Tracking UTM Links from Blog Campaigns

UTM (Urchen Trickmarker Melding) links are special URL parameters that enable digital marketers to track and analyze the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns. They allow you to follow the source of traffic, such as social media, PPC campaigns, or email campaigns, directly to your website’s blog.

Setting Up UTM Links for Blog Campaigns

To track UTM links for your blog campaigns, you first need to create your UTM parameters. Here’s how:

1. UTM Parameter Structure:
– UTM Parameter 1: utm_source (Name of Campaign)
– UTM Parameter 2: utm_medium (Channel)
– UTM Parameter 3: utm_campaign (Campaign or Ad Group)

2. UTM Link Example:
– Original Link: https://www.example.com/best-ways-to-boost-your-seo/
– UTM Link: https://www.example.com/best-ways-to-boost-your-seo/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=content&utm_campaign=seotips

Benefits of Tracking UTM Links

Tracking your blog UTM links offers several benefits:

• Analytics: UTM links provide valuable insights into the source, channel, and campaign that drove the traffic.
• ROI: By identifying which campaigns are the most successful, you can focus your resources on high-performing channels.
• Optimization: Tracking the performance of your blog content allows you to identify areas for improvement, such as content length, readability, and keywords.

Tracking UTM Links in Google Analytics

To track UTM links in Google Analytics, you need to create a conversion action. Here’s how:

1. Click on Admin and select View Settings.

2. Scroll down to Conversion in the left menu.

3. Click on + New Conversion.

4. Name your conversion and choose UTM Parameter as your conversion type.

5. Select UTM Source, UTM Medium, and UTM Campaign as the dimensions to include in the conversion.

6. Click Save.

Now, when a user clicks on a UTM link, this conversion action will track the traffic source, medium, and campaign from your Google Analytics.

Using Google Sheets to Track UTM Campaigns

To track your blog campaigns using Google Sheets, you can create a spreadsheet with a formula to automate the tracking of UTM links. Here’s how:

1. Open a new Google Spreadsheet and create columns for the UTM source, medium, campaign, and clicks.

2. Insert the following formula into cell B2:

=iferror(split(regexextract(A2,”?(utm_source=)(\w+)&(utm_medium=)(\w+)&(utm_campaign=)(\w+)?”),4)[1]&iferror(regexmatch(A2,”?(utm_source=)(\w+)&(utm_medium=)(\w+)&(utm_campaign=)(\w+)?”),4)[2];”Unknown”)

3. Drag the formula down to the end of your data.

Now, whenever you create a new UTM link in your blog post, Google Sheets will automatically populate the UTM source, medium, and campaign data.

Conclusion

Tracking your blog campaigns using UTM links is an essential practice for any digital marketer. It provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and allows you to optimize your blog content for better performance. By setting up UTM links, creating a conversion action in Google Analytics, and using Google Sheets for tracking, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of your blog’s traffic and make data-driven decisions to improve its performance.

Additional Resources

– Google Analytics: Tracking UTM Parameters
– Google Sheets: Google Sheets for UTM Tracking