Overview
Urchin Tracking Module or UTM parameters are small pieces of code that can be added to website URLs to more easily track details
There are five different UTM parameters that typically appear in a URL:
- utm_source – This parameter defines which specific source is sending traffic to the URL. Example: utm_source=Facebook
- utm_medium – This parameter details the type of channel sending the utm_source, such as a social media campaign or email. Example: utm_medium=blog_article
- utm_campaign – This parameter defines the name of the campaign associated with the url Example: utm_campaign=journeys_launch
- utm_content (optional) – This parameter is used to track different ads related to a campaign. Example: utm_content=header_link
- utm_term (optional) – This parameter is used to track specific paid keywords or phrases. Example: utm_term=la_restaurants
UTM Tracking Within Indicative
Indicative automatically parses out the UTM values from page URLs that contain UTM parameters. You’ll be able to see the following properties if you are sending Indicative data with UTM parameters within the URL.
These parameters will then appear within User Properties or within Event Properties. For example, when using these parameters within User Properties, Indicative would display users with these specific UTM parameters. However, when using UTM parameters within Event Properties, Indicative would display events that were completed with the UTM parameters.
- When you want to see the users who completed an event or the total number of times an event was completed with a specific UTM parameter, it would be best to use the UTM parameters within Event Properties.
Let’s say you have a group of users who completed [pageload] of the url: www.indicative.com/ and you wanted to narrow down your results to users who performed [pageload] with utm_source=Facebook or in other words with a url of www.indicative.com/?utm_source=Facebook. In this case, you would filter utm_source=Facebook as an event property.
- However, if you wanted to see the total count of users with a specific UTM parameter who completed an event, it would be best to use UTM parameters within User Properties.
Let’s say you have a group of users who completed [pageload] of the url: www.indicative.com/ and you just wanted to see if these users have an utm_source=Facebook, not if they performed a [pageload] of the url www.indicative.com/?utm_source=Facebook. In this case, you would use a user property.
User Properties
You can set up these UTM parameters to be the first or last observed value under Attribution Mode.