Hello everyone!

UTM tags are used as an additional tool for tracking and analyzing traffic. With their help you can understand things like:

  • The effectiveness of a specific advertising campaign;
  • The effectiveness of a particular traffic channel;
  • The effectiveness of the key phrase as a condition for displaying an ad;
  • Well, other additional parameters.

Each item listed above has its own label.

Let's take a closer look at what UTM tags are, how to create them, what reports to use to analyze them, and something else. Let's go!

What is a UTM tag?

UTM tags are specially designed link parameters that convey information about the transition. You can use them in absolutely any links: be it Yandex.Direct ads or clicks on links from social networks.

There are two types in total:

  1. Regular tags (static), which I'll talk about right now;
  2. Dynamic ones, which I’ll talk about a little later.

And the number of main UTM tags is limited to five, each of which solves its own problem:

UTM - tag Task
UTM-source Campaign source. The search engine or site from which the traffic comes is written here. For example, yandex or google. This label is required! Example: utm-source=yandex
UTM-medium Campaign channel. The campaign channel you are using is written in this label. For example, cpc is a pay-per-click channel. This label is required! Example: utm_medium=cpc
UTM-term Campaign keywords. Used to identify the keyword that triggered the ad. Example: utm_term=buy_iphone_6s
UTM-content Campaign content. This tag is great for testing different ad variants. Example: utm_content=variant1
UTM-campaign Campaign name. This parameter specifies the number or name of the campaign. Perfect for analyzing a specific category of product or service. This label is required! Example: utm_campaign=iphone6s

As you can see, thanks to UTM tags, Yandex Direct, and other traffic channels, becomes almost transparent, that is, we can measure the effectiveness of absolutely all elements. In addition, they can be used to conduct A/B tests of ads.

How to create UTM tags?

For this task, the World Wide Web provides a large number of services, because there is nothing complicated in creating a website. Until recently, one of the most popular services was the UTM tag compositor from Google, but it was later closed, leaving a link to another, no less good, service, which also belongs to Google.

Working with this UTM tag generator is simple: just fill in all the fields and it will automatically generate a link for you:

It happens that you don’t really want to use some third-party services and constantly enter data into fields. In this case, the so-called dynamic UTM tags of Yandex Direct or any other traffic channel come to the rescue.

Dynamic parameters of UTM tags

Dynamic UTM parameters differ from standard ones in that the transition data is inserted into the link automatically by the contextual advertising and analytics system. And they are inserted there through the use of special macros responsible for transmitting certain data:

Parameter Description Possible values
(source_type) site type: search or context search (means display on search) or context (utm tag for YAN)
(source) platform for ads displayed in the Yandex advertising network - YAN site address (when displayed on a website from YAN) or none (when displayed on a search)
(position_type) special accommodation block or guarantee premium - special placement, other - guarantee or none - advertising network
(keyword) keyword keyword
(addphrases) showing ads using additional relevant phrases yes - display by additional phrase or no - display by keyword
(param1) First keyword parameter The value of the first parameter for this keyword.
(param2) Second keyword parameter The value of the second parameter for this keyword.
(campaign_id) Advertising campaign number (ID) Number
(ad_id) or (banner_id) Ad number (ID) Number
(phrase_id) Key phrase number (ID) Number
(retargeting_id) Number (ID) of the retargeting condition Number
(GBID) Group ID Number

Http://site.ru/?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=(source_type)&utm_campaign=(campaign_id)&utm_content=(ad_id)&utm_term=(keyword)

As I already said, all data will be entered automatically, which means there is no need to enter any additional information. In addition, with the help of such UTM tags we can get a little more information if we combine the parameters:

Utm_content=(ad_id).(position_type)

Thus, we learned how to create UTM tags for Yandex Direct, for Google Adwords, for social networks and in general any channels from which traffic comes to your website.

Use the tables!

How to analyze using UTM tags?

Any analytics system provides the ability to analyze traffic using UTM tags. So, for example, in Yandex.Metrica there is a report “UTM Tags” (Reports > Standard reports > Sources > UTM Tags):

Hello, dear friends. Happy New Year! I’m sure we celebrated the New Year without any losses and now you can profitably spend the New Year holidays for your pleasure.

And I want to tell you about UTM tags. These are parameters that are added to the site address (link) and transmit statistical information to analytics services, such as Yandex.Metrica and Google Analytics.

Purpose of UTM tags

The main purpose of tags is to track and highlight transitions from various external sources. So, placing , contextual advertising, sending e-mail newsletters to the databases of different authors, and so on - it is very important to highlight the most effective sources of traffic. And get rid of sites that eat up your advertising budget.

In general, if you are going to engage in affiliate marketing or are already doing it, or are promoting your own product, then you simply must use utm tags.

Structure of UTM tags

As you probably already understood, utm tags are a special code added to the end of the URL link. And each label consists of a parameter and its value. And it looks like this:

To generate reports, the main parameters of utm tags are used. The first three of them are required; links can be used in any order.

  • utm_source (referral source: yandex.direct, google, kadam, etc.);
  • utm_medium (marketing tool: cpc - ads, cpm - banner, email - newsletter, social, social-network, social-media - social networks);
  • utm_campaign (advertising campaign name);
  • utm_content(ad specific);
  • utm_term (keywords)

As an example, you can use this tag code:

Utm_source=name &utm_medium=type &utm_campaign=company_name &utm_term=key &utm_content=name

Just be sure to replace the name value with the source of your advertising campaign.

How to add utm tags to a link

You should also remember that in addition to manually adding tags, advertising tools have the ability to automatically fill in the values ​​of the specified parameters.

Https://site/spic/index.html?utm_source=yandex.direct&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=spic&utm_content=offer

Note: the label parameters cannot be changed, but you specify their value yourself. It is possible arbitrarily, and it is better without Russian letters, although they are not prohibited. And be sure to check the links for functionality after adding tags.

It is also very important to pay attention to the formation of links on the site itself. If there is no slash (/) at the end of the url address, then you start adding tags immediately with a question mark:

Url-address?tags

And if there is a slash, then put marks after it:

Url/?tags

Now let's look at an example where you can add parameters for auto-filling values ​​by the advertising system itself.

For Yandex.Direct

Https://site/spic/index.html?utm_source=yandex.direct&utm_medium=cpc &utm_campaign=spic&utm_content=offer &type=(source_type)&source=(source) &added=(addphrases)&block=(position_type) &position=(position)&keyword =(keyword)

(source_type) — type of site: search or display in YAN;

(source) – site address, only for YAN;

(addphrases) — whether the display was triggered by additional relevant phrases;

(position_type) – where it is shown: special placement or guarantee;

(position) — number of the ad position in the block;

(keyword) – keyword.

For Google.AdWords

Https://site/spic/index.html?utm_source=yandex.direct&utm_medium=cpc &utm_campaign=spic&utm_content=offer &network=(network)&placement=(placement) &position=(adposition)&adid=(creative) &match=(matchtype)&keyword =(keyword)

Where the values ​​in curly brackets indicate:

(network) – site type: search or context;

(placement) – site address;

(adposition) – position of the ad;

(creative) – unique identification number of the ad;

(matchtype) – keyword matching;

(keyword) – keyword.

By the way, to create links with utm tags, Google has a special link builder. I advise you to look at it and try to create links.

Another autocomplete example for Kadam teaser network

https://site/spic/index.html?utm_source=kadam&utm_campaign=&utm_term=&utm_content=

— transfer of site id;

— transfer of banner id, teaser;

— transfer of campaign id.

And remember, if you don’t have Google Analytics on your landing page (the page to which the visitor is directed), then you don’t have to add tags. Since you won’t be able to get comprehensive statistics.

Now is the time to figure out how to make good use of the data received through utm tags.

How to collect statistics on utm tags

Again, I’ll show you using Metrics as an example.

Disallow: /*utm_source=

But search engines haven’t really followed the rules lately. Therefore, use this method if you cannot add the rel="canonical" tag.

If you have any questions, watch the video tutorial or write in the comments, I will be happy to help.

That’s all for today, I wish everyone a pleasant New Year holidays. See you in new articles.

Best regards, Maxim Zaitsev.

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UTM tag - special parameters written into URL pages, with the help of which we can find out information about the transition to our advertising.

https://yandex.ru/ ?utm_source=yandex&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=remont_dmitrov

Yandex Direct has its own system of tags for Yandex Metrics yclid, while Direct puts these tags automatically, the question immediately arises, why then do we need UTM tags in Direct.

Parameters of UTM tags in Yandex Direct.

Each UA TM mark consists of a set of parameters, in which it carries information about following the link.

The UTM tag parameters for Yandex Direct have a number of features.

All parameters are divided into 2 types:

    Dynamic

    Static

Dynamic parameters as the name suggests, they carry information that may change depending on conditions. Be it automatic detection of a search phrase or YAN site from where the transition was received.

Static parameters on the contrary, they are set once and accordingly do not change until we change them ourselves. For example, the name of an advertising campaign in Yandex Direct.

The UTM tag must contain 3 required parameters:

    utm_source– transition source type

    utm_medium– channel or type of traffic

The remaining parameters are optional, but we still cannot do without some of them.

Value to insert into link Description Passed value
(ad_id) or (banner_id) Ad ID number
(addphrases) Is this impression triggered by additional relevant phrases? yes - display for an additional relevant phrase;
no - display based on one of the original phrases
(addphrasestext) Text of additional relevant phrase phrase text - when displayed using an additional relevant phrase;
none - the impression was not triggered by an additional relevant phrase
(campaign_type) Campaign type type1 - Text and image ads;
type2 - Mobile application advertising;
type3 - Dynamic declarations;
type4 - Smart banners
(campaign_id) Campaign ID number
(creative_id) Creative ID from the designer number
(device_type) Type of device on which the display was made desktop - desktop;
mobile - mobile phone;
tablet - tablet
(gbid) Group ID number
(keyword) Key phrase for which the ad was shown (text-graphic or mobile application advertising) Key phrase text without negative words
(phrase_id) Keyphrase ID for text/image ads or mobile app ads number
(retargeting_id) ID of the audience targeting condition that associates the ad set with audience conditions or mobile app interests. Read more about the audience targeting condition in the Direct API documentation number
(coef_goal_context_id) Bid adjustment ID for the audience selection condition number
(interest_id) Mobile App Interest ID number
(adtarget_name) Dynamic ad targeting condition name of the targeting condition
(adtarget_id) Dynamic ad targeting condition ID number
(position) The exact position of the ad in the block. Passes only the position number, which cannot be used to determine the type of block where the ad is shown (use with (position_type)) position number in the block (for example, 1);
0 - the ad was shown in networks (YAN or external networks)
(position_type) Block type, if the display occurred on the Yandex search results page premium - special accommodation;
other - block on the right or block at the bottom;
none - the ad was shown in networks (YAN or external networks)
(source) Display location site domain (for example, travel.ru) - when displayed in networks (YAN or external networks);
none - when displayed on Yandex search
(source_type) Type of platform where the ad was shown search - search;
context - networks
(region_name) Region where the ad was shown region name
(region_id) ID of the region in which the ad was shown number

Agree, there are too many parameters, and not all of them are so important.

So, we come to the most interesting part of creating high-quality and useful UTM tags.

Creating UTM tags in Yandex Direct.

Of all the parameters presented in the previous table, we will highlight the truly important ones.

I will repeat immediately:

Three required parameters:

1. utm_source– transition source type (static)
For Yandex Direct you can use “utm_source=yandex”

2.utm_medium– channel type, also the static parameter “utm_medium=cpc” means that the payment is per click or simply means that the click came from Direct.

This is the only parameter that needs to be changed manually. This is because there is NO dynamic parameter for UTM tags that determines the Name of the advertising campaign. Dynamically, we can only pull out the number that Yandex Direct assigns to an advertising campaign, which in turn does not carry any significant information.

I would like to clarify right away that in this parameter you can specify both various test data for ad groups and for the ads themselves, which in turn will reduce your UTM tag from unnecessary parameters.

Example:

In fact this is the minimum UTM tag, which will already work.

utm_term is responsible for the keyword in the UTM tag– this parameter should be left dynamic, because when using large semantic cores with 1000 or more keywords, manually specifying this parameter is clearly illogical.

utm_term=(keyword)

Now we have received a fairly simple, working UTM tag with which we can find out from which advertising campaign and key phrase (word) there was a click, which, for example, led to an application for phone repair.

https://yandex.ru/ utm_source=yandex& utm_medium=cpc& utm_campaign=remont_odintsovo& utm_term=(keyword)

So, we know the name of the advertising campaign and the keyword from which the click was made, what else could we need?

There's not much left:

Let's say our transition in the ad group had 2 ads with different images

and we want to know which ad, and therefore image, led to the repair request. For this we use the parameter utm_content, there are 2 options for using this parameter to define an ad:

1. Static – manually enter the ad name, for example, utm_content=image_1

2. Dynamic - utm_content=(ad_id) this UTM tag parameter will take the value advertisement number, assigned to it by Yandex Direct.

The difference is that the first one will have to be entered manually, but when collecting statistics, ad options will be immediately visible, while the dynamic parameter collects statistics itself, but after that it will have to be analyzed using the ad number.

Everyone decides for themselves which option is easier for them.

And the last parameter, or more precisely the value of the parameter, is

utm_content=(source)

source is responsible for the site where the click came from, for search campaigns these are Yandex search partners, but most importantly, this value shows from which YAN sites the click was made.

It will help you determine which sites on YAN are draining your budget without bringing in a single application and can subsequently be turned off.

In total, from all these parameters of the UTM tag, we get a powerful and high-quality tool for analyzing our advertising:

View collected UTM tag statistics.

The “UTM Tags” report is responsible for the collected statistics in Yandex Metrica.


In Google Analytics, the report can be found in Traffic Sources - All Traffic - Source Channel


To learn how to quickly create more complex UTM tags, see a separate article about them:

In conclusion I will say that UTM tags are great for integrating Yandex Direct into Google Analytics for further analysis and improvement of advertising campaigns.

UTM tags are also needed for the call tracking system to work. Thanks to them, call tracking can determine which ad the user who called you (and maybe bought something) came from. Without tags, the system simply does not know which ad attracted the client.

This is what the tag consists of:


To ensure that the label can be easily deciphered, use generally accepted values ​​or ones that you and your colleagues will understand.

For example, these:



Below we will analyze the parameters and main values ​​of tags and build a report on them in web analytics systems.

5 UTM tag parameters: mandatory and optional

utm_source - campaign source

utm_medium - traffic type

Traffic is the users you drive to your website. The type of traffic is how you received these users.

For each type (except for organic - these are direct visits to the site through search engines) there is its own parameter:

  • cpc- the link is placed in the advertisement, money is debited for clicking on the advertisement.
  • cpm- the link is placed in the advertisement, money is debited for 1000 impressions.
  • referral- the link is posted on a third-party resource (for example, in a directory).
  • social- link posted on social networks.
  • email- the link is posted in the email newsletter.

utm_campaign - campaign name

utm_content - ad identifier

utm_term - keyword

In other sources, people do not enter a query into the search bar to find the answer. Therefore, there are no keywords for the ad either.

How to correctly specify dynamic parameters of UTM tags

The value of the dynamic parameter is written in a curly brace - (campaign_id). For myTarget and Facebook, the bracket must be double. Values ​​can be concatenated using underscores - (campaign_id) _ (source). Then the report will display both values ​​simultaneously.

You can combine the values ​​as you like: if you want, substitute not only the ID in the campaign name, but also the display platform (search or network), or combine demographic data - there are many options. In the tables below you will see the main dynamic parameters and what they mean.

Yandex.Direct

Google Ads

myTarget

Facebook

Where to insert UTM tags?

For example, you made a tag for the “Hyundai spare parts” campaign on Yandex search. You copy the finished link with the label in the linker:



And then paste into the “Site Link” field in the window for creating/editing an ad in Yandex.Direct:

How to track UTM tags in Yandex.Metrica

Yandex.Metrica has a special report on UTM tags. It is located in the Reports - Standard Reports - Sources - UTM Tags section.

The data is stored in a tree structure - from source to keyword, but their order can be changed. To do this, click on the “Groups” button. There you can add the last search phrase and other characteristics to the report.



You can also use UTM tags to create a user segment - it can be used in other reports or used in retargeting in Yandex.Direct. In a segment, tags indicate the source of traffic.

How to view UTM tags in Google Analytics

All Campaigns Report

Located in the Reports - Traffic Sources - Campaigns - All Campaigns section.

By default, the main parameter (first column) is the name of the campaign (utm_campaign), but above the table you can change it to source (utm_source), channel (utm_medium), source/channel, etc.

You can also display an additional source in the report. To add utm_content, search for "ad content" and utm_term matches the "keyword" parameter.

Paid Keywords Report

Answers to questions that are best known in advance

I made labels for my links, checked them and got a 404 error. What's happened?

  • you entered the label incorrectly (violated the rules for attaching parameters),
  • It is prohibited to add anything to the URL of your site (the server prohibits the use of get parameters). To check this, add the test tag site.ru/?test to the page (where site.ru is the address of the page on your site). If you see a 404 page when you click, contact the site developer; if everything is fine, look for an error in the label, or better yet, make a new one.

I included link markup for Metrica in Yandex.Direct. Do I need to create UTM tags for my Direct campaigns?

Yes. The yclid (for Metrica) and UTM tags do not conflict with each other. But you will be able to collect statistics not only in Metrica, but also in other analytics systems.

If you're just getting started with UTM tags, take a look at this article as you create them. And help your friends and colleagues who are learning the basics of link markup by sending them a link to the article.

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