Best Practices For Google Analytics UTM Parameters

Are you looking to get the most impact out of the effort that you're putting into your UTM parameters strategy?

In this video, I will teach you all about the best practices for implementing Google Analytics, UTM parameters, to improve your ROI and streamline your analysis. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel below and hit the bell to be notified every single Tuesday when I post a new video about entrepreneurship systems and metrics.

UTM parameters are one of the best-known strategies to implement that will help you streamline and optimize your ability to analyze your marketing ROI, not familiar with UTM parameters, how to implement them and just why they're so dang important.

Check out this video that I did that will help you get all of those specifics and to help you get started today, I'm going to give you my three key tips to fine-tune the UTM strategy that you are using to track the traffic that your marketing is driving to your website. Even if you're just getting started, trying to figure out how to implement this into your own marketing strategy. You'll be able to save yourself a lot of time and energy by doing this the right way the first time, make sure you stick around to the end for the bonus tip that I'm going to share.

My first key tip, try to include UTM parameters on all the links that are driving traffic to your website.

This may take some time to figure out all the places that you might have links out there in internet land. And the truth is you might never find an update all of them across all your marketing channels, but the more consistent you can be with UTM tagging, the better your data is going to be.

This process can take time to implement fully. And that's totally okay. Start with the platforms that are driving the most engaged traffic to your website. If going back historically is just too daunting right now. Don't worry. I completely understand that. And that's totally okay too. Just try to be as consistent with any new links that you put out there via social media partnerships, promotions, advertising, et cetera, commit to being consistent from this point onward.

My second key tip is to standardize the naming conventions that you use in those UTM parameters.

The more you standardize your naming conventions, the easier it will be to actually analyze the data that you look at within Google analytics, being clear in your strategy behind this, and then how you implement that strategy as early as possible will pay dividends in the long run.

So what can you do to standardize your UTM parameters?

UTMs are case sensitive. So you want to make sure that everything is lowercase. Also. I try to keep things as simple and as clear as possible if there's a lot of different categories that I want to include within a parameter. For example, I try to label from the broadest category to the narrowest. You can and should make this naming convention your own in a way that makes sense for your business. If my source is YouTube then my media might be YouTube dash description dash episode 12 for the YouTube description of episode 12 of my YouTube series.

Comment below and let me know, have you ever used UTM parameters to help you analyze data in Google analytics? If so, tell me what insights you've found since using them.

My third key tip is to make sure you get as detailed as possible in those UTM parameters, but also in a way that you can sustainably implement and maintain.

That example I just gave you YouTube dash description dash episode 12. Now that is super detailed because you have to create a specific link just for that one placement on that one YouTube video, if that's too much for you, either too much work or more data than you will know what to do with, or take action on, then just don't get that detailed. Maybe start with YouTube dash description and use that same link and every YouTube video that you publish that will still give you extremely valuable data to make key decisions off of. Start more simple and broad.

So you can use the same link in multiple places. And once you get used to that process, then over time, you can get more detailed. One of the most important aspects of using this strategy is consistency. So if you aren't going to be that consistent, then it's not worth it. So start simple and go and get more detailed from there.

Now it's time for your bonus tip. Are you ready?

The better you get at using UTM parameters and the more detailed you get and the values and categories you're using, you could be creating some super long URLs that might be off-putting to the people who are using your links. Well, let me tell you how to fix that. You can use a URL shortener like Bitly, for example, a free tool to help you create more user friendly, URLs. When you use a tool like Bitly, it will keep all the parameters in place even with the new URL so you can get all the benefits of using UTM parameters with great user experience, wins all around.

If you're ready to start making smarter decisions easily and more confidently to scale your business to greater success. Check out my Facebook group, the confident and data-driven entrepreneurs, live training, and Q and A's three times a week. The link is below and I can't wait to see you there.

Make sure to subscribe to my channel, hit the like button, and comment below to let me know your biggest takeaway from this video. If you're ready to take your business and marketing to the next level of using metrics and systems, don't forget to check out these related videos on my channel. Cheers friend, to your business success.

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