Tag: tracking url

What are UTM Codes and How Do They Work?

Arslan Jadoon
4 minutes

Marketing can be complex, but measuring its effectiveness doesn’t have to be. UTM codes are your answer to understanding what’s working and what’s not in your campaigns and, more importantly, to pinpoint which campaigns are doing the heavy lifting. This is where UTM codes come into play, offering a simple solution to the challenge of marketing success. So, let’s break it down:

What are UTM codes?

UTM codes are essentially strings of text that are added to URLs. These strings contain specific parameters that provide invaluable information about the source, medium, and campaign that led a user to a particular webpage. In other words, UTM codes act as data markers, offering a clearer view of the user’s journey, from the initial interaction to conversion.

Here’s a breakdown of the key UTM parameters:

  1. Source: 

This parameter specifies the origin of your traffic. Is it coming from an email, a social media platform, a search engine, or another source? Accurately tagging the source helps you identify which channels are driving the most traffic.

  1. Medium: 

The medium parameter describes the type of marketing medium used. It could be an email, social, organic search, paid search, or any other medium relevant to your campaign. Categorizing your traffic in this way allows you to determine which marketing avenues are the most effective.

  1. Campaign: 

The campaign parameter enables you to track a specific marketing campaign or initiative. Whether it’s a product launch, a seasonal promotion, or an event, this parameter helps you differentiate between different efforts within the same source and medium.

  1. Term (optional): 

This parameter is often used for paid search campaigns to identify the keywords that triggered the ad click. It’s an optional parameter and is mainly relevant to search engine advertising.

  1. Content (optional): 

Another optional parameter, content can be used to differentiate between different elements of your marketing efforts, such as different ad variations or links within the same campaign.

Understand with an example:

Let’s create an example URL with UTM parameters added.

Original URL:

https://www.example.com/product-page

Now, let’s add UTM parameters to track the source, medium, and campaign:

  • Source: Let’s say the traffic is coming from an email newsletter.
  • Medium: The marketing medium is email.
  • Campaign: It’s part of a campaign called “SummerPromo.”

Now, we’ll add these UTM parameters to the URL:

https://www.example.com/product-page?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SummerPromo

With these UTM parameters added, you can track that anyone who clicks on this URL is coming from the source “email,” through the medium “email,” and as part of the “SummerPromo” campaign. This allows you to monitor the performance of this specific link in your marketing efforts.

How to create UTM tracking codes?

Creating UTM tracking codes is a pivotal part of monitoring the performance of your online marketing efforts. While it’s technically possible to manually create these codes by adding specific strings to your URLs, it can be complex and time-consuming, especially when you have to manage them at scale. This is where UTM code generators come into play, making the process much more efficient.

Google Analytics URL builder:

Google Analytics offers a straightforward UTM code generator, which has become the go-to choice for many businesses. Here’s how you can use it:

  1. Visit Google’s URL Builder tool.
  2. Fill in the required fields for your campaign: the URL of the landing page, source, medium, campaign, term (optional), and content (optional).
  3. Click “Generate URL,” and Google will create the UTM-coded URL for you.
how-to-create-utm-parameters-url

Replug – A convenient alternative:

Replug is another powerful tool for UTM code creation, and here’s why it’s worth considering:

  • Automatic UTM code generation: 

Replug automates the UTM code creation process, saving you the trouble of manual entry. This means you can gather valuable analytics data as soon as your campaign goes live.

  • Shortened and customized URLs: 

UTM-coded URLs can become quite lengthy, which can be a problem on platforms like Instagram or when users need to copy and paste links. Replug shortens and customizes these URLs, making them more elegant and user-friendly.

For example, a long UTM-coded URL might look like this:

https://replug.io/pages/resources/blogs/influencermarketing?&utm_source=contentdigest&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ebook-influencer-marketing&leadchannel=email&leadchanneldetail=contentdigest

With Replug, it could be as sleek as this: 

https://rplg.co/Influencer02

While preserving all the essential UTM data.

Also read: How to add utm code to the URL using a link shortener?

  • Advanced tracking and analytics: 

While UTM codes are a solid foundation for analyzing marketing performance, they have limitations. Replug offers an enhanced solution called Campaigns, providing in-depth insights and a more hassle-free tracking experience, especially when managing multiple campaigns across various marketing channels.

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Elevate Your Brand Performance with Replug

UTM codes are a fundamental tool for tracking the success of your brand campaigns, links, and platforms. They provide valuable data, but those unwieldy, lengthy links can be a drawback. As your marketing endeavors become more intricate, it’s essential to adopt a system that offers both enhanced power and efficiency.

This is where Replug steps in as the ideal solution. Replug not only helps you track traffic effectively, even in the most complex marketing landscapes, but it also simplifies the process. With Replug, you obtain concise, stylish links that seamlessly fit into any context. Moreover, it offers an analytics tool that’s user-friendly and excels at managing multichannel marketing campaigns.

In essence, Replug empowers you to elevate your brand’s performance, making tracking and managing your marketing efforts a smoother, more efficient, and ultimately more successful process.

FAQs

What are UTM codes?

UTM codes are tracking parameters added to URLs to measure marketing performance. They’re vital for data-driven decision-making and proving campaign success.

How do I create UTM codes for my campaigns?

You can create UTM codes manually, but it’s easier and error-free to use online UTM code generators like Google’s Campaign URL Builder or Replug’s UTM code builder.

What is Replug, and how does it work for link tracking?

Bitly is a URL shortening and link management platform that not only shortens links for sharing but also provides link tracking and analytics to measure click-through rates and engagement.

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Arslan Jadoon
Arslan is a SaaS content marketer who crafts clear, engaging content that drives results. He simplifies complex ideas into easily understandable blog posts, landing pages, and emails, helping SaaS companies connect with their audience and grow.

How to check analytics on TikTok?

Arslan Jadoon
3 minutes

Are you a TikTok creator or business looking to track the performance of your content on the platform? Understanding your analytics can help you create more effective and engaging content and optimize your TikTok marketing efforts. 

This guide will show you how to check your TikTok analytics. Also, get the insights you need to succeed on TikTok. So let’s get started!

How to Check analytics on TikTok Through a mobile phone? 

Step 1: Open the TikTok app on your mobile phone. 

Tiktok

Step 2: Tap on the profile icon in the bottom right corner. 

profile icon

Step 3: Tap on three horizontal lines in the top right corner. 

dropdown

Step 4: Tap the creator tools menu to see the analytics. 

creator tools

Step 5: Tap the analytics menu on your mobile screen. 

analytics

Step 6: You will now see the Analytics screen on your mobile device. 

view analytics

It’s worth noting that TikTok’s analytics may not be 100% accurate, as the platform uses algorithms to estimate specific metrics. However, the data should still give you a good overall idea of your content’s performance and how it compares to other content on the platform.

Increase your CTR with a Branded Link Now!

Replug Branded CTA

How to Check analytics on TikTok Through a computer device? 

Step 1: Log in to TikTok on your computer or laptop. 

Step 2: Click on your profile icon in the top right corner. 

profile icon

Step 3: A drop-down menu will open. Click business suite from the drop-down menu. 

Business suit

Step 3: Analytics screen will now open. You can check the performance of your content and more. 

analytics

Read: How to Make Money on TikTok?

How to Understand Tiktok Analytics?

On TikTok, you can access analytics for your account by navigating to the Creator Studio. There are three main categories of analytics: Overview, Content, and Followers.

Overview: The Overview section provides information about your followers, video views, profile views, likes, and comments. Within this section, the Engagement tab lets you see metrics such as likes, comments, and shares for your videos within the chosen time frame.

Content: The Content tab offers more in-depth data and analytics for each video you post, including total views, total likes, comments, shares, average watch time, percentage of people watching the entire video, traffic source type (such as your profile or the For You feed), and audience territories. All content metrics are only available for the last seven days.

Followers: The Followers tab shows you insights about the community you’ve built on TikTok, including information about the locations of your followers and their activity times. You can also see your profile views and track changes in follower growth. If you have LIVE access, you can view analytics for your live streams in the LIV tab. This includes metrics like total views, new followers, total time, and diamonds earned.

Note: Read more about TikTok Analytics! 

Trending Topics:

What is the Best Time to Post on TikTok

How to link Instagram to TikTok?

How to Make Money on TikTok?

Arslan Jadoon
Arslan is a SaaS content marketer who crafts clear, engaging content that drives results. He simplifies complex ideas into easily understandable blog posts, landing pages, and emails, helping SaaS companies connect with their audience and grow.

How to create a call to action using a URL shortener?

Arslan Jadoon
5 minutes

Creating a call to action using a URL shortener can effectively drive conversions and encourage users to take a specific action. Using a URL shortener to create a call to action has a few key benefits.

First, it can make long and complex URLs easier to share and more visually to appeal. Sharing a link in a social media post or on a platform with limited space for long URLs can be beneficial. 

Second, URL shorteners can help to track clicks on a link, which can help understand the effectiveness of your call to action. 

Finally, URL shorteners can make creating custom and branded links easier, which can help build brand awareness and make your link more memorable.

How to create a call to action using Replug?

Use these simple steps to create a call to action that inspires users to take action that will benefit your business or organization.

Step 1: Sign in to Replug or create an account if you’re new.

signin or create account

Step 2: Go to the manage section on the main dashboard page and select campaign. 

click campaign

Step 3: Click on the “create new campaign” button in the campaign section.

new campaign

Step 4: To create a new campaign, you must select a brand first. You may choose an existing brand or create a new one if not already been created.

select brand

Step 5: Click the next button once you’ve selected or created a brand. 

brand and next

Increase your CTR with a Branded Link Now!

Replug Branded CTA

Step 6: You will now see a page for choosing a campaign type. Choose a name for your call-to-action campaign here. 

campaign name

Step 7: Select the call to action option from the campaign type page and click the next button.

select call to action button

Step 8: Next, select your CTA type; here, we’ve selected a button CTA.

button cta

Step 9: After selecting the CTA type, you need to select the theme for your CTA. Your CTA’s appearance depends on your CTA’s purpose. As for this case, we have chosen a popup CTA theme to appear after clicking the shortened link.

Note: Read more about the use cases for different theme types to understand which CTA theme is perfect for you.

select cta theme

Step 10: Enter your URL, upload an image for the CTA, and click Next.

Note: Recommended size: Width = 920, Height = 1080

image and url

Step 11: You can view your CTA side-by-side.

preview image and click next

Step 12: You are now in the CTA message section. Write your headline, message, and CTA button text

CTA message

Step 13: Enter your CTA button’s URL or phone number in the last block, and click Next. 

button url or number

Step 14: You’re now in the CTA customization section, where you can add colors. (Background colors, text colors, CTA button background colors, CTA button text colors). Choose your colors and click next. 

cta colors

Step 15: In the final step, you will select the seconds, after which the CTA will be displayed to the user. Alternatively, you can select the “On exit-intent” option, which will display the CTA when the user wants to exit the page.

appearance time

Step 16: Save the campaign; now, you can share it across other platforms. Ensure that your newly created campaign appears in the campaigns section

save compaign

Did You Know?

Replug can also help to track the effectiveness of the CTA, as it offers analytics tools that allow you to track how many clicks the CTA receives. This can help you determine which CTAs are most effective and optimize your marketing efforts accordingly.

FAQs

What are the 3 features of a strong call to action?

Any CTA should have these three key features:

Clarity: A strong call to action should be clear and straightforward so that the reader knows exactly what they are being asked to do. This means using actionable language, such as “click here” or “sign up now,” and avoiding vague or confusing phrases.

Urgency: A sense of urgency can be a powerful motivator, and a strong call to action should convey a sense that the reader needs to take action immediately. This can be achieved through time-sensitive language, such as “limited time offer,” “act now,” or by highlighting the benefits of taking action immediately.

Relevance: A strong call to action should be relevant to the reader and the context in which it appears. This means that it should be tailored to the specific needs and interests of the audience and should align with the overall goals and message of the campaign or piece of content. By focusing on the reader and their needs, a strong call to action can increase the chances of conversion.

What elements are in CTA?

There are a few key elements that are typically included in a CTA:

Action verb: The CTA should include an action verb that tells the reader what to do. Some common action verbs used in CTAs include “click,” “sign up,” “download,” and “register.”

Button or link: The CTA should include a button or link that the reader can click to take the desired action. The button or link should be prominently placed and easy to find.

Benefit: The CTA should include a benefit or reason for the reader to take the desired action. This could be a discount, exclusive content, or a chance to win a prize.

Sense of urgency: The CTA should convey a sense of urgency or time sensitivity to encourage the reader to take action immediately. This can be achieved through time-sensitive language or by immediately highlighting the benefits of taking action.

Popular Topics:

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Remarket your brand with a click of a button – Replug Chrome Extension

 

Arslan Jadoon
Arslan is a SaaS content marketer who crafts clear, engaging content that drives results. He simplifies complex ideas into easily understandable blog posts, landing pages, and emails, helping SaaS companies connect with their audience and grow.

What is a Tracking URL and How Does it Work?

Hassaan Khan
8 minutes

What is a tracking URL?

A tracking URL is a link that contains one or more URL parameters to track, identify, and analyze user activity or behavior on a website.

URL tracking is an engagement strategy used in digital marketing that allows marketers to track the clickability, conversion rate, and call-to-action buttons on the websites.

Have you seen a call-to-action button in an email newsletter or cloaked Amazon affiliate links?

The reason behind it is that e-commerce marketers utilize tracking tools that allow them to add parameters that help track user behavior and also to win back customers through retargeting.

Why is URL tracking important?

URL tracking is an essential process in online marketing that helps marketers in analyzing the overall performance of the URLs. It includes factors such as number of clicks and conversions.

The reason why the URL tracking process is important for bloggers, affiliate marketers, and digital marketers is that it assists users in determining the link performance in an article or on a website page.

It’s nearly impossible to track affiliate sales without URL tracking. Almost every affiliate network or affiliate marketing software uses URL parameters in the product links to track the clicks and conversions.

Digital marketing experts use UTM parameters to track their website visitors and understand the source of the traffic. They set separate UTM parameters for Google ads, Facebook ads, social media, landing pages, etc.

To sum it up, the reason why URL tracking is important in the digital marketing world is that it provides users with insights into link performance, click activity, and conversion rate.

Related: What Is A Vanity URL & How To Track It?

How does the URL tracking work?

URL tracking is an online marketing strategy that monitors the impact of the marketing campaigns through link performance. Following are the activities that can be tracked with URL tracking:

  • Clicks
  • Conversion
  • Affiliate commissions
  • Click-through rate
  • Traffic sources
  • Leads generated

URL tracking process

Tracking-URL

  • Define the purpose of URL tracking:

Bloggers and marketers don’t vaguely start tracking random URLs. Instead, there is always an agenda behind the tracking.

  • URL selection:

Pinpoint the URLs that you can track over the next few weeks or months.It’s almost impossible to manually track hundreds of thousands of URLs.

  • Opt for the most suitable UTM parameters:

Opt for the most suitable UTM parameters to insert in the URL to track. A UTM parameter is a tiny code that goes into the URL address to track the sources of website page traffic.

  • Tracking the UTM parameters:

The last and most important part of the URL tracking process is tracking the UTM parameters. Track UTM parameters through Replug or also can use Google Analytics.

When should I use a tracking URL?

There are several use cases for tracking URLs. Once you have figured out what tracking a URL means, it gets easier to apply the tactics.

Here are different scenarios when you should use a tracking URL:

  • Record the clicks on the links:

Whenever you want to know how many clicks a link has gotten, the easiest way to track the clicks is by using a tracking URL.

  • Track sales and conversions:

E-commerce stores and online businesses track sales and conversion through a tracking URL. It usually comes in handy when businesses want to know where the sale or conversion has come from on their website.

  • Identify the top-performing pages:

When there are multiple sales pages with unique UTM parameters, it’s easier to identify the top-performing sales page.

  • Study the performance of the links on a site:

There are site-wide links available on every blog or website. Tracking URLs help admins understand the overall link performance on the website.

  • Allot the affiliate commissions appropriately:

Tracking URLs are imperative in affiliate marketing. No wonder the affiliate product links are long and clunky. The affiliate networks use URL parameters to identify and allot the affiliate sales to the appropriate affiliate account.

  • Find the traffic sources for a landing page:

When marketers create a new landing page for a new product, they share the landing page link across all channels, such as social media, email newsletter, blog sidebar, etc. Therefore, the source of the website visitor is easily traceable with a tracking URL.

  • Trace the footprints of the generated leads:

Lead generation means when a visitor signs up for a trial account or downloads a freebie. Marketers insert a UTM parameter that explains where the lead came from.

Types of URL tracking

There are three types of URL tracks that are being used:

1. Auto-tagging

The auto-tagging URL tracking is a URL tracking system that automatically adds relevant slugs to the URL that helps in tracking the data. There is no need to manually add a tag to every URL.

2.Manual tagging for backend systems

Manual tagging for backend systems relies on the ValueTrack parameters. These parameters track information about the ad clicks. Adding these parameters to your ad campaign, the user can track or identify the details such as device, location, and other information about the audience.

3.Manual-tagging

In a manual-tagging system, the user needs to put in the UTM parameters using a URL builder. Usually, the UTM tracking generators have a form and the users need to fill in the blanks using the parameters to generate the tracking URL.

How to track URLs with UTM parameters?

Are you wondering about tracking URLs with UTM parameters?

Here are four steps to follow:

#1. Select the URLs to track

The URL tracking process begins with selecting the URLs to track. Most experts start with choosing the UTM parameters and bypassing step no. 1, which doesn’t make sense. So start with the URL selection and then get to the UTM parameters afterward.
Usually, digital marketing experts use UTM parameters on the call-to-action buttons in email newsletters, landing pages, discount offer pages, and Facebook or Google ads.

#2. Choose appropriate UTM parameters

The next up is to choose the suitable UTM parameters to add to your URL. Digital marketers who run Google ads or Facebook ad campaigns know the effectiveness of these UTM parameters.
Moreover, a campaign’s URL could have multiple UTM parameters doing their specific jobs. The most common UTM parameters are mentioned below:

utm_source:

To identify the traffic platform sending traffic to a website

utm_medium:

To understand the type of link where it’s being used

utm_campaign:

To specify a certain campaign or promotion

utm_term:

To recognize the search term the brand is targeting

utm_content:

To explain the type of content used to drive website visitors such as an article text or a sidebar banner.

 

#3. Place the UTM parameter tracking

UTM parameters placement does seem a difficult task, especially for online marketers who have zero experience with HTML or website code editing. However, the manual insertion of the UTM parameter isn’t the only way to do it.
There are several UTM tracking code generators available on the market that lets you insert the UTM parameters into a URL. Not only are these UTM generators spot on, but they also make the process faster.

#4. Analyze the results

It’s necessary to keep an eye on the campaign results to navigate along the way. To get started with tracking your UTM campaign results, follow these steps:
Go to your Google Analytics account for further steps
Head over to the Acquisition. Then go to the Traffic Acquisition.

google-analytics-utm-tracking

You’ll see all the traffic acquisition channels.

The UTM campaign would reflect under the source/medium section, so look out for that.

How to get a tracking URL?

The UTM parameters are extremely helpful when tracking user behavior during an online campaign. A tracking URL with complete tracking anecdotes could come in handy in social media marketing, online advertising, and email marketing.
Have you ever hovered over a link in an email that includes various terms such as source or medium? The reason is that these are types of UTM parameters that facilitate to track the performance of the email marketing campaigns.
You might wonder, how do I get a tracking URL?
Well, you can opt for a decent UTM tracking tool that allows you to add UTM tags to your URLs without making a big deal out of it.

Add UTMs with Replug

Replug-URL-tracker

Replug is an all-in-one link management tool for creating, managing and tracking vanity URLs for social media, online advertising, or email newsletters. Branded URL shortener allows users to shorten the long URLs so that they appear clean anywhere you share them.

Moreover, the additional Replug features include UTM, retargeting, bio links, QR generation, mobile deep linking, and more.
Here are four simple steps to get a tracking URL using Replug:

Step 1: Log in to your Replug account
Go to the Replug app and log in to your account.

log-in-to-your-account

Step 2: Enter the URL to shorten
After the login, you’ll see a URL shortening snippet right on the dashboard. Select the Replug campaign and paste the long URL you want to shorten and add UTM parameters to the campaign. If you haven’t created a campaign, you’ll be better off creating one.

create-a-replug-link

The moment you paste the URL to shorten it, an “Add UTM” CTA button will appear next to the URL.

add-utm

Step 3: Add UTM parameters

Click on the “Add UTM” CTA button to include the UTM parameters to add the ability to track the URL using Replug.

select-or-use-a-saved-utm-parameter

Once you click that CTA, you’ll be prompted with a UTM screen – you’d have to select an already created UTM or add a new one.

If you choose to create a new UTM code, a form will pop up to fill out.

add-new-utm-parameters

Go through this step as it’s crucial to add the URL tracking. Once you’re done with adding all required parameters, proceed to the next step.

Step 4: Generate the short URL
After you add the parameters, they will appear along with your URL. Proceed further to generate that short URL along with UTM parameters to track link performance.

share-the-short-url

Start Tracking

Generating a tracking URL is a great tool for online marketers to push sales growth. The fundamentals of a tracking URL will remain the same whether you use Google Analytics or a URL shortener tool. However, the benefits of URL shorteners are still yet  to be explored to its maximum potential.
Brands and entrepreneurs use URL tracking for branding, building a custom audience, and generating more sales.

FAQs

Can URL be tracked?

Any URL that contains the tracking parameters can be tracked. The ideal method is to include UTM parameters to track the URL performance.

What is URL tagging?

URL tagging is the process of infusing identifiers to the URLs to attribute the traffic to a specific campaign or event.

What is UTM stand for?

UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Modules.  

Start making most of your online marketing efforts with tracking URLs today!

Hassaan Khan
Hassaan Khan is a freelance writer for SAAS companies, e-commerce stores, and niche websites. He has contributed to SEMrush, ThriveGlobal, BloggingCage, AllBloggingTips, and several other publications. He builds niche websites, publishes e-books, and helps website investors with his done-for-you niche site-building service.

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