Setting up UTM parameters in major advertising platforms

Overview

UTM parameters help track campaign performance in advertising platforms by appending identifiers to URLs. Below are step-by-step instructions for setting up UTMs in Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

Setting up UTM parameters in Google Ads

To set up UTM parameters for Google Ads:

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
2. From the left sidebar, go to "Campaigns" and select your desired campaign.
3. Click the "Settings" tab and then "Additional settings"
4. Under "Tracking," find "Campaign URL options".
5. Click "Customize URL tracking".
6. Add your UTM parameters.

{lpurl}?utm_source=google&campaign_id={campaignid}&ad_id={creative}&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign={campaign.name}&utm_content={adgroupid}&utm_term={placement}&gclid={gclid}

For Google Ads, we recommend:

• utm_source = google
• utm_medium = paid_search or cpc
• utm_campaign = your campaign name
• utm_content = ad group name or ad text
• utm_term = keyword

7. Save your changes. Google Ads will automatically append these parameters to your destination URLs.

To bulk edit UTMs for all your Google ads:

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
2. From the left sidebar, navigate to 'Campaigns' > 'Settings'.
3. At the campaign level, select the checkbox for "All campaigns"
4. Click the "Edit" dropdown menu and choose "Change tracking templates"
5. In the "New tracking template" field, paste your Usermaven UTM template.
6. Click Save to save your changes.

Setting up UTM parameters in Google Ads

To set up UTM parameters for Facebook Ads:

1. Sign in to your Facebook Ads Manager.

2. Create a new ad or select an existing one to edit.

3. Navigate to 'Campaigns' > 'Ad Groups' > 'Ads'.

4. In the ad creation/editing interface, scroll to the "Website URL" section

5. Click on "Build URL Parameters" underneath the URL field and paste the following:

utm_source=facebook&campaign_id={campaign.id}&ad_id={ad.id}&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign={campaign.name}&utm_term={adset.name}&utm_content={ad.name}&adset_id={adset.id}  

For optimal tracking, we recommend these UTM parameters:

• utm_source = facebook
• utm_medium = paid_social or cpc
• utm_campaign = your campaign name
• utm_content = ad name

6. Click "Save" to save your UTM parameters.

7. Click Publish to save your changes.

Note: Adding UTM tags may trigger a review process for your ads.

Universal tracking parameters

For platforms not directly integrated with Usermaven, use the following universal UTM structure:

utm_source=[source]&utm_medium=[medium]&utm_campaign=[campaign_name]&ad_id=[unique_ad_identifier]&campaign_id=[unique_campaign_identifier]

Replace the bracketed values with your specific information.

Verifying UTM setup in Usermaven

To ensure your UTMs are being tracked correctly, log in to your Usermaven account and scroll down to the UTM Traffic tab. Your data will be readily available

If you don't see your UTM data, double-check your implementation and ensure that the Usermaven tracking script is properly installed on your website.

Troubleshooting common issues

• Missing data: Ensure UTM parameters are correctly formatted and appended.

• Attribution discrepancies: Review your UTM naming conventions for consistency.

• Updating UTMs without losing social proof: Follow protocol to retain previous engagement metrics when modifying UTM parameters.

• Using UTMs for email campaigns: Append UTM parameters to links in emails to track click-through rates and conversions.

• Custom parameters for specific needs: Develop additional custom parameters to fit your unique tracking requirements.