How to use UTM parameters for conversion tracking

Google Analytics and other tools can provide a useful overview of your traffic sources, but the stats aren't completely accurate. Tools that monitor your traffic through cookies or JavaScript often report lower figures because visits won’t be tracked if a visitor’s computer doesn’t accept JavaScript or blocks cookies.

Whereas, tracking clicks and traffic sources with UTM parameters is 100% accurate.

You can label each link UTM parameters, indicating the source of traffic and the marketing medium used. These sources will automatically appear in Google Analytics and help you organize your stats. Once you have goals set up in Google Analytics, UTM parameters will also help you see exactly what activities are driving conversions.

Here is an example of a URL with UTM parameters:

https://blog.rebrandly.com/business-email/?utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=banner1&utm_campaign=blogpromotion

If someone clicked on this link and eventually converted, you would be able to see in Google Analytics exactly which ad was clicked and which campaign it was part of. These stats can help marketers wisely attribute their budgets and boost ROI. This information can also be tracked for social media posts, text messages, emails and anywhere else you use URLs within your marketing messages.

The above link was created with Rebrandly’s UTM builder. For more information on creating UTMs in Rebrandly, check out this post.