The Power of UTM Codes
Are you struggling to determine the results of your digital marketing campaigns? Wanting to track your ROI using social media? Here at Fresh Ink, we know the importance of tracking and studying these results, as they influence and affect all choices made in our marketing campaigns. To some, analyzing and collecting this data may seem like a daunting task. However, at Fresh Ink, we know that it doesn’t have to be. The trick to tracking is found in the power of UTM Codes. But what on earth is a UTM code, you ask? Not to worry. We’ve broken it down to both explain and show how utilizing these codes, in conjunction with incredible tools like Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, will drive your company towards success.
What is a UTM Code?
Let’s keep things simple. A UTM code is essentially a tracking code for a URL. With this nifty code, you can contain and track a source, medium, and campaign name. But why would you want or need to do so? Well if you’re using Google Analytics (which you should be using!!), these UTM codes are crucial to help you track audience interaction with your content. Let me offer you an example to help make things clearer.
Let’s say I’m launching a Facebook campaign for my company and I plan on putting out advertisements. With these advertisements, I’m hoping for clicks. I need people to click on my ad in order for them to be taken to my website, in hopes that they will then be interested in, and hopefully purchase, my product or service. Let’s say that I have several of these ads going across various social media platforms, but I want to keep track of which ads are performing well and where they are directing traffic. This is where the beauty of UTM codes come in. Using a UTM code in my ad, I can then see clearly in Google Analytics which source, medium, and campaign name are associated with which advertisement, thus allowing me to organize and assess each individual ad. Now it’s easier for me to see which content is performing better, informing my future decision making when creating advertisements.
How Do I Create a UTM Code? 
Easy! Here at Fresh Ink, we like to use the Google Analytics Campaign URL Builder. The easiest way to find this is simply by searching for “utm code generator” in your prefered browser, and this tool should be one of the first, if not the first, option to select. From there it’s a piece of cake. Simply enter the URL you would like to create the UTM code of, as well as a name for your campaign source and medium. I highly suggest including the social media platform in which the content is being shared on, as well as the date for when it is being posted. These will help you keep organized in the long run when it comes to looking back and reviewing your analytics.
Utilize Google Tag Manager
Google Tag Manager is a great tool to incorporate in your digital campaign process, as it allows you to set up goals that you aim to achieve through the various advertisements and posts that you create. It also allows you to create tags for your website, helping you to measure traffic and optimize marketing. For more in depth and step-by-step instructions, I suggest you check out the following links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRvbFpeZ11Y
https://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/6102821?hl=en
Time to Relax
Here at Fresh Ink, we like to kick our feet up and take a breather every now and then. Let UTM codes do the work for you. In conjunction with Google Analytics, you’ll get detailed, organized results that will prove crucial to your decision making process throughout the duration of a digital media campaign. We utilize UTM codes all the time, and once you see the benefits, you’ll start too!
We love sharing our marketing tips and tricks and we’d also love your feedback. Take a second and leave us a comment! Was this article helpful? What do you want to read about next? Let us know!!