UTM Tracking Guidelines

The University of Minnesota - University Relations uses UTM tracking to measure the success of its marketing campaigns, including paid advertising and materials. The additional Google Analytics UTM tracking data will help units make better informed campaign decisions based on website performance and conversions.

UTM Structure

While you can opt to create your UTM-specific URL manually, we recommend you use a URL builder spreadsheet. The required structure of UTM parameters are:

  • Start your UTM with a “?” after the main URL to signal that the navigable section of the URL stops before the question mark
  • List the parameters and values as pairs separated by an equal sign
  • After the first UTM parameter-value pair, separate each new parameter-value pair by an “&”
  • utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign are required parameters
     

There are five different UTM parameters used based on your marketing campaign. Consistent usage of each helps keep your data clean and easy to navigate. The five most commonly used parameters are as follows.

Source

Identifies where the link is being shown (a platform, tool, or service). Think of this as who or what sent the visitor to the site.

  • Required
  • Structure: utm_source=[platform/tool name]
  • Source examples:
    • newsletter
    • facebook
    • linkedin
    • google
    • bing
    • yahoo
    • hulu
    • youtube
    • website

Medium

How the link is being shown (the method by which it’s shared). Think of this as how the visitor was sent to the site.

  • Required
  • Structure: utm_medium=[marketing method]
  • Medium examples:
    • email
    • paid-social
    • organic_social
    • search_ad
    • display
    • retargeting
    • video
    • ooh
    • print
    • digital_internal

Campaign

Top-level grouping of promotions, or slogans, to achieve a goal. To separate data from that of other U of M units, including the unit, topic of promotion, and last two digits of the year of the promotion is helpful.

  • Required
  • Structure: utm_campaign=[unit abbreviation]_[topic of promotion, name of campaign, or degree program]_[YY]
  • Unit abbreviations provided in URL builder spreadsheet linked below
  • Campaign examples:
    • ur_blog_24
    • umr_newsletter_24
    • umm_fall_welcome_24

Term

Primarily used for identifying paid keywords or groups of keywords used in a search ad.

  • Optional
  • Structure: utm_term=[keyword]
  • Term examples:
    • ai
    • tips
    • glitches
    • test

Content

Details about the content used to differentiate segments or aspects of the campaign. May include details to differentiate between different types of ads (like size of ad, if a QR code, headline, or story topic) or content of those ads.

  • Optional
  • Structure: utm_content=[topic of content]
  • Content examples
    • 11_14_23(date)
    • qr_code
    • test_(a/b testing option)

Best Practices

As stated before, consistency across the U of M system provides the best data. The following best practices should be followed whenever possible:

  • Only use UTMs with traffic drivers external to your website. Using UTMs on internal links can cause your metrics to be misrepresented because each new parameter causes a new session to be counted. 
  • Use all lowercase letters in the UTM string, Google Analytics is case-sensitive making Facebook and facebook two different identifiers.
  • Use underscores between terms, i.e. ur_ai24
  • Order your UTM parameters in the order listed above because URLs can be truncated in some platform dimensions. If the URL is truncated, you want to capture the most important data in the beginning of the UTM parameters.
  • UTMs in z-links - in certain situations, such as print, qr-codes, and text messages, it’s preferable to create a short vanity URL. The University uses z-links to generate short vanity URLs. Z-links are not necessary for digital tactics such as email and social media where the UTMs can be included in the hyperlink.
    • Rather than including the UTM parameters in the z-link, the  z-link destination URL should include the UTM parameters.
    • Each marketing material and tactic should have a unique UTM, and subsequently vanity URL, for individual tracking of the pieces. 
  • When testing the url, insert ‘test’ in the string so that these hits can be removed from the traffic. 
    • Example: https://umn.edu?utm_source=test&utm_medium=test&utm_campaign=test
  • Use a spreadsheet to generate URLs with UTM parameters. The spreadsheet also works as a historical reference of UTMs used in the past to avoid duplication. When shared with others, creating UTMs in your unit the spreadsheet aids in creation of consistent and unique URLs with UTM parameters. 
  • Check out the URL builder template the Measurement & Analytics team created for your use.

Identifying UTMs in Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4 (Google Analytics) provides the UTM parameter information in the Traffic Acquisition Reports found under the Reports sub-menu. Once there you can add a secondary dimension to look at the metrics for each of the 5 different terms:

  • Content
  • Session Medium
  • Session Source
  • Manual Term
  • Session Campaign

If you want to see more than two dimensions at once in your reports, consider using a table in Looker Studio. Looker Studio provides flexibility with which dimensions and metrics you want to view in a single table.

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