm_source=vkontakte»
2. The payment model for such advertising is cost per click, so the channel here is «utm_medium=cpc»
3. Specify the campaign — «utm_campaign=akcia20»
4. Specify additional parameters if necessary. If the VKontakte carousel was chosen as the ad format, add «utm_content=karusel»
5. Select the keyword — «utm_term=uborka»
The result was a link:
https://himchistka.ru/?utm_source=vkontakte&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=akcia20&utm_content=karusel&utm_term=uborka
When a user clicks on a link, the marketer will be able to identify the advertisement that attracted him using UTM tags.
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Methods for creating UTM tags
There are two options for making UTM tags: independently or through automatic services. For example, through the Tilda website builder , where you only need to fill in the parameters, and the service will generate links with UTM tags.
Some services make it easier to create UTM tags: for example, the Tilda generator allows you to fill in your own tag values or choose one of the ready-made options.
The use of templates is convenient because they contain parameters enclosed in brackets, such as “{keyword}” — such labels are called dynamic. This is a template where the system will pull the parameter from the advertising account. For example, when launching campaigns in Yandex.Direct, many keywords are usually used. Instead of creating many labels and entering each phrase in the “utm_term” column, it is enough to insert the “{keyword}” parameter. This way, the system will determine the word by which the user entered the site and transfer this information to the analytical system. This will simplify the creation of labels.
How to name UTM tags correctly
Properly named UTM tags allow you to compare and analyze information and not get confused. It is important to write tags in a single format according to a single template. For example, if a campaign is launched in Yandex Direct, you should not write yadirect, direct or yandex as a source in different links – you need to choose one option and use only it.
Here’s a cheat sheet for UTM tag names.
How to track UTM tags
All data on UTM tags is collected by analytical systems. For example, Yandex Metrica has a separate report “UTM Tags”.
UTM tags are needed to download data from analytical services. This is necessary to build end-to-end analytics and combine information with the CRM database . Source and campaign tags are especially important, the number of visits and views is linked to them. If you take into account the amount of expenses from advertising accounts, the volume of orders and revenue, you can see how much money each campaign brought in – UTM tags help calculate the share of advertising expenses and the return on marketing investments.
