Have you ever run a marketing campaign, but then are not sure how to track its success? How many sign-ups, accepteds, approvals, realizations, or completes did this campaign lead to? Now there is a way for you to be able to better track these things through Campaign Tags and UTM Codes!
What are UTM Codes?
"UTM" stands for the "Urchin tracking module" based on the company that Google later acquired in 2005. This company's work helped become Google Analytics later. This isn't super useful information, but a fun fact you can share with your friends (and let's be honest hasn't that already made this article worth your time?).
UTM codes are parts of texts that allow Google Analytics, Facebook Analytics, and now our very own Global Information System (I can hear you saying "wow, EXPA/YOP being up there with Google and Facebook is pretty cool!") to have more information about a link. You can see below an example:
https://aiesec.org/?utm_source=Offline%20Media&utm_medium=Organic%20Social Media&utm_campaign=IND-leadershipisalsoabout&utm_term=leadership&utm_content=GT
You might also see a link like this when you are clicking on links from other brands in newsletters. Keep reading on and we'll go through what this weird link means and why it is so important.
Why does this matter?
UTM codes matter because they allow us to learn more about where our website traffic is coming from and what kind of actions do visitors from certain sources take. For example in the link above we can tell that visitors using this link are coming from our offline marketing efforts and organic social media (this link wouldn't make sense, but that is more a failure of the author of this article and shouldn't be held against UTM codes).
We can then see data about these users in our Google Analytics, you can access this through the YOP Dashboard, and through EXPA or Data Files, we will get to more on this later on so keep on reading! This would allow marketing people to finally tell VP Finances everywhere this is how much revenue my marketing campaigns are generating so give me more money (as a former MCVP Finance I know how badly marketing people have wanted to be able to say this with data to back them up).
Where can I use UTM links?
Some places you might want to use UTM links are:
- Marketing posters
- Social media posts
- Your website
- Email Marketing
- Social Media Ads
Okay, I'm convinced UTMs are cool, show me how to use them, please!
(What the author of this article is imagining you the reader is saying.)
[MC Roles Only] First, let's breakdown how you can generate UTM codes:
- Go to the MC Committee Page
- Click on Youth Opportunities Portal
- Click on Campaigns
- Click Create to start creating a link with awesome UTMs in it!
- Select the relevant tags from the source, medium, and content dropdowns.
- Campaign Tag and Campaign Term should be something that helps you to identify which campaign this link will go in. For example, your Campaign Tag might be leadershipisalsoaboutApril to help you identify the campaign you were running at the time.
- Click submit and the link will be created and show up in the campaigns section.
- Click on the copy icon and you will now have an aiesec.org link with your UTMs that you can use in marketing efforts!
https://www.aiesec.org/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Organic%20Social%20Media&utm_campaign=USA-leadershipisalsoabout&utm_term=welead&utm_content=General
Important things to know and questions you might have!
Q: You said something about tracking sign-ups to completeds using this?
A: Yep, so now when somebody visits aiesec.org using a UTM link (any UTM link) we store information about their UTM codes. If they sign up we send that information to our database. Then you can view the campaign tag in performance analytics or in the CRMs. In the monthly data files, we will add all the UTM codes to relevant files for more tracking. We are working on also connecting this data to the YOP Dashboard to allow you to see the funnel from visitors to completed (as of writing this article we don't have an estimated timeline for updating the dashboard).
Also in the campaigns section in a committee every time somebody signs up through the UTM codes generated through EXPA the number of sign-ups will increase!
Q: Why should I use the UTM generator in EXPA instead of another UTM generator?
A: The UTM generator in EXPA allows us to use a campaign tag in filters for performance analytics and CRMs.
Q: Did you make fewer jokes as this article went on? It was kind of a letdown.
A: Possibly. Feedback noted.
Q: Are there limitations to UTM codes I should know about?
A: UTMs are attributed to the first time a user visits the website from the same browser for 6 months. (we store this attribution in local storage). For example - if you visit the website twice with 2 different UTMs in 6 months, we will attribute the visit to the first UTM codes. If a user deletes their cookies or uses a different device or browser the UTM codes will change.
Q: Can I use this with the embeddable sign-up form?
Yep, we updated the form to accept campaign tags. We are looking for documentation to help with how this works. If you check the page for the form you can see the new fields and also you should be able to find some examples of how this works through google.com.
Q: What if I use a link directly to auth.aiesec.org or POP links with UTMs?
Right now they wouldn't be processed and saved. UTMs only work with aiesec.org links currently.
Additional Tips and Tricks!
What if I don't want to link to aiesec.org but to a specific page on aiesec.org, like an opportunity or a search?
Easy! Simply take the link you want to use. In this case, we'll use a search for GT opportunities:
https://aiesec.org/search?earliest_start_date=2020-6-1&programmes=2
Take everything from your UTM link after the "?". In this case, it would be:
utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Organic%20Social%20Media&utm_campaign=USA-leadershipisalsoabout&utm_term=welead&utm_content=General
Add a "&" to the end of the link you want to use and the UTM codes. So our link would be:
If this link is too long for a post or you want to use it to track offline marketing you can simply use your favorite link shortener (Bitly as an example) to make a link that seems a lot less terrifying.
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