Free Google URL Builder - Generate UTM tracking codes

Of course you are tired of seeing all those direct visits in Google Analytics. You want to know where your website visitors are coming from.

Step 1: Enter URL
Step 2: Specify UTM parameters
e.g. newsletter, twitter, google, etc.
e.g. email, social, cpc, etc.
e.g. promotion, sale, etc.
Any call-to-action or headline, e.g. buy-now.
Keywords for your paid search campaigns
Step 3: Get your UTM URL

Get your Free Google URL Builder Spreadsheet Tool

Need to build a lot of URLs?

We'll send you an easy-to-use tool that'll help you build and manage all your UTM tracking URLs in one place.

Bonus:

We also added some UTM tagging guidelines in this tool to help you follow good conventions for your email, social and paid campaigns.

Share it with your team members and follow a consistent UTM tagging strategy.

What exactly are UTM parameters / UTM tags / UTM codes?

Some call them UTM parameters, some UTM codes, while others prefer UTM tags. But they all mean the same. We'll stick to UTM parameters since Google does as well.

UTM parameters are a set of five parameters: utm_campaign, utm_medium, utm_source, utm_content, and utm_term.

Let's go through each of them in brief.

UTM Parameter Description
UTM Source (utm_source) You can use this to identify the website, app, or any other source like newsletter, etc.
UTM Medium (utm_medium) It specifies the name of the marketing medium, e.g. social, cpc, email, etc.
UTM Campaign (utm_campaign) This is the name of your marketing effort. In short, the name of your campaign, e.g. promo, sale, etc.
UTM Content (utm_content) This is used to identify the context in the which the link was clicked. It could be the name of your CTA (Call to Action) or the headline of an ad. e.g. buy-now, etc
UTM Term (utm_term) This is used to identify the keyword in paid search ads. It’s better to not use it for anything else. e.g. shoes, etc.

These parameters can be added to any URL. Let’s say you have a URL 

https://www.terminusapp.com

After adding UTM parameters to this URL, it will look something like this. 

https://www.terminusapp.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=sale&utm_content=signup

You can then share these UTM tracked (tagged) URLs on various channels. These channels can include:

  • Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
  • Email campaigns like newsletter, drip, purchases, cold email, etc.
  • Ad campaigns including search, display, retargeting
  • Print media like flyers, billboards, visiting cards, promotional material, etc.

Why do we need these UTM parameters anyway?

Let me ask you a question? How do you think Google Analytics knows where your visitors are coming from?

If you guessed browser Referrer, you’d be right.

But the Referrer is not always set due to many reasons, including:

  • Bookmarked URL
  • Direct typing the URL in the browser
  • Mobile apps
  • Email clients
  • Going from HTTPS to HTTP website
  • and many other reasons

So if you cannot rely on the Referrer, you need to take matters in your own hands. That’s when you add UTM parameters to the URL. They help you minimize your Direct visits.

Who detects these UTM parameters?

Many analytics tools besides Google Analytics automatically detect UTM parameters in the URLs. This includes Mixpanel and Kissmetrics, the two popular funnel-based analytics systems.

Your analytics tool, UTM parameteres can also greatly enrich your lead generation efforts. Won't it be great if you could find out exactly where each of your lead came from?

All you need to do is capture this UTM and referrer information in your lead/contact forms.