If not, don't worry. Before my job at Ontraport I never had either. Even after working there for several months, they were spooky. They were quasi-mystical, like most computer technology, until I understood it.

Then I discovered they're just a fancy way to tell web addresses apart.  Create them to track where people are coming from to visit your site.  By adding a UTM variable you can tell which hyperlink gets the most traffic. It’s a marketing tool. It’s a bit like putting a label on a physical product, say refried beans. What’s inside the can isn’t all that different, no matter what the label says. Instead, the label is for the company as much as it is for you. The label lets the company know you bought their beans instead of someone else’s.

Oh, by the way, UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module. Urchin was a company that Google bought back in 2005. Back when you could still hear the screech of a dial-up modem.

Enough about what they are, how do they work? Use this UTM creator that Google made for Google Analytics. Plug in your variables and the tool spits out your fancy link.

There are six of these variables to consider. They're all supposed to signify something different, but that isn't correct; you can put whatever you want in each one. On the other hand, It is easier if you stick to the strategy designed for them. Assume the tools you use are doing that. Save yourself the trouble and go with the flow. The variables are as follows:

Campaign ID: This is another variable that helps you tell your different ad campaigns apart. It’s optional, but if you’ve created a lot of campaigns it’s usually helpful to have something else to tell them apart.

Campaign Source: Use this variable to describe whether this ad campaign is going through a search engine, an email newsletter, etc.

Campaign Medium: Here you’re describing the medium of the campaign, like a blog, email, cost-per-click ad, and so on.

Campaign Name: This is for helping with keyword research and is usually the name of the actual ads campaign, like spring sale.

Campaign Term: This is helpful when you’re running paid ads, and is good for remembering which keywords you bid on for the ad.

Campaign Content: This last one is helpful for when you decide to split test your ad, that way you can tell them apart. It’s also the most common one used for differentiating two otherwise identical URLs.

Let's start with an example. As you know, this is my website, ecademy.us. So, it would be normal for me to run ads on this site to improve my business. Let’s say I decide that I want to run an ad on my services page since that’s the page with my prices on it. Now, I advertise on social media, like everyone else. My two primary outlets are Facebook and LinkedIn. I want to send people to my services page, https://ecademy.us/services [ecademy.us]. A good start, but that is not enough information. It would be a lot cooler to know which of these two social media outlets are getting me more traffic and customers. Knowing that helps me control how much I spend on my ads. A smaller business finds out where to put its time and energy. If LinkedIn is a dead end, with no traffic or customers, why even advertise on that platform?

But, without UTM variables all I’ve got to point people towards is https://ecademy.us/services [ecademy.us]. I can use that link in my ad for sure. But I’ll never be able to tell whether it was Facebook or LinkedIn that was doing me any favors. That’s why you have the variables, to tell the links apart. A simple link with UTM variables could look like this, https://ecademy.us/services?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=custom+audience [ecademy.us]. That’s the campaign source and medium. Those two are required. I could do a similar one for Linkedin, https://ecademy.us/services?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=paid [ecademy.us]. Now I’ve got two different URLs, even though both go to the same place.

With all six variables, you have even more options. Make sure you have a tool that can keep track of these variables. Google Analytics tracks this information automatically. It's a great tool at every level of business. It has a free version too so you can start immediately. I mentioned last week that I’m using Ontraport to help run my business. That means that I can also see the data inside of the CRM too. That’s very useful because it helps you get a better idea of what people are doing after they click your link too.

That’s all there is to it. Whenever someone clicks a link with UTM variables, their browser will get cookied with those variables. Google has its tracking cookie and is following the data so you can see all of this inside of your Google Analytics account.

That's step 1 and 2. All that's left is profit! Thanks for reading.