Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) codes are code snippets attached to the end of a URL to track and measure content performance.
Detailed explanation
Urchin Software Corporation, an American software company, created UTM codes for its web analytics program. Google acquired the company in April 2005 and launched Google Analytics in the same year. In 2012, Google stopped developing Urchin as separate software and added UTM codes to its own services.
UTM codes have two components:
– Tracking variables: These are unique identifiers that determine the site you track, such as the affiliate link or the social network contributing to incoming traffic. – UTM parameters: The source, term, medium, campaign and content being tracked. Analytics reports include these parameters and offer insight into content efficacy and performance. Source: The source parameter shows where the web traffic came from. For example, “&utm_source=TikTok” reveals how much traffic can be attributed to TikTok. Term: The term parameter allows you to track the keyword that brought a visitor to your site. For example, "&utm_term=twitter-advanced-search" shows that a user clicked a link about an article on Twitter's advanced search, which led them to your website. Medium: This parameter shows the type of content that brought a site visitor to you. For example, "&utm_medium=social" means a user came to your website from a social media platform. Campaign: This parameter lets you monitor the effectiveness of a specific marketing campaign. For example, you can track the differences between two promotional Instagram campaigns with a “&utm_campaign=Instagram-campaign-2" snippet. Content: The content parameter shows the link that generates the most traffic if multiple links direct people to the same URL. For example, "&utm_content=linkoption" shows that link A has more clicks than links B, C and D.