UTM Tracking in Partner Marketing – What You Need To Know?

Tracking partner marketing initiatives’ success and spotting areas for development is much aided by UTM tracking. By linking distinctive URL parameters to the links in a campaign, UTM tracking—also known as Urchin Tracking Module tracking—helps one monitor the success of online marketing campaigns.

Known as “query strings,” these criteria comprise key-value pairs outlining the tracked information—that is, the campaign name, the source of the traffic, and the media used in generation of the traffic.

Clicking on a UTM-tracked link causes a user’s web browser to forward this data to the server of the website, which Google Analytics can then capture and examine. This lets marketers know not just other crucial statistics like the bounce rate and conversion rate but also how many clicks each link in a campaign is producing.

Tracking UTM is a quick way to evaluate the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns and support companies in deciding where to allocate their funds.

How is UTM tracking done?

UTM tracking ties a distinctive URL parameter to the links in a marketing campaign. Appended to the URL’s end, this parameter comprises a set of key-value pairs defining the tracked data.

A UTM-tracked link might appear, for instance, like this:

www.scaleo.io?utm_source=google&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=summer_sale

In this case, the utm_campaign parameter names the campaign; the utm_source parameter indicates that the traffic is coming from Google; the utm_medium parameter indicates that the traffic is coming via email.

When a user clicks on a UTM-tracked link, their web browser sends this data to the server of the website, which may then be logged and examined with instruments like Google Analytics. This lets marketers know not only other crucial stats like the bounce rate and conversion rate but also how many clicks each link in a campaign is producing.

How can UTM Parameters be useful in partner marketing?

UTM parameters can be useful in affiliate marketing in a number of ways. Some of the best uses of UTM parameters in affiliate marketing include:

1. Tracking the performance of specific affiliates or marketing channels: By attaching unique UTM parameters to the links shared with affiliates, you can track which affiliates or marketing channels are generating the most clicks and conversions. This can help you identify the most effective affiliates and allocate your resources accordingly.
2. Identifying the effectiveness of specific campaigns: By using UTM parameters to track the performance of specific campaigns, you can see which campaigns are generating the most clicks and conversions and make adjustments to improve their performance.
3. A/B testing different versions of a campaign: By using the utm_content parameter to specify different campaign variations, you can A/B test different versions of your campaigns and see which ones are the most effective.
4. Tracking the performance of specific keywords or ad copy: By using the utm_term parameter to track specific keywords or ad copy, you can see which ones are the most effective at driving clicks and conversions.

Overall, UTM parameters can be a powerful tool for tracking the performance of your affiliate marketing campaigns and identifying opportunities for improvement.

What information can be passed with UTM tracking parameters?

There are five main UTM tracking parameters that you can use to pass information about a marketing campaign. Here is an example of a typical URL with UTM parameters:

http://www.scaleo.io?utm_source=google&utm_medium=paid_search&utm_campaign=spring_sale&utm_term=women's_shoes&utm_content=banner_ad

In this example we can see:

1. utm_source: This parameter specifies the traffic source, such as Google, Facebook, or an email newsletter.
2. utm_medium: This parameter specifies the medium through which the traffic was generated, such as email, social media, or paid search.
3. utm_campaign: This parameter allows you to specify the name of the campaign. This can be useful for organizing and grouping your data into analytics tools like Google Analytics.
4. utm_term: This parameter allows you to specify the keywords or terms associated with the campaign. This can be useful for tracking the effectiveness of specific keywords in paid search campaigns.
5. utm_content: This parameter allows you to specify the specific content or variation of the campaign, such as a particular ad or landing page. This can be useful for A/B testing different variations of a campaign.

These settings are optional, thus depending on your objectives and tracking requirements you can decide to use as few or as many as you need. Establishing a naming convention for your campaigns will also help you to more easily arrange and examine your data.

Clicking on this UTM-tracked link causes a user’s web browser to forward this data to the server of the website, which can then be logged and examined with instruments like Google Analytics.

This lets businesses know not only other crucial statistics like the bounce rate and conversion rate but also how many clicks each link in a campaign is producing.

Comparatively to Google Click Identifier (GCLID), how does UTM differ?

Google generates and adds a special tracking value called Google Click Identifier (GCLID) to the destination URL of the ad upon clicked. GCLID lets businesses see which ads are getting the most clicks and conversions, much as UTM tracking lets.

UTM tracking differs from GCLID mostly in that the marketer manually implements UTM tracking while Google automatically creates GCLID. UTM tracking thus lets the marketer more flexibility and customizing in terms of the parameters being tracked but also calls more setup and maintenance on their part.

Regarding whether you should use UTM tracking with Google Analytics, your particular needs and objectives will determine whether or not. Google Analytics can benefit much from UTM tracking, which lets you more precisely monitor the success of particular campaigns and links.

Google Analytics might be enough on its own, though, if your main interests are monitoring general traffic and user behavior on your website.

Your particular needs and objectives as a marketer will ultimately determine whether you decide to use UTM tracking or GCLID (or both), as well as the tools at hand for monitoring and analysis.

How to use Use UTM with Scaleo affiliate marketing software?

To use UTM tracking with Scaleo affiliate marketing software, you will need to follow these steps:

1. Define the UTM parameters that you want to track for your campaigns. This will typically include the utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign parameters at a minimum.
2. Generate the UTM-tracked links for your campaigns. You can use a tool like Google Analytics URL Builder to generate the UTM-tracked links for your campaigns. Simply enter the desired values for each parameter, and the tool will generate a complete UTM-tracked link for you.
3. Share the UTM-tracked links with your affiliates. You can do this by providing the links to your affiliates directly or by integrating the links into your affiliate marketing software.
4. Track the results of your campaigns using the data collected by Scaleo and your analytics tools. You can use this data to see which campaigns are performing well and which are not and make adjustments to your marketing strategy accordingly.

It’s important to note that you will need to have Google Analytics or a similar analytics tool set up on your website in order to track the results of your UTM-tracked campaigns. 

You may also need to adjust your analytics settings to ensure that the data from your UTM-tracked campaigns are being properly recorded and analyzed.

Why Use Scaleo to Track Your Campaigns?

Are you frustrated trying to monitor the success of your partner marketing initiatives? You only need to look at Scaleo, a complete partner marketing tool with sophisticated tracking powers, including UTM tracking.

Using UTM criteria, Scaleo lets you readily monitor the performance of your partner marketing initiatives. Simply mark special UTM parameters on the links you provide to your partners; Scaleo will track and record the outcomes automatically. This lets you find which partners drive the most clicks and conversions, then modify your marketing plan.

Not only that, though, Scaleo provides a suite of other sophisticated tracking tools including the capacity to monitor particular campaigns, keywords, and ad copy performance.

Scaleo can also be used for A/B testing several variants of your campaigns to observe which one performs the best.

👉 Try Scaleo free for 14 days and see the difference for yourself!

Conclusion

Attaching a unique URL parameter to the links in an online marketing campaign allows UTM tracking—a technique of monitoring the success of campaigns. This lets companies know which links inside a campaign are producing the most clicks and how much traffic particular campaigns are attracting.

First defining the parameters they wish to track—such as the source of the traffic (e.g., Google, Facebook), the medium (e.g., email, social media), and the particular campaign name—then marketers can begin UTM tracking. These values then accompany a query string at the end of a URL, preceded by “utm_”.

Clicking on a link with UTM tracking will cause a user’s web browser to forward this data to the server of the website, which can then be noted and examined with tools like Google Analytics. This lets businesses know not only other crucial statistics like the bounce rate and conversion rate but also how many clicks each link in a campaign is producing.

Measuring the success of online marketing campaigns and guiding marketers in their resource allocation depend on UTM tracking, a handy tool.

Last Updated on February 17, 2025