https://ontraport.com/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Post

WORKSHEET

UTM LINK PLANNING

ABOUT THIS WORKSHEET

UTM Link Planning Worksheet

Marketing tracking is one of the most crucial components of any marketing campaign, and effective tracking is not complete without UTM variables. UTM variables allow you to track campaign lead sources by specifically altering the URL that you are sending traffic to. We’ll explain, in depth, the importance of UTM variables and exactly why you should implement them in your next campaign. Then, you can complete the interactive template to organize and generate the UTM variables you will need before you launch your next campaign.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 What are UTM Variables?

CHAPTER 2UTM Link Planning

CHAPTER 3Organizing Your UTM Variables

CHAPTER 4Connecting it All Together

CHAPTER 1

WHAT ARE UTM VARIABLES?

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UTM variables (the name Urchin Tracking Module comes from the Urchin Software Company which was acquired by Google in 2005) are the standard way to track your marketing campaign audience. They are tags that you add to the end of a URL that enable you to track where your leads are coming from so that you can determine which lead sources to put your marketing budget toward and which to adjust.

In an average marketing campaign, you are going to be promoting your site or content across multiple platforms, whether that is an ad you push into your prospects’ Facebook Newsfeed, a banner ad on Google, or a hyperlink in an email. Across all of these platforms, the link is going to be the constant, and the UTMs are going to be — you guessed it — the variables at the end of the link that will act as tags.

While the link destination stays the same, the unique UTM variable that you generate is going to be stored in your lead’s browser. Then, the marketing tracking software that you use will be able to recognize those UTMs and store them so that you can analyze which links are gaining the most clicks.

Some platforms, such as ONTRAPORT, also allow you to see both the first link a person clicked that brought them into your campaign (first click attribution) as well as the last link the person clicked before making a purchase (last click attribution). First-click attribution is helpful in organizing information such as affiliate commissions or if you want to know which specific lead sources are most successful in obtaining leads. Last-click attribution is helpful in understanding which of your assets are most convincing in driving sales, giving you insight into which assets to direct future ads and links toward.

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It’s important to note that UTM variables are not the same as tracking scripts. Tracking scripts show you how your audience interacts with your website, and UTMs show you how they got there.

Tracking scripts allow your advertising or tracking platform to identify web visitors on your site for retargeting purposes and for detailed reporting on visitors’ behavior and how they interact with your site.

Some of the most common tracking scripts used by marketers are:

• Google Analytics: This integrates with Google Adwords and displays in-depth analytics and stats about your website’s traffic. You can see how many total visits your site earned, how many unique visitors, the average session length, bounce rate and much more.

• Facebook Pixel: Facebook’s pixel tracks visitors to your site and ties their data to any known Facebook accounts. This makes it possible to retarget those who visit your website.

• ONTRAPORT: If you’re using ONTRAPORT, you can track visitors to your website to tie their activity on your site to their contact record. If you build using ONTRApages, there’s no need to add tracking manually because it’s already included.

Tracking scripts and UTM variables can be used concurrently; in fact, we recommend that they are.

CHAPTER 2

UTM LINK PLANNING

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The tags at the end of your URL are broken up into five categories: Campaign, Lead Source, Medium, Content and Term. You can use all five variables in one URL or any combination.

Here is what a typical link using UTM variables will look like:

https://ontraport.com/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Post&utm_campaign=Email%20Marketing%20Ebook&utm_term=Nov_1&utm_content=Download_Now

This link will still direct anyone who clicks it to ontraport.com. It will also store the following information in their browser and, if they opt in, in their contact record:

Campaign: Email Marketing Ebook

Lead Source: Facebook

Medium: Post

Content: Download_Now

Term: Nov_1

There is no specific way that you are required to set these variables; however, in most cases, each variable is going to refer to a specific aspect of your campaign.

To get started, you might want to think about a piece of content you recently created and an ad campaign you might create around it. You might have 10 variations of what is essentially the same ad but with differentiating copy, design or CTAs. If you use the exact same UTM variable on all of the advertisements, then you are going to be able to track what campaign the lead came from, but you won’t be able to see which iteration of the ad brought a specific lead to your site.

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In this case, you would alter the campaign “content” on all 10 versions of that ad so that they each have unique content variables. The campaign name, lead source, medium would stay the same (and the term would alter/stay the same depending on if you include it or not).

Choose an ad campaign that you plan on launching soon, and fill out the link planning guide below to outline the ideal UTM variables for it. Remember, not all variables are required for each campaign.

1. CAMPAIGN: (Required) What is the campaign name? What campaign are you sending traffic to? What is the main offer you want people who click your links or ads to opt in for?

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2. LEAD SOURCE: (Required) What platform or website is this link placed on? Where are these leads coming from? Facebook, Google, email, blog, etc.?

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3. MEDIUM: (Required) What kind of format is the link contained in? This is the medium on the platform that you used to link to. A social post? A Facebook newsfeed ad? A guest blog article?

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4. CONTENT: (Optional) This variable should include identifying information about the specific content they clicked on. What version of an ad was it? What headline was it? What image did it have? What CTA did it have? This variable should be completely unique for each link. _____________________________________________________________________

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5. TERM: (Optional) This variable is generally used for search platforms and is where you would put the information about the terms you are bidding on. In Google, this can be the specific search term or keywords that a lead would use to find your Adwords campaign. You could also use it to identify the audience that you used for an ad in Facebook.

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Note, once you’ve set up the UTM structure for a specific URL, it’s crucial that you use the variables you’ve established consistently. Keep the spelling, spacing and capitalization exactly the same each time you use a variable, otherwise they will be tracked as two different variables. So, facebook, Facebook, _Facebook and -Facebook would all be considered different variables, even though they are the same word.

It’s also important to keep in mind that, while generally most people will ignore the link, the terms that you use will be visible in the URL, so make sure you aren’t using any terms that you wouldn’t want your leads to see.

CHAPTER 3

ORGANIZING YOUR UTM VARIABLES

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Most businesses will have marketing campaigns running across multiple platforms at once, and UTM variables are very easy to integrate into most, if not all, of these assets. It just takes a little bit of pre-launch organization.

Most businesses will also run multiple iterations of these assets — using different copy, images, headlines or CTAs — and then, depending on how they perform, turn off some and put more money behind others, drive more traffic to some or optimize them further. While it is common to only associate UTM variables with paid digital ads, they can be included in almost any asset you are driving traffic towards. This includes social media posts (non ads), blog articles, emails and more. Remember, each of these assets should link to the same site but use a different UTM variable link.

To help you organize the different assets within your next campaign that could utilize UTM variables, fill out the chart below.

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CAMPAIGN CHECKLIST

Campaign Name:

Description:

Website/Landing Page:

Ad Platform(s):

Ad(s):

Social Media Platform(s)

Social Post(s):

Email(s):

Blog Article(s):

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Now, you can go ahead and organize the actual UTM variables that you will be using for each of your assets, such as Facebook ads, Google ads, social media posts, emails and blog articles. Most likely, the campaign name is going to stay the same across all these assets. The number of assets you have might vary, and that is completely fine; some businesses might need 16 variations of an ad while others will do just as well with six.

Fill out the chart below to start building your UTM variables.

ASSET CAMPAIGN LEAD SOURCE MEDIUM CONTENT TERM

Example: Facebook post

Fitness 101 Ebook

Facebook Post Statistic

CHAPTER 4

CONNECTING IT ALL TOGETHER

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Once you’ve decided on the best variable structure for your campaign, you can put those variables into a UTM link generator. Click here to generate one now. If you are using ONTRAPORT to run your campaigns, there is a built-in UTM link builder on each page in the Tracking tab of your account.

You might be wondering exactly when you should use UTM variables, and the answer is: any time you’re sending traffic to your own content. Whether it’s in a blog article, a social media post or an ad, it’s important to use a link with UTM tracking so that you can measure the results of your time and money spent promoting your business via different channels.

After you set up UTM variables, you’ll need the right tracking and reporting capabilities to understand your leads’ and customers’ preferences. ONTRAPORT’s built-in marketing tracking automatically keeps track of the traffic and leads generating new opt-ins from each UTM-powered URL. If you are not an ONTRAPORT user, you can view the results of your campaigns in your Google Analytics profile under Campaigns or use whatever marketing tracking tool you are using. From there, the different campaigns (that you designate based on the utm_campaign parameters that your created) will populate, and you will be able to see and track your results.

Successfully setting up your UTMs is not the end, but rather the beginning, as the work on your campaign is not done when you launch. To make sure you meet your goals, or come as close as possible, you’ll need to monitor your campaign continuously as it runs to scan for problems, adjust your promotional strategy and budgets, and test different variations to steadily increase your conversion rates.

Keeping an eye on your campaigns is important but, just as with every other aspect of launching and running a campaign, it doesn’t have to be as complicated as it seems.

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There are three main areas to pay attention to:

1. Traffic Flow: How many people are making it to your landing page? How many people are purchasing? What new strategies can you implement to drive traffic up?

2. Testing: What elements of the campaign are doing the best? Is it your Facebook ads? Your Google ads? One landing page versus another? One email versus another?

3. Optimization: How can you adjust your campaign to get more conversions? Should you spend more on your Facebook ads than YouTube ads? Should you stop sending one email and instead send the one that’s working best?

Your opportunity for adjusting and optimizing your campaigns expands dramatically once you’ve got UTM data at hand. With this information about what resonates the most with your audience, you can be much more confident in your decisions about where to allocate your marketing dollars and resources to get the best ROI possible.

ONTRAPORT’s mission is to support entrepreneurs in delivering their value to the world by removing the burden of technology. We deliver on that mission by creating software, offering services, and educating the entrepreneurial community.

For over a decade, we have made a difference for thousands of businesses, their communities, and our own staff, which is why we’ve received countless awards for innovation, revenue growth and company culture.

Our flagship marketing automation product is a subscription software that provides our customers with all the tools they need to start and grow their businesses through the advantage of an all-in-one platform. In addition, we offer a large collection of free resources, courses and educational products that support entrepreneurs at all stages throughout their journey.

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