Tracking parameters and UTMs explained

What are URL parameters?

There are 4 key components that form a URL: the scheme ( https ), a host ( the domain ), a path ( /category/product ) and a query string.

We are going to focus on the last one. A query string is a serie of parameters used to track information on a website ( campaing=my-first-campaing ). These parameters are separated from the base of the link with the question mark ( ? )

The URL parameters are formed out of pairs of key and value, connected with the = sign, for example campaign=my-first-campaign, where the campaign is the key and my-first-campaign is the value.

Multiple pairs can be added, connected with the and sign ( & ): campaing=my-first-campaign&ad=myfirst-ad

UTM stands for Urchin Traffic Monitor and were created by a web analyst that worked on the Google Analytics project.

There are five different UTM parameters. The first 3 are by far the most used parameters (Source, Medium, Campaign), but for additional insights you may also choose to track all 5. Here’s exactly what you can track with each:

1. Traffic Source

The utm_source parameter allows you to track where the traffic originated from: facebook, google, bing, inbound.org, or the name of an email list.

Example: &utm_source=instagram

2. Medium

The utm_medium parameter tracks what type of traffic the visitor originated from: cpc, email, social, referral, display, etc.

Example: &utm_medium=cpc

3. Campaign Name

The utm_campaign parameter allows you to track the traffic by campaign name.

Example: &utm_campaign=example-campaign

4. Content

The utm_content parameters allows you to segment the traffic, for example when doing A/B tests.

Example: &utm_content=navlink

5. Keyword Term

The utm_term parameter allows you to track which paid keyword term a website visitor came from.

Example: &utm_term=scale-business-hack

How to Use the UTM parameters

You can use these codes in any combination as long as you separate each parameter with the ‘&’ sign, as we spoke above.

How to create UTM parameters ?

You can create UTM parameters manually, by adding the key=value pairs and separate them with ‘&’ sign.

You can also use the Google URL Builder from here

How to track UTM parameters?

You can track a particular URL parameter using the watcher from your Atlass account.

Atlass also tracks each parameter individually and you can group the traffic based off of them in the Analyze and Engagement section.

You can also tag each lead that clicks on a link that contains a particular parameter you set using a watcher. Check that out below.

Set up a watcher

What is a watcher?

A watcher is a feature inside Atlass that allows you to tag your traffic based on a dynamic value of a URL tracking parameter.

For example, if you set up a watcher for the utm_campaign parameter, when someone clicks on a link with …&utm_campaing=Example-campaign, he will be tagged with @Example-campaign.

How to set up a watcher?

Log into your Atlass account, then go to Setup -> Watchers and click on create new.

Add a name and the parameter to watch and click save.

How to set up other Atlass parameters?

Now that we covered what tracking parameters and UTM parameters are, let’s cover the Atlass designated tracking parameters.

For our designated integrations, we require implementing special parameters, which can be found below:

  function main() {
            var adIterator = AdsApp.ads().get();
                while (adIterator.hasNext()) {
                var ad = adIterator.next();
                var adgroup = ad.getAdGroup().getName().replace(/[^a-zA-Z0-9- ]/g, "");
                var campaign = ad.getCampaign().getName().replace(/[^a-zA-Z0-9- ]/g, "");
                //var adHeadline = ad.getLongHeadline().replace(/[^a-zA-Z0-9- ]/g, "");
                var adID = ad.getId();
                var name = campaign + " " + adgroup+ " " + adID;
                name = name.replace(/\s/g,'-');
                //Logger.log( name );
                ad.getCampaign().urls().setCustomParameters({adname:name});
            }
  }

   ?mc_cid=*|CAMPAIGN_UID|*

  ?ac_cid=%CAMPAIGNID%

  ?atl_campaign={{campaign.name}}

  ?atl_campaign=name-of-email-campaign

  ?atl_campaign=name-of-email-campaign

  ?atl_campaign=name-of-email-campaign

  ?atl_campaign=name-of-email-campaign

Now that you set up a watcher, get more familiar with Atlass.