Link Tagging

In order to track the results of our campaigns, Epik uses something called link tagging. The attributes (values/variables) generated in a query string are what will ultimately tell us about how well (or awful) our campaign did. There are four variables in a query string; source, medium, campaign and content. Source, medium and campaign should always be used in order to gather the greatest amount of information from the campaign through Google Analytics.

Utm_source is the highest-level variable in link tagging. The source tag indicates where your traffic is coming from. For e-mails it is generally "newsletter", if you were running CPC or banner ads on Google it would be "Google" or the name of the venue or website where your ad was being displayed.

Utm_medium is the type of media where your tracked link is embedded, such as e-mail, CPC (Cost per Click/Google Adwords), banner ads, TV, radio, etc. Sometimes, you might have links that have the same source but different media. For example, if you were running banner ads as well as CPC ads on Google, you would use the medium tag to enable Google Analytics to differentiate which media your Google traffic is coming from. Yet this would still enable you to see total Google traffic using the “source” attribute.

Utm_campaign is the name of your campaign. When creating campaigns, I personally usually use the date as the campaign name and attach additional information for a/b tests or text versions of html mailers. An example of a campaign tag for a monthly newsletter would be something like “MN_5-23-2008”. Every month your source would be “newsletter” and your medium would be “email”, but your campaign tag would change to reflect the date of each individual newsletter. This would allow you to view compiled data for all e-mail and newsletter traffic and the ability to drill down to the campaign level.

Utm_content is the most specific variable tag because it is unique to each link. The content tag is used to differentiate links within the same campaign, medium, and source. It can help you determine which link or call to action within your campaign performs best.

If you already have experience with link tagging, there are a couple of “best practices” you may want to add to your skill set such as using lowercase letters and using underscores and hyphens to avoid spaces when naming attributes. As you may know, attributes are case sensitive and will show up as different attributes in Google Analytics if the case is not uniform across all links. If you are unsure of what source/medium to use, look to Google Analytics for existing sources and mediums and choose one that best suits the link you’re tagging.

-Aba