UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters are additional information attached to URLs to track the origin of website visitors. They are used to measure and analyze the effectiveness of marketing campaigns by providing information such as source, medium, and campaign name.
For example, a UTM parameter such as “utm_source=GoogleAds&utm_medium=Search&utm_campaign=NewProductLaunch” could be used to indicate that a visitor came to the website from a Google Ads campaign for a new product launch. UTM parameters are included via the URL of the landing pages in the form of GET variables and, if used effectively, enable a detailed analysis of the customer journey up to conversion.
UTM Paramenter can also be used in integrated data management to determine ROI across systems. We have summarized details on this in a blog post: Calculating the ROI of online campaigns with seamless data integration.
The five most important UTM parameters and their roles:
| Parameters | Function |
|---|---|
| utm_term | Identification of paid keywords |
| utm_campaign | Identification of the campaign used to generate the traffic |
| utm_source | Identification of the source of the traffic, for example a search engine or a social network |
| utm_medium | Identification of the advertising/marketing medium, e.g., a wall post, email, or social ad |
| utm_content | Individual contents of a campaign can be separated from each other and identified via this parameter |
How exactly the UTM-Paramenter is used, Google Support has summarized excellently: Collect campaign data with custom URLs