Why are my UTM parameters appearing as different campaigns in Usermaven?
You might notice that a UTM campaign you consider to be a single entity is showing up as multiple, distinct campaigns in your Usermaven dashboard. This commonly happens when your UTM parameters contain special characters or spaces. This guide explains why this occurs and how you can ensure consistent campaign tracking.
Understanding the issue: The impact of URL encoding
The core of the problem lies in how different web browsers, advertising platforms, and other systems handle special characters and spaces within URLs. These characters are often “URL encoded,” and this encoding can vary:
- Spaces might be encoded as
+,%20, or sometimes even left as an actual space - Special characters like
|,#,&, etc., might be URL-encoded (e.g.,|becoming%7C) or, in some cases, might be passed through as the character itself or altered depending on the platform sharing or processing the link.
How Usermaven handles UTM parameters
Usermaven stores UTM parameters exactly as they are captured from the URL when a visitor arrives on your site. No post-processing or normalization of these parameters is performed by Usermaven.
This means that even slight variations in how a URL is encoded before it reaches Usermaven can lead to what you intended as a single campaign being recorded as multiple different campaigns.
Example of inconsistent encoding
Imagine you’re running a campaign with the intended utm_campaign value: TikTok | Smart Performance Campaign | Purchase | July 2024.
Due to different encoding practices by various platforms or tools, this could arrive at Usermaven in several forms:
utm_campaign=TikTok%20%7C%20Smart%20Performance%20Campaign%20%7C%20Purchase%20%7C%20July%202024(spaces as%20,|as%7C)utm_campaign=TikTok | Smart Performance Campaign | Purchase | July 2024(spaces and|as raw characters)utm_campaign=TikTok+|+Smart+Performance+Campaign+|+Purchase+|+July+2024(spaces as+,|as raw character)
Even though these all refer to the same marketing effort, Usermaven would list them as three separate campaigns because the captured UTM values are different.
How to ensure consistent campaign tracking
To prevent your campaigns from being split and to ensure accurate tracking in Usermaven, follow these best practices when creating your UTM parameters:
- Avoid special characters: Do not use characters like
|,&,#,?,( ),[ ], etc., in your UTM values. If you need separators, use underscores. - Use underscores (
_) instead of spaces: Spaces are the most common cause of encoding variations. - Stick to alphanumeric characters: Using only letters (a-z, A-Z) and numbers (0-9), along with underscores (
_) and hyphens (-) sparingly, is the safest approach.
Corrected example:
Instead of this utm_campaign value:
TikTok | Smart Performance Campaign | Purchase | July 2024
Use this standardized version:
utm_campaign=TikTok_Smart_Performance_Campaign_Purchase_July_2024
By adopting these conventions, your UTM parameters will remain consistent regardless of how they are handled by different browsers or systems, leading to clean and accurate campaign data in Usermaven.
Additional tips
- Preview your URLs: Before launching a campaign, always copy your fully tagged URL and paste it into a browser address bar. See how it looks, and then check how it might be shared or altered by link shorteners or social platforms if applicable.
- Use UTM templates for ad networks: If you need guidance on structuring UTM parameters for common ad platforms to ensure accurate attribution in Usermaven, please see our UTM tracking templates for ad networks.
- Regularly review campaign data: Check your campaign reports in Usermaven periodically. If you spot unexpected splits, you can investigate the source URLs and adjust your UTM tagging practices for future campaigns.
By following these guidelines, you can effectively prevent campaign fragmentation in your analytics and maintain accurate, consolidated data for your marketing efforts in Usermaven.