How to Shorten a LinkedIn URL – and Other Social Applications

If you are actively promoting your brand on social media but not using URL shorteners, you could be undermining your marketing efforts. Even if you have outstanding, user-friendly content, it matters little if users are not clicking on your links.

A URL shortener works by utilizing a redirect to send users clicking on the shortened link to the webpage that has the longer link. URL shorteners serve numerous benefits for social media marketers. In addition to making your posts look more attractive, they promote optimization and branding and help to gather and make sense of important analytical data. URL shorteners can be used on all major social applications, such as Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is particularly important for professionals. It is the largest social media platform for job-related posts and business networking. Using a LinkedIn URL shortener helps to promote your brand, set you apart from the competition, and allows you to easily share the LinkedIn profile link on your business card or resume.

How to Shorten a LinkedIn URL

When you create a profile on LinkedIn you are automatically assigned a generic URL. To find your profile’s default URL, all you need to do is access your LinkedIn profile. The easiest way to do this is to go to www.LinkedIn.com. Login to your account with your username and password. Once at the home screen, the easiest way to access your profile is to click on the “Me” icon located on the toolbar at the top of the page.

From the drop-down menu, click on “View Profile”. On your profile page, your LinkedIn URL will be located in the URL bar at the top of your browser.

Benefits of a LinkedIn URL Shortener

According to experts, there are some 575 million users on LinkedIn, with more than 260 million monthly active users. Only a very small percentage of users have taken the steps to create a LinkedIn URL shortener. Thus, most URLs on LinkedIn look largely the same. So, by using a custom URL, you are setting yourself apart from other users. This also makes you look more professional to your colleagues and potential employers. You can also add your custom URL to your email signature when sending emails for professional and/or business purposes.

There are also search engine optimization (SEO) benefits to using a LinkedIn URL shortener. A major factor in SEO is the readability of content. Custom URLs are shorter and lack an excessive amount of special characters, improving the readability of your profile and giving you an SEO boost.

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How to Shorten URLs with TerminusApp

Using TerminusApp to create branded short URLs is easy. Follow these simple steps:

Pick Your Domain Shortener
Select “Add a Custom Domain
Configure Custom Domain
Configure DNS Settings
Request SSL/HTTPS for Your Custom Domain (Optional)
Configure Your Project to Use the Custom Domain

If you want more in-depth directions for this process, check out this article: Vanity/Custom URLs – How to Get One & Why It’s Important

How to change your LinkedIn URL

You can change the default URL to a LinkedIn URL shortener through the settings in your LinkedIn profile. We discussed above how to access the homepage of your profile. Once there, click on “Edit public profile & URL” located on the right side of the screen.

On the next screen, you will see your current profile URL underneath the section “Edit your custom URL”. Click on the small blue pen icon located just beneath the URL. Enter the LinkedIn URL shortener that you created using TerminusApp.

Click “Save” to apply the changes to your profile URL. If for some reason the URL you have selected is not available, you will receive a notification to enter a different URL.

URL Shorteners for Other Social Networks

You can use TerminusApp to create and share nice looking URLs on Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms. In addition to the benefits of using a LinkedIn URL shortener that we mentioned above, there is another major benefit of using custom URLs.

The advantages of any digital marketing campaign over traditional forms of advertising are the ability to easily collect and analyze data. This is done by adding UTM parameters to your links. You can then use Google Analytics or another service provider to help you monitor sources of traffic and to make improvements to your social media marketing campaigns.

YouTube

Using a YouTube URL shortener can serve a number of important functions. When commenting on videos, you can keep track of links. When creating videos, you can use a Youtube URL shortener to create optimized links and easily share them with others.

You can easily create a Youtube URL shortener using TerminusApp by following the same steps that we mentioned above. To change the URL, however, you need to do the following:

Ensure that you are eligible. You need to have at least 100 subscribers and your video has to be at least 30 days old.
Sign into your YouTube account.
Click on your profile picture located on the top right corner of the page.
Click on Settings, Advanced Settings, Channel Settings. If you are eligible you will see a link that reads “You’re eligible for a custom URL”.
Enter your Youtube URL shortener in the custom URL box.
Agree to the Terms of Use, click Change URL and then Confirm Choice.

It’s important to note that you can only change the Youtube URL shortener for a video once, so make sure you are satisfied before completing the steps above.

Facebook

Much like LinkedIn, a Facebook URL shortener gives your page a professional feel that helps set you apart from your competition. You can also use a Facebook URL shortener to track your Facebook ad campaigns.

Create your Facebook URL shortener on TerminusApp using the steps described above. Once you have done that, follow these steps:

Go to www.facebook.com/username.
Select the Facebook page that you wish to change the URL for from the dropdown menu.
Enter your Facebook URL shortener in the box following www.facebook.com/.
Click on “Check Availability”.
If the URL is not available, then enter another one. If it is, then click on confirm

Instagram

If you have more than 10,000 followers or a verified account, you can add a URL to your Instagram stories. You can also use an Instagram URL shortener on your profile bio link.

How to add a link to an Instagram story

To add a link to an Instagram story you need to follow these steps:

Access the tool to add a new Instagram story.
If you are eligible you will see a link icon at the top of your screen. Click on it.
Paste the URL shortener that you have created into the story link box.
Click on “Done”.
Publish your story and share the link with your followers.

Conclusion

Start using custom, short URLs to take your social media marketing to the next level. TerminusApp allows you to easily create branded short URLs for use on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and all other major social media platforms.

A LinkedIn URL shortener helps separate your profile from nearly 600 million other users. Creating a LinkedIn link shortener with TerminusApp is simple. Once you have created your URL, you can change your default profile link by accessing the settings in your LinkedIn profile.

If you are interested in learning more about using UTM Parameters in your social media marketing, check out these articles:

Why You Need UTM Parameters In Social Media Marketing

Google Analytics: How to Get Accurate Traffic Reports

By Terminus Team

The 15 Best URL Shorteners For Any Business

Does your business need a URL shortener?

Well-crafted URLs are an important (yet often overlooked) element of a successful SEO strategy. A smaller URL is more likely to catch your audience’s attention than a jarring string of letters and numbers. It can also help build trust among your audience and generate higher click rates to your site.

The simplest way to create clean, enticing URLs is by using a URL shortening tool. No matter the size of your business or budget, this article will help you find the best URL shortener for your unique needs.

What is a URL Shortener?

A URL shortener is exactly what it sounds like: a tool that turns long, complicated URLs into smaller, bite-sized links. Some URL shortening services offer features that go beyond simply shrinking links, including URL customization, embedding UTM parameters, and link tracking and analytics. Understanding which of these features to leverage for your business is key to determining the best URL shortener for you.

To conduct a thorough audit of your needs, consider these questions:

What’s your budget?

Many URL shorteners offer free and paid versions of their services, some of which can cost upwards of $500 per month. Understanding how much you’re able to spend will help you choose the best URL shortener for your business.

How many people are on your team?

Are you flying solo, or are you working as part of a team? If you’re on your own, chances are a free URL shortener will meet your needs just fine. But if you’re working with others, you might need a more robust service that provides access to collaborative workspaces.

What do you need it for?

Are you looking to track links in Google Analytics? If so, you’ll want to make sure your link shortener can embed UTM parameters. Perhaps you’re looking to drive brand awareness — the best URL shortener for you should offer a customization tool. And if you need a shortened link for social media? You should be able to customize your link to drive clicks and track key analytics in a single platform.

Shorten Your URLs with TerminusApp

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Whether you’ve got a stacked agency budget and a team behind you, or you’re simply looking for a quick and free solution, the Internet is full of options. Here are some of the best URL shorteners.

Best URL Shorteners

1. Cuttly

Cuttly offers a variety of features, including link shortening, branded link creation, and advanced analytics. Best of all, it’s absolutely free to use. Cuttly allows users to track each shortened link in real time and measure its performance. It also offers a UTM code generator for registered users.

2. Short URL

Short URL is a no-frills site that allows for the shortening, sharing, and tracking of links. There’s no customization tool on this platform, but for those looking for a straightforward and free URL shortener, this is a great place to start.

3. Tiny URL

TinyURL.com is a free site that offers both URL shortening and customization. What we like about this tool (besides it being free, of course) is that it’s easily integrated into your browser’s toolbar. Clicking on the toolbar button will then create a tiny URL for the current page you’re on. However, Tiny URL doesn’t possess link tracking abilities.

Other URL shorteners offer paid and enterprise plans. Paying for a URL shortener can give you access to services like on-call customer support, link management, traffic routing, and collaborative workspaces. If that sounds like something your business could benefit from, try opting for one of these paid URL shorteners.

4. Rebrandly

Rebrandly is a link management platform to brand, track and share short URLs using a custom domain name. Rebrandly does provide a free service, but it caps its tracked clicks at 5,000 per month. Plans range between $29 and $499 per month, or you can contact Rebrandly for custom pricing.

5. Clickmeter

Clickmeter helps businesses optimize clickthrough and conversion rates through the management, racking, and monitoring of shortened URLs. Users have access to tools like click and conversion tracking, URL shortening, branded domains, A/B testing, and dynamic traffic redirects. Plans range from $29 per month to $349 per month.

6. Bitly

Business that use branded links report a 34% increase in clicks to their website. With Bitly, you can create custom branded links that remain consistently recognizable across any channel. Bitly integrates with nearly every social media and digital marketing tool and offers analytics tracking tools on a single interface. You can get started for free or at $39/month with a basic plan. Contact Bitly for a custom plan.

7. Ow.ly by Hootsuite

Social media managers, rejoice — Ow.ly will help you shorten links, measure traffic, and demonstrate social ROI right inside the Hootsuite dashboard. Pricing ranges between $29 and $599 per month.

8. Buffer

Buffer is another social media management site that includes a URL shortener. Plans start at $15 per month and range up to $99 per month for its publishing services (which include link shortening), but for analytics access, you’ll need to purchase an additional plan.

9. Branch.io

Branch is a mobile linking platform that unifies user experience and measurement across different devices, platforms, and channels. You can use the platform for free, but Branch charges $59 per month for premium solutions that integrate deep links into marketing tools — which is excellent news for app developers, as web links don’t work with native mobile apps.

10. Snip.ly

Sniply allows you to add custom links to all owned, earned, and paid media. For example, you can attach a call-to-action that appears as a little pop-up box on the bottom of the page. Plans range between $29 per month to $299 per month.

11. T2mio

Along with link shortening, T2mio has a variety of useful tools, including a one-click social share and QR code generator, bulk URL creation, and one-click domain mapping. You can get started with a one-time fee of $5, or pay for monthly plans ranging between $29 to $89 per month. You can also contact T2mio for custom pricing.

12. Zapier

Zapier allows you to instantly connect its URL shortener feature with over 1,500 apps, including Gmail, Slack, Dropbox, and Airtable. There’s a free plan available that’s suitable for individuals, but if you’re on a team, you might consider looking at their other pricing options.

13. Terminus

Along with providing a UTM builder, we work with your custom domain to help you build branded, short URLs. Terminus also includes HTTPS for your custom domain, custom paths, a retargeting pixel, and a rich UTM builder. Plans start at $24 per month and range up to $158 per month, but you can also get in touch with us for a quote.

Best URL Shorteners for Developers

14. Firebase

Firebase is a comprehensive app development platform backed by Google Cloud. This guide walks you through creating Dynamic Links using either the Firebase console, using a REST API, iOS or Android Builder API, or by forming a URL by adding Dynamic Link parameters to a domain specific to your app.

15. Polr

Polr is an open-source link shortener. It allows you to host your own URL shortener and brand your URLs while gaining access to analytics.

What Do URL Shorteners Look Like?

Let’s take a look at what using a URL shortener might look like in practice. For example, take this URL: https://www.terminusapp.com/blog/analytics-dashboard-look-like-old-copywriting-formula/

What would it look like if we shortened it?

With Terminus, it would look like this after customizing the path: https://ter.li/analytics-dashboard

Using Cuttly’s free tool, we’d have: https://cutt.ly/3rYXriJ

Using Bitly, it would look like this: https://bit.ly/2uM530c

And if we were to customize it: https://tinyurl.com/terminus-analytics-guide

Essentially, using a URL shortener is like giving a link a much-needed makeover — the benefits of which extend far beyond just aesthetics. Luckily, there’s no shortage of URL shorteners available for both individuals and companies that operate on a larger scale. You can start by taking advantage of a 21-day Terminus trial. It’s zero-risk and absolutely free.

Additional Resources:

By Terminus Team

Vanity/Custom URLs – How to Get One & Why It’s Important

While you’ve been designing your website, you may have come across the term “vanity URL.” These are sometimes also called custom URLs. But what is a custom URL?

Essentially, a vanity or custom URL is a unique web address branded for marketing purposes. It is specific to your website and your business and can help your audience reach you more quickly and easily.

For instance, let’s say your website is running a summer sale. You can create a new webpage that will lead your users to the sale, but the URL is made of a string of complicated numbers that’s not memorable or catchy. Your vanity URL, however, would simply read https://mywebsite.com/SummerSale.

Are vanity URLs truly necessary? How do you go about getting one? This article will break down everything you need to know surrounding custom URLs, including best practices for selecting your URL, how to use one, how to create one, and how they can positively impact your SEO.

Why Should You Have a Vanity URL?

Custom or vanity URLs can be incredibly helpful for your business’s online presence. First, they’re simply easier to remember than a standard URL. Having a URL that’s short and easy to remember will make it much more likely that your audience will actually visit your website. It also makes your URL much easier to share and helps build more trust with your users.

Have you ever seen an ad for a website and thought it looked intriguing but didn’t have time to write it down? If it was a long and complicated link, chances are you couldn’t remember it when you got home. However, if it was a vanity URL that was short and catchy, you probably remembered it and had a better chance of visiting the website. Using vanity URLs can be an appealing and effective way to promote your business.

You may have seen websites promoting a specific campaign or sale with a unique URL, like https://mycompany.com/SaveTheTurtles. This web address is much catchier than a longer URL and is easier for audiences to remember and, in turn, visit later.

Create and Track Your Vanity URL with TerminusApp

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Vanity URL Best Practices

Now that you’ve decided to create a vanity URL, what can help make it effective? There are a few simple best practices to keep in mind that will put you on the right track.

1. Decide on a Good Name

First, decide what you’ll name it. Keep it short and memorable with your company name and one or two words that describe where the link will lead. For example, imagine you click on a page titled www.mywebsite.com/contact it’s pretty clear that this page will lead to the “contact” section of your website. This is the ease and simplicity that your audience is looking for.

Finally, avoid complicated abbreviations that your audience isn’t likely to remember. The simpler, the better!

2. Plan Where You’ll Place It

Once you’ve named your custom URL, decide where you’re going to use it. They’re great for advertisements both online and off. Online, you can share your URL on free download pages, contests on social media, or landing pages. Offline, you may see a vanity URL on a flyer, billboard, or direct mail.

Let’s say you’re sending out a brochure discussing a new feature on your website. You probably don’t have enough space to cover everything you want to share, and you want your audience to see it for themselves anyway! By including a vanity URL like mywebsite.com/New, you’ll be giving your audience a memorable place to go.

You should avoid using your vanity URL for every link you share. If you’ve already got a link that’s short and easy to associate with your brand, then it’s fine as it is.

How to Create a Custom URL

To create a vanity URL, you can use any shortening service that allows custom domains and also customizing short urls. Bitly is one of the most popular ones. For our example, we’ll use Terminus custom shortener.

Step 1. Pick Your Domain Shortener

You can either opt to use the Terminus domain, ter.li, or you can select your own domain. Simply visit the Custom Domains page available in the top navigation menu, select “Add a Custom Domain,” and configure the domain to your liking.

Step 2. Select “Add a Custom Domain

Step 3. Configure Custom Domain

Specify the custom domain name, say ex.mp
Specify the Default URL where a visitor will be redirected if a valid short URL is not found or if the your custom domain is visited directly.
Click Save.

Step 4. Configure DNS Settings

Then you’ll need to configure your DNS settings as per the instructions provided.

This can take a while (up to an hour), but you can verify it by looking for a checkmark next to your custom domain in Terminus.

Step 5. Request SSL/HTTPS for Your Custom Domain (Optional)

If you wish, you can also request SSL/HTTPS for your new domain as well, providing added security to your visitors.

Step 6. Configure Your Project to Use the Custom Domain

Once the custom domain is setup, you can now customize any URL and turn it into a vanity URL.

Choose which URL you would like to customize

2. Then type the most relevant, memorable word that gets the meaning across

Creating a custom URL is easier than ever before thanks to these custom domain shorteners. You always stay in complete control of your website, and you can easily track your analytics to see how your vanity URL is performing.

Uses of Vanity URLs

You now have your vanity URL. If you’re promoting your social media page, for example, a vanity URL of www.face.book is much more attractive and easier to remember than the typical string of numbers you’d encounter.

Now that you have your new link, how do you promote it? Like we mentioned, you’ll likely see these URLs both in the digital and physical spaces. A few print examples might include:

Magazines
Flyers
Billboards
Sides of vehicles!

Vanity URLs work well in these spaces because they provide a quick and easy address for your audience to remember even if they can’t write it down.

You’ll also see custom URLs online, of course. Examples include:

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter
Email newsletters
Online brochures

Using a vanity URL in a digital ad makes the whole appearance much cleaner and more streamlined, leading to a better user experience and, therefore, more clicks. It’s an easy way to link to a sale page, contact form, or feedback opportunity.

Vanity URLs are also incredibly helpful with remarketing. Sometimes, a visitor will head to your website but not follow through with the action you want (i.e. purchasing your product). Remarketing to these audience members can be the extra push they need to follow through. By using a vanity URL to reach out to those you’re remarketing, you’re providing them with a quick and simple link to make the process even easier.

Finally, custom URLs are perfect for social sharing. The typical URL with long strings of numbers is just unappealing, and social media followers are less likely to click. With a short and unique link, it’s easier to integrate your page into your social media strategy, and your audience has a better chance of clicking and sharing your link.

SEO and Vanity URLs

Using vanity URLs can help you boost your SEO immensely if done properly. Consider the top keywords in your industry and see if you can integrate these into your new vanity URL. This can help your website get more traffic just by web users searching for the keywords.

Additionally, Google favors websites that are already popular. Vanity URLs can help boost your SEO in this way as a clean and short URL is more memorable, so more people are likely to remember and visit it. A long URL, on the other hand, is less likely to be directly searched and may wind up lower in search results.

Vanity URL Examples

Some of today’s biggest companies make good use of their custom URLs. You can feature them on a variety of different platforms. Here are a few for reference:

Twitter:

Take a look at how Pepsi has promoted their #TheRecipe campaign on Twitter by using a vanity URL:

Facebook:

Facebook ads are a great way to show off your vanity URLs, even if customers don’t click through, chances are they’ll notice a stand out URL. Here are a few examples:

Stand-Out Domains:

Whether your business is big or small, you can use these vanity URLs to your advantage. These are just two examples of where you can display a custom URL, but the possibilities are truly endless! They provide the perfect opportunity to make an impact on your potential customers.

Conclusion

In today’s fast-moving world, we’re always looking to make things simpler and easier to take advantage of. Vanity URLs are the perfect way to make your links more appealing to your target audience. Custom or vanity URLs are quick and memorable links that bring your audience to your website. They’re easy to design and can be used just about anywhere. Used properly, they can do wonders for your website traffic and SEO efforts. By taking advantage of this incredible tool, you can more confidently advertise your website and reach your target audience faster and more effectively than ever before.

Learn More About Tracking Your Marketing Campaigns

By Terminus Team

What’s in a Name? Expert Insight to UTM Naming Conventions

UTM Naming Conventions are a crucial part of accurately tracking your analytics, but experts have never been able to agree on what’s best. Utilizing UTM Naming Conventions is how a company can track specific UTM parameters together, whether you want to know how many people are finding your business through an ad on Facebook or a certain phrase in your emails.

UTM Naming Conventions are unique to every business and there’s no “one size fits all” method, so we’ve brought in a team of experts to tell us what they think. They’ve weighed their pros and cons and given their unbiased opinions.

Himanshu Sharma

Himanshu helps business owners and marketing professionals in generating more sales and ROI by fixing their website tracking issues, helping them understand their true customers purchase journey and by helping them determine the most effective marketing channels for investment.

He has over 14 years experience in digital analytics and digital marketing. He is the author of four best-selling books on analytics and conversion optimization. He currently works for Optimize Smart.

He was nominated for ‘digital analytics association awards for excellence’. Digital Analytics Association‘ is a world-renowned not-for-profit association that helps organizations overcome the challenges of data acquisition and application.

Do you recommend specifying campaign goal in UTMs? If yes, where should this information go?

No, I don’t recommend mentioning campaign goals (like optin, sales etc) in UTMs.

How about business units, product categories, products, etc.? Should they be part of UTM? If yes, where should this information go in UTM?

You can add them as a part of the value of utm_campaign. Make your campaign name as descriptive as possible while keeping it as short as possible.

How do you recommend specifying display sizes in UTMs?

You can add display sizes as a part of the value of utm_campaign.

What other information do you recommend capturing in UTMs and how?

Only the information you really need. Don’t make the UTM parameters unnecessary long. I usually use utm_campaign to capture information.

Robert Petkovic

Robert teaches digital specialists about basic and advanced usage of Google Analytics on several courses. He is also a keynote speaker on various digital marketing conferences, as well as a Program Director of digital marketing conference “LINK”, based in Sarajevo.

Although he works in Zagreb, he actually lives by the sea and can’t imagine a week spent without taking a look at the beautiful Croatian coastline. You can find his new website here.

Do you recommend specifying campaign goal in UTMs? If yes, where should this information go?

I don’t see any practical usage of this, because I usually do performance marketing where every campaign has its goals and if I do create a report on specific conversions, that would usually contain all the campaigns that lead to the conversion.

However, the utm_campaign tag itself may contain a lot of additional information encoded in the campaign name. For example, the campaign that shows winter boots to ladies who are already engaged with our brand and whose goal is to make a preorder might have the name such as “winter-boots-2019_W_DO_Preorder”. “W” stands for women and “DO” stands for “DO” phase in See-Think-Do-Care framework.

How about business units, product categories, products, etc.? Should they be part of UTM? If yes, where should this information go in UTM?

Definitely, utm_term (Keyword) is the place for that type of information. And yes, I strongly suggest to use the product or author or category in the utm_term, if possible.

How do you recommend specifying display sizes in UTMs?

I usually use utm_content tag (Ad Content) for that type of information, as well as for the creative type (A vs B), the type of post, etc.

What other information do you recommend capturing in UTMs and how?

Well, this requires a whole new blog post and I encourage you to read the rather old but evergreen blog post on 5 cool examples of utm-tracking on Degordian educational hub. Any time I prepare an analytics measurement plan for some website, I think of “marketing measurement plan” where I discuss the current situation with the client and their needs so that we can find the best UTMcombination that fits their needs. Some other information I track is:

– which billboard info did someone used to type-in the URL (via bit.ly or via QR code, which is usually tracked as utm_medium, while the utm_source might be the exact location)
– content author (as utm_term)
– clicks to email signatures (utm_source=signature&utm_medium=email&utm_content=employee123)
– which version of the same newsletter link gets better results (utm_content)
…
The ultimate goals are to have 0 sessions from direct sources, because although that type of traffic is by definition “the best traffic”, in reality it’s just traffic we forgot to utm-track 😉

Jackie Vetrano

Jackie Vetrano is the assistant director of marketing and prospect management at UNC Kenan-Flagler School of Business, MBA programs. When she isn’t knee-deep in lead nurturing and strategic communications, Vetrano spends her free time running, trying new foods, ax-throwing, defending the Oxford Comma, and posting photos of her cat on Instagram.

You can find Jackie on Twitter.

Do you recommend specifying campaign goal in UTMs? If yes, where should this information go?

Because these are links, I would assume that most all campaign goals are “clicks,” which would mean using a UTM code for this matter would not be beneficial or provide any further insight. It is more important to clearly define each UTM variable within your team, and then reflect on the goals and if they were achieved based on the data provided. For example, if you want to know how many people completed a form after clicking a Facebook ad, you would have to combine UTM codes (“how many people clicked on this link from Facebook?”) and Google Analytics’ Goals (“how many people completed this form?”) to get the answer.

How about business units, product categories, products, etc.? Should they be part of UTM? If yes, where should this information go in UTM?

This goes back to the interest of the team. It is likely that the webpage URL contains the name of the product or service (www.company.com/televisions), so adding “television” to the UTM code does not provide any further insight.

Puru Choudhary

Puru is the Founder & CEO of Terminus. Terminus is a feature-rich UTM Builder that replaces your spreadsheets. It helps you and your team standardize and consistently follow UTM naming conventions.

Do you recommend specifying campaign goal in UTMs? If yes, where should this information go?

Adding a goal to UTMs can help define what a specific campaign is trying to do. It can provide clarity and purpose to the entire team. It can also help what metrics to look at. If the goal was to make a sale, then the metric is to look at purchases/revenue generated. This can also help when people building UTMs are not the same as those looking at analytics reports. utm_campaign is a good place to add this information.

How about business units, product categories, products, etc.? Should they be part of UTM? If yes, where should this information go in UTM?

It depends on the business. If you need to look at metrics for each business unit, product, etc. then these values can help you quickly filter the reports and get that data. This can save a lot of time if done correctly and consistently. These can also be part of utm_campaign.

How do you recommend specifying display sizes in UTMs?

Yes, if possible, add the display sizes. They can provide information about which ones are performing better than others. They can be specified in utm_content. In fact, utm_content is a good place to add any useful information about the copy, image, video, etc. of the things a visitor sees before clicking on your UTM link.

What other information do you recommend capturing in UTMs and how?

It’s best to capture only the information you absolutely need and nothing else. A good way to do that is to imagine what kind of reports would be helpful. That can help you realize what information you need and then add that information in the utm_campaign or utm_content based on its type.

Recap

As you can see, there are lots of opinions when it comes to UTN naming. Now that you’ve reviewed these expert’s insights, you can get implementing.

For more information and assistance with naming your UTM conventions, check out TerminusApp’s Naming Convention Product.

If you would like to read a more in-depth review of UTM Naming Conventions this is the article for you: How to come up with UTM Naming Conventions and Enforce Them?

Additional Resources:

By Terminus Team

How to Utilize Google Analytics to Effectively Track Your Campaigns

What is Campaign Tracking?

Campaign tracking can be vital to making your online ads more effective. In short, campaign tracking involves identifying the activities of users to pinpoint where your website’s traffic is coming from. By seeing which ad placements are drawing the largest number of visitors to your site, you can optimize your campaigns and budget more effectively to capture a larger audience at a reasonable cost to you.

Google Analytics is a great tool for campaign tracking. It brings all of your resources together in one convenient location to give you a quick look at your statistics. In general, Google Analytics helps you track campaigns in two categories:

Organic campaigns, such as direct traffic, unpaid search results, and social media/email traffic
Paid campaigns, such as paid keywords and Google Ads

Where to Start

Tracking campaigns through Google Analytics is an easy process. Your biggest helper here lies in UTM parameters, which are tags added to your URL to help determine where traffic is coming from. There are five types of UTM parameters:

Campaign: letting you see which ad campaign the link came from
Source: identifying traffic sources like search engines and newsletters
Medium: which indicates how traffic is reaching you such as email or social media
Content: highlighting a specific call to action
Term: which tells you which certain keyword is present in a successful ad

In addition to the “campaign” term that we’re focusing on here, these other UTM parameters are ideal for giving you a more detailed look at where your traffic is originating from. You’ll be able to instantly see where people are viewing your ads, so you can focus your efforts on the most successful channels.

To take advantage of UTM Parameters, you will need to understand UTM Naming Conventions in order to build a custom URL in order to track the parameters. While manual tagging isn’t that difficult, it can be less time-consuming to use a UTM builder from Terminus. This way, you’re guaranteed to make no mistakes and can more accurately determine which results you want to see.

For example, if you’re wanting to track your traffic from Facebook, your URL might look like this:

http://www.mysite.com/sale?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=summer_sale

You’ll simply enter the destination URL and the requested parameters into the URL builder, and it will automatically be drafted! You also have options to save preset parameters and add UTM tracking to all URLs in your emails.

Setting Up Goals and Tracking Your Progress

Tracking campaigns through Google Analytics is a quick and easy way to make sure you’re on the right path to meet your goals. You can keep track of certain behaviors and reproduce the ads that have elicited those behaviors. Using Google Analytics to create and track goals is a convenient way to have this information all in one place.

Once you’re in Google Analytics, head to “Admin” at the gear-shift symbol toward the bottom of your page, then click “Goals” in the right-hand menu and select “+ New Goal.”

From there, you’ll enter your goal description and details to your exact specifications, including the engagement you’re tracking and the destination type.

You can also use Google Analytics to identify conversions, when your visitors answer the call to action you present, like completing a form or buying a product. In Google Analytics, head to the “Conversions” menu, select “Goals” and then “Overview.”

Here, you’ll see exactly how your conversions are faring, so you can plan to replicate the methods that are working for you and your visitors.

Tracking Your Campaigns on Google Analytics

There are a few quick steps to take to start tracking your campaigns through Google Analytics. To start, log on to Google Analytics, then head to the “Acquisitions” page and click “Campaigns” and “All Campaigns.”

The initial page here will give you a summary of your campaigns and their success. You can see how many users, new users, and sessions have resulted through a certain campaign. You can also view more statistics about the behaviors of your visitors and your conversion rates. Simply scroll down to view this information.

These figures will give you a better look at the trends in your traffic. If there’s a certain campaign that’s converting at a higher rate, you can easily track it to see where your success lies. Over time, you’ll be more able to identify trends to maintain and increase visitor numbers by mimicking the campaigns that have been successful in the past.

Once your campaigns are being tracked, you can run reports to take a closer look at your metrics. To see an overview, head to the “Acquisition” tab, then select “All Traffic” and “Channels.” You can then view your trends over a day, week, or month, or look toward the bottom of your screen to see your acquisition, behavior, and conversion numbers.

In the end, campaign tracking through Google Analytics can make a huge difference in the way you run your ads. By creating and utilizing customized UTM parameters, creating goals, tracking your campaigns, and identifying conversions, you’ll have a fuller picture of the success of your online ads, leading you to a clearer vision for the future of your business.

If You Would Like to Learn More About UTM Parameters, Check Out These Articles:

By Terminus Team

All About UTM Parameters (Infographic)

Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters are an essential tool when it comes to tracking the effectiveness of your ad campaigns. Essentially, UTM parameters are tags that you can add to the URLs you are sending to potential customers through channels such as Facebook ads, email promotions, or any other ways of outreach. By utilizing UTM parameters, you’ll be able to easily keep track of where people are seeing your ads so that you can put more time and attention into the most beneficial platforms for you.

There are five types of UTM parameters: campaign, source, medium, content, and term. These terms help to narrow down your results and give you a more detailed look at where your traffic is coming from. UTM parameters are a great tool to help you make the most of Google Analytics, and you’ll be able to easily create reports that show what’s working and what’s not. If you’re considering utilizing UTM parameters in your ads, it is crucial to first understand UTM naming conventions. With just a little research, you can quickly be on your way to creating the most effective ad campaigns for your business.

Download the Infographic

If You Would Like to Learn More About UTM Parameters:

By Terminus Team

Mastering utm_campaign, utm_medium, and utm_source in Google Analytics

Table of Contents:

What is UTM?
The Campaign Parameter
The Medium Parameter
The Source Parameter
The Term Parameter
The Content Parameter

When running a business, finding out as much as you can about your website traffic is crucial. If you can discover which ad campaigns are pulling in the most visitors, then you can decide where you should focus your time and effort to reap the biggest reward.

UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters are incredibly handy tools to help you do just that by tracking how your traffic is getting to your site. Read on to learn how to master UTM parameters through Google Analytics.

What is UTM?

UTM parameters are vital for keeping track of your website’s traffic. These codes can help you get a closer look into where exactly your visitors are coming from, so you know where your ads are working.

The 5 UTM Parameters

UTM parameters track traffic through two components: the UTM parameter and the tracking variable. The UTM parameter starts with utm_ and allows you to track 5 different parameters: campaign, medium, source, term, and content. The tracking variable is a unique variable text that identifies the parameter being tracked. It is important, however, to first understand UTM Naming Conventions when using these 5 parameters.

For example, in this UTM code: utm_source=facebook – “utm_source” is the UTM parameter while “facebook” is the tracking variable.

1. The Campaign Parameter (utm_campaign)

This parameter provides the name of the specific marketing campaign, such as “launch” or “giant sale.”

The campaign parameter is useful for tracking the effectiveness of a particular marketing campaign in which you may have multiple ads across multiple channels but utilizing one strategic approach such as a sale or a relaunch.

Example: utm_campaign=giant%20sale
In this example, “%20” replaces the space, which cannot be used in a URL. “giant sale” is the campaign name being tracked by this parameter.
Additional example: utm_campaign=launch.

When used in your URLs, this parameter provides you with more insight into your marketing performance. UTM parameters help organize and track visitors to your website, especially when their browser does not set a Referrer URL for any particular reason.

To find your campaign UTM parameter in Google Analytics, navigate to the Acquisition tab on the left panel, then click Campaigns, then click All Campaigns – and you will see a list of your campaign names (utm_campaign)

Pro Tip: Campaign Tracking is necessary to find out whether or not your ads are effective so it’s essential to understand the process of creating and tracking your campaigns.

2. The Medium Parameter (utm_medium)

This parameter defines which medium the visitor used to find your website, such as “social”, “email” or “cpc.” This parameter is useful to distinguish which medium is bringing you the most traffic or the highest quality traffic, as you can separate the traffic in Analytics.

Example: utm_medium=social
In this example, “social” shows that the traffic came from an ad viewed organically on one of your social networks – such as a funny or engaging post you created.
Additional example: utm_medium=email

In this example, the parameter shows that your traffic came from an email message that you sent.

To find your medium UTM parameters in Analytics, navigate to the Acquisition tab on the left panel, then click All Traffic then Source/Medium.

Initially, you will see a combined view of the UTM source and medium dimensions in Analytics. You can click on the “Medium” blue text link underneath the graph to see the traffic related to the utm_medium parameter.

3. The Source Parameter (utm_source)

This parameter tells you what the source of your traffic is, such as “google” “Instagram” or “twitter.” The source parameter provides specificity regarding which websites are referring your traffic.

The utm_source parameter differs from the utm_medium parameter because it provides specific information on your referring websites, while utm_medium is used to track the effectiveness of a marketing medium.

It’s helpful to know if you are getting more customers from your Instagram efforts – you can then scale your efforts up to achieve more business results.

Example: utm_source=instagram
In this example, traffic is coming from Instagram.
Additional example: utm_source=google

To find your UTM_source parameters in Analytics, follow the same initial steps as you did for UTM_medium. Navigate to the Acquisition tab on the left panel then click All Traffic then Source/Medium.

Initially, you will see a combined view of the UTM source and medium dimensions in Analytics.

Then click on the “Source” blue text link underneath the graph to see the traffic related to the utm_source parameter.

4. The Term Parameter (utm_term)

Primarily used in Google AdWords campaigns, this parameter informs you which terms were used in search ads, such as “shorts sale” or “deal on shirts.”

It allows the marketer to understand which terms have led their customers to their website. If you find there are specific terms that are sending more customers to your website, you can increase your efforts to try to rank your website higher for those terms organically or through paid search.

Example: utm_term=shorts%20sale
In this example, visitors are finding the website through the term “shorts sale.” “%20” again replaces the space.
Additional example: utm_term=deal%20on%20shirts

See below on how to find utm_term in Analytics.

5. The Content Parameter (utm_content)

This parameter lets you know what call-to-action brought in traffic, such as “buy today” or “more information.”

You may want to know if a particular call to action is working better than another. For example, maybe “buy today” in your text link or button is resulting in a higher clickthrough rate than “more information.” This parameter would help you determine which one is performing better for you.

Example: utm_content=buy%20today
In this example, visitors are seeing the CTA term “buy today” and clicking on it.
Additional example: utm_content=more%20information

When you use the appropriate parameters in your URLs, you can easily compare the traffic each call to action is sending in Analytics.

Build and manage all UTM URLs in one place

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How Do You Find utm_term and utm_content in Analytics?

Navigate to the Acquisition tab on the left panel then click All Traffic then click Channels. Then click the Secondary Dimension button below the graph and select the Advertising drop-down menu then select Ad Content (for utm_content) or Keyword (for utm_term).

UTM parameters are useful for tracking in many situations such as to track links in your email campaigns, social media campaigns, paid campaigns (except for Google Adwords which already provides tracking in Google Analytics), affiliate campaigns (people promoting your product or service for a commission), or offline campaigns (recommended to shorten URLs for offline campaigns).

There are a few situations where you should not use UTM parameters, such as for internal links or organic (unpaid) search links. Using them on internal links can create confusion when visitors arrive from one source and then click an internal link with a UTM parameter that indicates a different source. They are also not that useful for natural referrers, such as people writing about your website and linking to it, because the Referrer URL already provides helpful information about the source of this website traffic. These cases are important to remember and so we’ve compiled a guide for your convenience.

These five UTM parameters can be instrumental in analyzing your traffic and improving your visitor numbers. Marketers can benefit from this information and can make more educated efforts into advertising thanks to UTM codes. Campaigns, mediums, sources, terms, and content are all factors in your traffic, and being able to track each item individually can make a work of difference in watching your analytics. Take control of your website by employing UTM parameters and take your business further than you could have ever imagined.

Learn more about UTM Parameters in these articles here:

By Terminus Team

How to Use UTM Codes to Track Your Facebook Ads

Facebook ads can be a vital part of drawing traffic to your website and your company. Yet, when you’re looking through your Google Analytics, it’s not always clear where your visitors are coming from. UTM, or Urchin Tracking Module, parameters can be an invaluable tool for solving this issue. Read on to learn how UTM codes can help you navigate the impacts of your ads.

What are UTM Codes?

UTM codes are variants of a URL that can track your ads’ effectiveness. In short, they can help you identify where your visitors are mainly seeing your campaigns and where they aren’t as useful. There are five UTM parameters:

utm_campaign: Tracks a particular campaign name to monitor its performance, such as “August launch” or “relaunch”

Example: &utm_campaign=relaunch

utm_content: Tracks the link that was clicked, in case you have multiple links to the same destination, such as when you have both a text link and a banner ad pointing to the same destination.

Example: &utm_content=textlink

utm_medium: Tracks which medium the visitor used to reach your website, such as pay-per-click or social.

Example: &utm_medium=social

utm_source: Tracks the website that sent the traffic source, such as Facebook or Amazon.

Example: &utm_source=facebook

utm_term: Tracks the search keyword the visitor typed, such as “dress shoes.”

Example: &utm_term=dress+shoes

Let’s say your normal URL is http://mywebsite.com. If you added UTM parameters to track traffic to your website, it would turn into something like this:

http://mywebsite.com/?utm_content=textlink&utm_source=facebook

With these parameters in place, when you view the traffic in analytics, you would know the visitors to your website came from a marketing campaign that had a text link on Facebook.

While these URLs can get lengthy, Bitly is a great tool to shorten them. Simply make an account and enter your full URL at the top right corner of your screen. Hit the “Shorten” button, and you’re done!

You can now copy and paste your link as you please. Bitly is an affordable and easy-to-use service that can prove invaluable for boosting your ad campaigns.

Build and manage all UTM URLs in one place

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Facebook Dynamic Parameters

Facebook recognizes the importance of parameters in your ads and has made it easier to track them through Facebook Ads.

Head to Ads Manager and select or create a campaign, go to the Ad level, then create a new ad or select an existing one.

Scroll down and then click Build a URL Parameter, and enter your website URL and the parameters you want to track.

You can make your own custom URL parameters or use the dynamic parameters pre-made by Facebook:

ad_id={{ad.id}}
adset_id={{adset.id}}
campaign_id={{campaign.id}}
ad_name={{ad.name}}
adset_name={{adset.name}}
campaign_name={{campaign.name}}
placement={{placement}}
site_source_name={{site.source.name}}

Facebook Dynamic Parameters offers the benefit of auto-populating the values based on the information you input into your campaign, rather than having the user type them out, thus saving you valuable time.

For example, if you want to auto-populate your campaign name for the utm_campaign parameter in order to track a particular campaign, you would click the box next to “Campaign Name” and select the {{campaign.name}} option. This is just an example of a UTM code but utm_campaign is one of the most essential parameters to understand and use effectively when creating a marketing campaign.

Then, in the Parameter Preview box, you would see your updated website URL.

However, if you want to auto-populate all of your UTM Parameters in one instance, you can copy and paste this code snippet:

utm_source={{site_source_name}}&utm_medium=social

&utm_campaign={{campaign.name}}&utm_content={{adset.name}}

&utm_term={{ad.name}}

into the URL Parameters box when you open Ads Manager.

While manual UTM coding is possible, it’s not necessary since it is rather time-consuming. This can be a helpful tool for beginner-level digital marketers in particular. You don’t have to completely educate yourself on UTM coding before creating an ad and seeing its effectiveness.

Using Google Analytics to Check Your Facebook Ads

Now that you’ve set up your dynamic parameters on Facebook, how do you find this information in Google Analytics?

Head to the Acquisition tab and choose All Traffic. Then, you can access UTM codes through Channels, Source/Medium, Social, or All Campaigns. These tabs give you a better picture of where your website’s traffic is coming from, including the Facebook parameters you set up.

For more detailed Facebook analytics, click on the Social tab where you can get data on goal tracking and conversions, plugins, sources & pages and users flow.

Additionally, Google Analytics has the capability to classify your parameters automatically. For instance, utilizing utm_medium=social in your URL parameters will automatically categorize Facebook traffic into the “Social” reports.

This is a relatively new feature that provides more insight on revenue and conversion data so you can better track the effectiveness of your social campaigns as well as the most popular pages of your website with your social media traffic and much more.

Best Practices for UTM Codes to Remember

Knowing this information is vital for creating Facebook ads that will be beneficial to your company. Not only will you be able to track your information on Facebook itself, but it will help you create a broader picture of your ad campaigns through Google Analytics. You can now tailor future ads to achieve greater viewership and conversion rates.

There are a lot of best practices to keep in mind while utilizing UTM codes, but here are some to get you started on the basics:

Keep your names simple, short, and lowercase.
Don’t be repetitive, but do stay consistent in your style.
Use dashes, not underscores, to separate your words.
Shorten your links for a tidier page.

UTM codes are a great tool for both beginner and veteran digital marketers. Tracking the success of your ads gives you a better idea of where your efforts are paying off, and UTM codes make it quick and simple. Keep track of key elements for utilizing UTM codes by using our UTM guide. With features like this on Facebook Ads and Google Analytics, you’ll be a pro in no time!

If You Would Like to Learn More About UTM Parameters, Check Out These Articles:

By Terminus Team

The Beginner’s Guide to UTM Parameters + Best Practices

If you already use analytics platforms such as Google Analytics, you probably think you already have this covered. While you may have the basics under control, the problem arises when your analytics tools mark your website traffic as direct. This is an unhelpful way of saying that someone arrived at your website by clicking on a direct link, but the analytics tools cannot detect where that link was originally posted or hosted.

1. What are UTM Parameters?

UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module. It takes its name from the software company that created it, Urchin Software Corporation. The Urchin software provides web analytics for marketers.

In a more practical sense, UTM parameters describe five tags that you can add to the end of a URL to track its performance from specific locations. These tags create the parameters that help you to narrow down tracking information. Here is an example of a URL with UTM parameters added:

2. Types of UTM Parameters?

The types of UTM parameters are synonymous with the five available tags you can use for tracking. Below you will find each tag, followed by what they mean and an example:

utm_campaign: This names the specific campaign the link was a part of. For example, you could use opening_day_deals or black_friday_sale. Example: utm_campaign=black_friday_sale
utm_source: Use this to identify where the traffic comes from. Possible sources include search engine, newsletter, or other referrals. Example: utm_source=facebook
utm_medium: This indicates what marketing channel directed a visitor to your website, such as email, social media, PPC ads, guest blog or brand partnerships. Example: utm_medium=social
utm_content: This highlights the call to action that worked. Example: CTAs include buy_now, click_here, learn_more, shop_now, or try_demo.
utm_term: Identifies keywords used in PPC ads, such as “dashboard cam” or “eye drops for allergies,” so you can see what most people are looking for when they find your ads. Links with this tag rarely show up in organic searches. When they do, this may indicate a website indexing problem. Example: utm_term=tennis_shoes or utm_term=utm_builder

3. What Do UTM Parameters Do?

Implementing UTM codes in Google Analytics will allow you to paint a more accurate picture of various data points which will help you track your marketing efforts. You’ll obtain basic engagement information about visitors, such as their average session, bounce rate, and conversion rates. Remember that not all visitors are profitable, so Google helps you to identify where your money is coming from.

Keep it Simple – Automate Your Parameters

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4. Are There Any Potential Drawbacks?

There is one potential problem that marketers will need to account for when using UTM parameters. When these tags are added to URLs, they do not automatically change when the links change platforms or medium. For example, a customer could copy a link from your Twitter campaign to Facebook. Any potential clicks from that link would still show Twitter as the source in Google Analytics.

Most people share links by copying and pasting. They generally only pay attention to the URL structure if it becomes too long to fit. However, if they delete the UTM parameters, it may once again show up as direct traffic in your analytics.

5. Why are UTM Parameters Important?

Tracking down your revenue’s origins is one of the key benefits UTM parameters bring to the table. Here is some additional information on why UTM parameters form the foundation of strong marketing campaigns and advertising efforts:

Reduce Trial and Error

Sometimes a marketer has no choice but to opt for trial and error in a new market to see what works and what doesn’t. However, running multiple campaigns in this manner can be expensive. UTM Parameters help marketers find their footing in new markets while either eliminating trial and error or limiting the timespan of that strategy. When marketers know exactly what works, they can focus on those specific activities, thereby saving on marketing dollars. Specifically, campaign tracking allows marketers to understand their progress and make adjustments so that campaigns perform at their peak. So, it’s essential to understand the process of campaign tracking.

Finetune Your Funnels

Not all funnels cost money; some cost time. These may involve guest blogging on other websites or using specific social media channels. For example, some companies are surprised to learn that even though Instagram URLs are not clickable in captions, Instagram may still provide most of their website traffic. Similarly, whereas they get lost in the noise of multiple daily posts from big news agencies, they receive tons of referrals from a guest blog on a smaller niche website. In short, you can use UTM tags to find out what funnels work best and invest your time there.

Create Reports

Marketers often face strong demands from in-house employers or external clients to prove the effectiveness of specific campaigns they lead. UTM parameters allow them to narrow down exactly which of these campaigns work and which do not. It also allows marketers to show ROI or growth over a specific period of time versus another.

More Accurate Than Referrer

If you have been using Referrer to take advantage of these benefits before, you may believe UTM parameters are unnecessary. However, hopefully by now we have shown why these parameters provide much more accurate and granular data and why that accuracy is beneficial. This is especially important to account for all the traffic that gets lumped under “direct.”

Facilitates Affiliate Marketing

Have you hired social media influencers to represent your brand online? How will you know if customers used their affiliate links to reach your company? Some businesses provide special codes to bloggers and social media influencers, who then have to remind consumers to use those codes when making a purchase. UTM parameters provide a clear link back to a specific brand ambassador, making it possible to pay more accurate commissions, while also seeing who the most valuable influencers are.

6. Best Practices to Follow When Tagging URLs

When looking at the five types of UTM parameters, it may appear that these tags are complicated to use. This is not necessarily true. Once you understand the basics of how they work, they are easy to put into practice. Also, most marketers do not create these tags manually. Here are some best practices to ensure successful tagging:

Create an Effective Naming Convention

Some businesses get carried away when creating names for their UTM parameters. Use these tips to keep your UTM parameters inline:

Keep things simple and specific. This makes it easier for you to keep up with tags as your practice expands. It also makes it easier for someone else to pick up where you left off when you need assistance.
Consistency is key or you could miss out on the ability to draw accurate automated conclusions. For example, all your social media posts should share the utm_medium “social.” If some are “social” but others are “social_media,” graphs will create a separate bar for each of them.
Use lowercase letters as Google Analytics is case sensitive. This way, you won’t need to remember what should or should not be capitalized.
Remember to use dashes or underscores. Use just one or the other to preserve consistency. Spaces may, in some cases, disrupt the URL and cause it not to work.

Here is a more in-depth guide for all your UTM Naming Conventions questions!

Shorten Links

When URLs become too long, they pose a problem. Millennials are extremely tech-savvy and may recognize and delete the UTM parameters to meet their character counts for social media posts, thereby robbing you of valuable information. Some studies also suggest that users are more likely to click on shortened links. Finally, keeping character counts under 2,000 ensures compatibility with all browsers.

Avoid Duplications

One way to keep URLs short is to avoid repeating yourself in the tags. For example, a utm_campaign called “annual_year_2016” is redundant. You could use either “year_2016” or “annual_2016” and provide the same information. Sometimes the duplication comes from different UTM tags. For example, some marketers may put “linkedin” as both the utm_source and utm_medium.

7. Mistakes to Avoid When Tagging UTM Parameters in URLs

Now that you understand the best ways to go about adding tags to URLs, here are some of the practices you should steer clear of:

Using UTM Parameters in Internal Links

Because of the many benefits business owners get from using UTM parameter links, they may feel tempted to use them everywhere. However, UTM links are useless when used internally and can distort tracking information. When linking internally on your website, there is no need for additional tracking.

Using Every Parameter at the Same Time

Take another look at the example of a URL with UTM parameters that we provided earlier. What do you notice?

http://www.terminusapp.com/?utm_campaign=sale&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

There are several UTM parameter tags missing from this example. You may have believed this was an error, but it is deliberate.

Using all parameters at the same time creates problems. This is one of the reasons URLs with UTM tags end up being too long. Only use the UTM parameters you absolutely need per link or per campaign. It is also well to note that utm_term is most often reserved for use with keywords from paid ad campaigns.

Using UTM Tags for SEO

Contrary to popular opinion, using UTM parameters will not affect your website’s search ranking, While you can use it to track what keywords are performing well for PPC ads, using it to improve your ranking for that keyword will prove unfruitful. For the record, UTM tags do not lower your page’s search rankings either.

Creating Too Many Campaign Names

In an effort to keep the campaign names specific, some business owners may create a different campaign name for every source or medium. If your campaign spans multiple sources and mediums, you may still want to use the same campaign name to track how that campaign performs across platforms.

8. Build and Track UTM Parameters

If you are not sure which UTM parameter builder or tracker would be right for you, you are not alone. As a marketer or business owner, you must first consider the available options, your level of skill, and what your budget allows. Here is a brief overview of some available options:

Manual Tagging

This method is one of the most cost-effective because it is free, however, what it saves you in dollars and cents, it may steal back in time and accuracy. Manual tagging often lead to errors in the URL due to typos or just difficulty keeping track of what goes where. It is virtually impossible to maintain consistency as your business and its marketing campaigns expand.

URL Builder Spreadsheets

Whether it’s Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, spreadsheets can help to improve some of the problems noted with manual tagging. It is still cost-effective, allows you to keep track of naming conventions, and may provide some consistency. However, there is still the risk of creating broken links when piecing everything together. There are special builder sheets, but these have their own drawbacks as well. For example, you can’t tag URLs in bulk so it’s still a slow process. You may also create invalid URLs when trying to encode arbitrary UTM values.

http://www.terminusapp.com/google-analytics-url-builder/

Google URL Builder Tool

This is Google’s free tool to add campaign parameters so you can track Custom Campaigns in Google Analytics. It’s a simple but free solution for one-off creations and guarantees better accuracy over manual tagging. However, it does not store any of your campaigns or naming conventions, so you may still have issues with consistency. It also does not automatically shorten URLs.

https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder

Terminus

Terminus works similarly to the builder spreadsheets, but with greater accuracy and more capabilities. Like the builder spreadsheets, it makes it easier to build and manage the tracking URLs. When using this app, you can also add tags in bulk by using preset UTM codes which stores all the information you need. This allows other members on your team to use UTM parameters without losing consistency. In addition to this, it automatically shortens URLs and keeps track of them. Other features include redirect codes, audits and click reports. Try it free for 21 days with no contracts required.

https://www.terminusapp.com

9. UTM Parameters Cheat Sheet

Learn more about UTM Parameters in these articles here:

By Terminus Team

6 UTM Parameter Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make

Adding UTM tracking codes to your website links are a great way to bolster the capabilities of Google Analytics, shore up data gaps, and better understand your visitors.

The potential challenge lies in the execution.

The Dangers of Using UTM Codes Improperly

Plenty of well-meaning marketers rush to implement UTM tracking codes, only to end up complicate their data by accident. Simple mistakes, many of which are made time and time again, lead to:

Lots of frustration
Wasted time and money
A poor understanding of potential customers

Marketers who make these mistakes would be better off not utilizing UTM codes at all. Why? Because poorly-executed tracking codes lead to inaccurate and cumbersome data.

This becomes a problem when you rely on them to make business decisions. With a distorted view of the situation, you may find yourself investing in certain marketing channels under the false assumption that they’re performing much better than they really are. Or abandoning efforts that were paying off.

Spotting – and Avoiding – the Most Common UTM Pitfalls

Proper UTM tagging makes up for Google Analytics’ shortcomings by offering a more complete picture of the situation – one that you can use to make better business decisions.

Achieving this means avoiding the pitfalls that so many marketers fall into. Once you identify the most common mistakes, it’s easier to avoid them yourself.

Here are six of the most common UTM parameter mistakes:

1. Using UTM Tracking When You Shouldn’t

UTM codes help Google Analytics fill in the gaps when their referral feature doesn’t track where a visitor comes from. It’s a great way to get a more complete picture of the data… but only in certain situations.

One of the most dangerous situations is when a marketer decides to add UTM codes to an internal link on their website. This is counterproductive because:

1) Google Analytics already tracks visitor activity as they navigate your site
2) It erases the information regarding the original traffic source which brought the visitor to your site.

Say a visitor follows a link you posted on Twitter to your new blog article. While reading it, they click on an internal link to a product landing page. If the landing page link contains UTM codes, you’ll lose the information about where the visitor initially came from: Twitter.

The ideal situation to use UTM tracking codes is when you share website links elsewhere, including:

Email clients
Links in documents (PDF, MS Word, Powerpoint, etc.)
Mobile apps
Social media platforms

Adding UTM codes there offers you more information than you would have otherwise. But there’s absolutely no need to add tracking codes to internal links on your website!

Build and manage all UTM URLs in one place

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2. Failing to Shorten Long, Messy URLs

I built an example URL to give you an idea of what a typical URL with tracking codes might look like:

https://www.terminusapp.com/features/?utm_source=webinar_opt_in
&utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=logolink

Not very neat, right?

It’s important to include all of those parameters to get the most comprehensive view of your visitor data possible. But stringing them all together into a long URL is problematic for a few reasons:

Aesthetics. Long, messy URLs aren’t nearly as pleasing to the eye in comparison to short and clean URLs.
Creates suspicion and distrust. Consider how a visitor might feel when they hover over a link, on the verge of clicking it, only to find what looks like a never-ending string of strange characters. To the untrained eye, it may look more like malware than a legitimate website.

One of the best ways to beat this is to use a link shortener to clean up unwieldy UTM tracking codes. You can use programs like:

Terminus built-in link shortener
Bitly
Wistia’s Fresh URL

Short, clean links look nicer; they don’t require a leap of faith for a visitor to click on them. Even better: the Terminus link shortener allows you to create branded short URLs, so your visitors can instantly recognize that the link is legitimate and belongs to you.

3. Confusing Medium and Source Parameters

Of all the UTM parameters, medium and source are some of the most confusing. Some marketers think they’re interchangeable. Others have the meaning completely reversed in their minds.

The easiest way to think about it is this:

Medium. How the visitor came to your website.
Source. Where the visitor came from to get your website.

That might not sound like an important distinction, but it’s crucial. Google Analytics supports a variety of options for the medium (email, social, cpc, etc.) On the other hand, Source is open-ended, leaving it up to you to define as you see fit. Our free UTM best practices email course goes into more detail about these issues, so be sure to check it out if you haven’t already.

Let’s say someone ended up on your landing page after following a link you posted on Twitter. It’s easy to assume that the medium and source would be the same thing: “twitter.” But Twitter doesn’t fall under one of the acceptable UTM medium parameters; the best choice there would be “social.”

Because you have more flexibility with source, you could get more specific by labeling it as “twitter.”

Avoid redundancies here. Just remember that medium describes how the visitor came, and source gives you the opportunity to get more specific about exactly where they came from.

4. Failing to Use the Campaign Parameter Effectively

The campaign parameter gives you complete flexibility to analyze your marketing efforts by the specific business objective you’re trying to achieve.

Unfortunately, many marketers aren’t using this parameter effectively. By sticking with generic labels, we make it impossible to:

1) Recall which campaign we were dealing with when we assessing the data later on
2) Compare it with other campaigns.

At first, utm_campaign=email_29 might make all the sense in the world when you create the link but it becomes hard to remember what you meant months – or years – down the road. And something like utm_campaign=email is way too general to be of any use.

Take a moment with every link and determine what business objectives you are trying to accomplish. Trying to get someone to buy your new product a few weeks after launch? You could name your campaign utm_campaign=spring_2017_launch. Sending out this week’s email newsletter? Why not call it utm_campaign=weekly-2017_02_12 so it’s easy to reference and compare with other weeks.

5. A Lack of Consistency Regarding Spelling, Capitalization, and Naming Conventions

UTM tracking codes are extremely useful, but they are picky. The slightest variation in spelling or capitalization can completely ruin your data.

“Email” and “email” might be the same to you. But Google Analytics doesn’t interpret them that way. If you mix up your parameters and use “email” and “Email” interchangeably, you’ll end up with multiple segments of data instead of a single figure.

These minor errors make it much harder to interpret and compare data. Instead of having a single figure to analyze, you’re forced to check multiple locations and add up the information in order to accurately interpret your data..

The issue can get even worse if you’re working with a marketing team. You might end up with numerous variations for every parameter, diluting your data and making it worthless.

Consistency is paramount. Decide on naming conventions upfront, and make sure everyone involved has access to the same document. Better yet: try the Terminus URL building tools to create multiple URLs, use presets to populate common settings, and collaborate with your team.

6. Creating New Campaign Names for Every Different Medium and Source

In addition to naming campaigns improperly, many marketers miss the larger picture.

Most of us use multiple marketing channels – blog posts, email, social media, etc. – to accomplish our various business objectives. But when it’s time to define UTM parameters, we treat each link as if they’re a discrete entity without connection to any other.

Let’s say you’re trying to convince customers to buy a new product shortly after launch. You’re using social media and email marketing in a joint effort. A common mistake is to define new campaigns for every new source and medium (Twitter launch, Facebook launch, Email launch, etc.)

The solution: create a single campaign and use that parameter consistently across all the marketing channels involved. This gives you a true perspective on how each piece of the campaign works together – instead of just piecemeal insights into how different efforts perform in isolation. You can still use UTM medium and UTM source to identify which specific channel visitors are coming from.

More and more of our marketing today is a multi-channeled integrated effort and so in order to establish an effective marketing campaign, it is important to understand how these UTM parameters can be utilized in a variety of media platforms such as Facebook.

Your Turn

Using UTM tracking codes might seem intimidating at first glance, but it doesn’t have to be.

An awareness of the most common mistakes will help make it that much easier to navigate the learning curve and make the most of precious visitor data. There’s no better time to start than now.

What do you think is the most dangerous UTM tracking code mistake people make? Why? Have you made it yourself? Leave a comment below and share your experience!

If You Would Like to Learn More About How to Utilize UTM Parameters, Check Out These Articles: