UTM Tracking
UTM tracking is a tagging convention for URLs that enable you to analyze where your users are coming from. If you look on the URLs you click from most marketing email or banner ads, you see UTM tagging. It is those long links that end with things like utm\_source and utm\_medium.
Google Analytics uses UTM tagging to know where your traffic is coming from. Some of this information comes from the but the rest of it you have to supply yourself with UTM parameters. When you see google adwords or email marketing, it means those UTM parameters being recorded from the original link click and then stored in users’ cookies. From there, Google Analytics uses that data to attribute interesting behaviors on your site. Understanding what those parameters are for helps you understand how best to set up and use UTM tagging.
Best Practices for UTM Tagging
The following lists the five most important things to remember when setting up your URLs with UTM tagging.
1. Aim to tag every URL that you can control coming to your site
Every time you ask people to click a link, you should be setting up UTM tagging. This includes all your email links (your email service provider likely has a way to automatically tag your URLs), ad links, press articles, blog posts.