Date First Published: 5th November 2022
Topic: Web Design & Development
Subtopic: Web Technologies
Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions
Difficulty: MediumDifficulty Level: 6/10
Learn more about what a UTM tracking tag is in this article.
A UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) tracking tag, also known as a UTM parameter, or UTM code, is a unique identifier added to the end of a URL used to track where website traffic comes from if a user clicks on the link. UTM tracking tags were introduced by the predecessor of Google Analytics, Urchin. These tags at the end of URLs are parsed by web analytics services, such as Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics and they can be used to categorise traffic coming from a specific campaign, source, medium, search terms, and content type in a report. In Google Analytics, the traffic can be found under 'Acquisition and Campaigns'.
UTM tracking tags are only used for the website owner to be able to track where the traffic came from if someone clicks on an external link. They are not used for internal links within the same website or for SEO purposes. Social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter use UTM tracking tags so that the owner of the other website knows that traffic has come from social media. Adding them has no effect on anything on the page. It just notifies analytics programs that someone has arrived through a certain source and a campaign, as shown below.
Website owners can manually build UTM tracking tags or they can use UTM building tools, such as Google URL builder, reducing the chances of mistakes.
UTM tracking tags can contain the following parameters below. The parameters do not have to be in the order below, but they must be after the URL, which is separated by a question mark. Individual parameters after the URL are separated by an ampersand (&) and because spaces are not allowed in a URL, spaces must be represented by the escape code '%2B' or a plus sign (+).
| Parameter | Function | Required or Optional | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| utm_source | Identifies the referring website that the traffic came from. | Required | utm_source=facebook |
| utm_medium | Identifies the type of marketing that the link used, such as advertisement, social media, email, etc. | Required | utm_medium=email |
| utm_campaign | Identifies the specific campaign or product promotion that the traffic came from (e.g. a campaign for links that were placed as part of a 10% off promotion.) | Optional | utm_campaign=10_off |
| utm_term | Identifies the search terms or keywords used. For example, if an advertiser paid for a Google Ads campaign to rank for the keyword 'running shoes', they might add the following UTM code to the end of the link they submit to Google when they run their ad to track the referral keywords. | Optional | utm_term=running+shoes |
| utm_content | Identifies the type of content that was clicked on to direct the user to the website, such as a banner ad or a hyperlink. | Optional | utm_content=textlink | utm_id | Identifies the ID of a specific ads campaign that traffic is coming from. | Optional | utm_id=xyz.123 |
An example of a URL with a UTM tracking tag can be seen below:
URLs can be shortened with a link shortening service, such as Bit.ly to make it easier to share.
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