My last post explained why you can’t skimp on tracking. Now let’s talk about how to actually know where your users come from.

What even are UTMs?

Real quickly before we get started, UTMs are just extra text that you add to url to better understand your traffic. That’s it. Now on to the good stuff.

1. Keep it simple, stupid

There are five UTM parameters. Except for 0.1% of cases, just three will do. The ones that matter:

• utm_source - Where the traffic is coming from. Examples: newsletter, instagram, google, linkedin
• utm_medium - The type of channel. Examples: email, social, cpc, referral
• utm_campaign - The specific campaign or initiative. Examples: april-digest, black-friday, product-launch

Skip utm_content and utm_term. Chances are, they are overkill for your campaigns. And definitely don’t use these two to track campaign or platform level information.

2. If it ain’t broke…

Consistency is key. Next year when you’re trying to get your year-over-year Black Friday performance numbers, you don’t want to be trying to sort out the 5 different ways that you labeled Instagram traffic. Pick a format and stick to it. My recommendation:

• All lowercase
• Use hyphens or underscores instead of spaces. I prefer underscores, but to each their own.
• Be specific, but concise.
• Don’t put anything you don’t want your customers to see!

3. Stop overwriting your attribution

NEVER use UTMs to track in-site promotions or campaigns. Doing so breaks session tracking, can inflate your numbers, and causes conversions to be attributed to the wrong source. UTMs should only track from where the visitor started their session. Period.

4. Build them fast with a UTM builder

Whether you use a web builder, an excel sheet, or something else, take advantage of automation. Using a tool will help ensure that the links you use in your campaigns are accurate and informative.

5. Always test your links

When you run hundreds or thousands of campaigns, there are bound to be mistakes. By testing your links before launch, you make sure:

• Your link goes to the correct landing page.
• Your traffic is getting bucketed correctly in your web analytics tool. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to fish paid media traffic out of another channel grouping because there was an issue with tagging.

6. Profit

Stick to these five tips and you’ll be 95% there. And if you think you’re ready for the last 5%, shoot me an email at misho@nodeanalytics.io.