Tracking your campaigns through UTMs

Laci Wright

As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, we’re diving into the world of Urchin Tracking Module codes (UTM)—a powerful tool that can help enhance your digital marketing efforts. Whether you’re a faculty member, staff, or administrator, understanding UTMs can help you make data-driven decisions and optimize your online presence.

What are UTM codes?

A UTM code is a snippet of text added to a URL. Think of them as digital breadcrumbs that help us track where our website traffic comes from.  By using UTM codes, we gain insights into which channels, campaigns, or content pieces are driving visitors to your site. UTM links can include up to five parameters: Source, Medium, Campaign, Term, and Content.

 

UTM codes allow us to see a complete and accurate picture of the customer journey. To collect this information about your digital marketing campaigns, you can learn the basics of UTM code tracking, add UTM codes to key external URLs, and begin analyzing your data.

 

What are the five UTM parameters?

Source: This tells us where the traffic originates. Was it a social media post, an email newsletter, or an external website?

Medium: The medium tells you the general channel that the traffic engaged with in order to hit your site – social media, organic search, referral, etc.

Campaign: Assign a campaign tag to your marketing efforts. It could be an event, a recruitment drive, or a fundraising push.

Term: If you’re running paid ads, the term parameter helps track keywords or phrases.

Content: Use this parameter to tag specific content pieces. Did users click on a blog post, an event listing, or an announcement?

Here’s an example of what a UTM code would look like:

https://ku.edu/?utm_source=hubspot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=recruitment&utm_term=2025&utm_content=blog

 

Why should you care?

  • Granular insights: UTMs allow us to go beyond high-level data. We can pinpoint which social media post or email campaign led to specific page visits.
  • Optimization opportunities: Armed with UTM data, you can fine-tune your strategies.

 

How do I get started?

To learn more about UTM codes check out our UTM Link Guide, which includes a UTM link generator, KU Marketing's UTM key, and some helpful overviews and best practices. To use the guide for your own unit, please make a copy (File › Make a Copy).

 

Remember, UTM codes are like compasses — they can help guide us through the digital landscape and get a better understanding of your marketing efforts.