How UTM tracking works in Usermaven

UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) tracking is a powerful tool for understanding the effectiveness of your digital marketing campaigns. By adding special parameters to your URLs, you can gain detailed insights into your traffic sources and how users behave on your website. This guide will walk you through how to implement and manage UTM tracking in Usermaven.

On this page:

What is UTM tracking?
How Usermaven handles UTM parameters
Benefits of UTM tracking in Usermaven
How to use UTM tracking in Usermaven
Troubleshooting UTM tracking

What is UTM tracking?

UTM tracking works by adding parameters to the end of a URL. When a user clicks on a link with these parameters, Usermaven can identify exactly where the user came from and which campaign brought them to your site.

Here are the standard UTM parameters and what they track:

Parameter	Description	Example
`utm_source`	The platform or website that is sending the traffic.	`utm_source=facebook`
`utm_medium`	The marketing channel or medium.	`utm_medium=social`
`utm_campaign`	The specific marketing campaign.	`utm_campaign=summer_sale`
`utm_content`	The specific ad or link that was clicked.	`utm_content=video_ad`
`utm_term`	The keyword that was targeted in the campaign.	`utm_term=saas_analytics`

For example, take a look at this URL:

https://usermaven.com/blog/analyzing-feature-usage?utm_campaign=blog_post&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook

Here’s a breakdown of the UTM parameters:

Base URL: https://usermaven.com/blog/analyzing-feature-usage
?: This symbol indicates the start of the UTM parameters.
utm_campaign=blog_post: The name of the campaign is “blog_post”.
&: This symbol separates each UTM parameter.
utm_medium=social: The traffic came from a social media channel.
utm_source=facebook: The source of the traffic is Facebook.

With this setup, Usermaven will attribute the traffic to the “blog_post” campaign from Facebook, helping you to better understand your traffic sources and user behavior.

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.

Benefits of UTM tracking in Usermaven

Using UTM tracking in Usermaven can provide significant benefits for your marketing efforts:

Precise tracking: See exactly where your website visitors are coming from and which campaigns are driving them to your site.
Data-driven decisions: Identify your most effective marketing strategies so you can allocate your resources wisely.
Audience insights: Discover which campaigns resonate most with different segments of your audience.
Customer journey analysis: Understand how different marketing channels work together to convert visitors into loyal customers.

How to use UTM tracking in Usermaven

Here’s how you can create and use UTM links in Usermaven:

Build your UTM link
- To create a UTM link, you can use Usermaven’s free UTM builder .
- For more advanced tracking, especially for ad networks like Google Ads, Meta Ads, and LinkedIn Ads, refer to our UTM tracking templates for ad networks.
Fill in the attributes
- Enter the website URL and the UTM parameters in the form provided.
Shorten your link (optional)
- If the UTM link is too long, you can use a link shortener like Replug to make it more manageable.
Integrate the link into your campaigns
- Once your UTM link is ready, use it in your marketing materials, such as social media posts, email campaigns, and online ads.
Track your results in Usermaven
- Usermaven will automatically track the traffic from your UTM links. You can view this data in the UTM traffic section of your Usermaven web analytics dashboard.

By following these steps, you can gain valuable insights into your campaign performance, optimize your marketing strategies, and achieve your business goals.

Troubleshooting UTM tracking

If you run into any issues with your UTM tracking, here are some common problems and how to solve them:

Missing data: Double-check that your UTM parameters are correctly formatted and appended to your URLs. Any typos or errors can prevent Usermaven from tracking the data correctly.
Inconsistent campaign names: If you see the same campaign appearing as multiple different entries in your dashboard, it’s likely due to inconsistent naming or special characters in your UTM parameters. To learn how to resolve this, please see our guide on Why are my UTM parameters appearing as different campaigns in Usermaven?.
Updating UTMs without losing social proof: When you need to modify your UTM parameters, follow the correct protocol to ensure you don’t lose any previous engagement metrics.
Using UTMs for email campaigns: Always append UTM parameters to the links in your emails to track click-through rates and conversions accurately.
Creating custom parameters: If you have unique tracking needs, you can develop custom parameters to capture the data that is most important to you.