Add UTM parameters to affiliate link
Available in all plans
What are UTM codes?
“UTM” stands for “Urchin tracking module”, which are used to track the effectiveness of online marketing campaign across traffic sources and publishing media. It is added to the end of regular URLs.
The section of the URL following the ? symbol below is a sample of what a UTM code looks like:
https://www.docs.uppromote.com/?utm_source=settings&utm_medium=utm-doc&utm_campaign=uppromote-doc
Why use UTM codes?
UTM parameters in a URL identify the marketing campaign that refers traffic to a specific website. To define and append the relevant UTM parameters to the appropriate URLs, marketers routinely use simple, spreadsheet-based, or automated UTM builder tools, including the Google Analytics URL Builder for websites.
When a hyperlink contains a URL with UTM parameters, the web analytics software of the destination website interprets the parameter information and attributes it to the browser's website session and the sessions after that until the campaign attribution window has expired (by default, six months in Google Analytics)
Set up UTM
Understanding customer's needs,UpPromote now supports adding UTM parameters to the affiliate link so you can track affiliates' performance on your Google Analytics tools. Let's learn how to set it up in the app.
1. Create a Google Analytics account:
In case you haven't created a Google Analytics account, please sign up here.
Once the initial steps are done and account is created, the next step will be choosing platform for your data stream. Kindly choose Website in this case.
Next, insert your store's URL and its name as well to create stream.
A new stream is now created for your store. Please then click Global site tag so it will show the tag for you pass it to your Shopify store.
2. Shopify admin
Once the tag is copied successfully, kindly navigate to your Shopify Admin > Online Store > Themes > Current theme > Action > Edit code.
Choose the theme.liquid file that is located under Layout section, place the copied tag into the <head> section of this file just as this picture below.
Hurray! You're done with setting up your Google Analytics account. Now, we'll need to add UTM parameters to affiliate link so you can observe click trackings in Google Analytics. Let's move on to the next step.
3. How to select a variable for each UTM parameter?
You need to decide what variables you’ll assign to the UTM parameters. To do that you first need to understand what each UTM parameter represents, and how to use them effectively.
You can add five different types of UTM parameters to your links:
utm_medium (required) – This tag tells Google Analytics what’s advertising or marketing medium, that brought the user to your website. It could be CPC, banner, email, newsletter, organic, etc. utm_medium=cpc, utm_medium=email, utm_medium=organic and so on.
utm_source (required) – Use this to tag to tell Google Analytics where the user would have come from. It could be a specific site, a publication, an advertiser, a newsletter name, a social media website, or another. utm_source=velizaratellalyan.com, utm_source=facebook and so on.
utm_campaign (required) – Use the Campaign Name parameter to identify the name of a strategic campaign or promotion. The tag is used to name your marketing campaign and to provide additional information about the URL the visitors clicked on. utm_source=free_trial, utm_source=christmas_sale and so on.
utm_term – This parameter is paid search ads only. Use it to identify the specific paid keywords you bid on.
utm_content – This parameter is used to identify different links that point to the same URL. It is very useful when you have different versions of an ad on the same website.
Only 3 parameters are required: utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign (utm_term should be used for paid ads only and utm_content is useful to do for A/B testing of content-targeted ads.
Here's an example:
utm_source=facebook
utm_medium=social
utm_campaign=affiliate
utm_content=Affiliate_Campaign
4. Set up UTM parameters in UpPromote
Firstly, please go to Settings > Affiliate link & coupon > UTM settings > Set up UTM.
Next, fill out the UTM parameters you want.
You can add variables along with UTM parameters to create dynamic UTMs. The available variables are listed in the Variables box on the right side.
After filling out parameters, switch on Add UTM to affiliate link then click Save changes for the system to automatically add UTM parameters to all affiliate links.
In case you want to add UTM parameters to the Product link and Link with source, simply enable the two options below, and don't forget to Save changes as well.
Custom links and Shortened links that have been generated before the UTM setup won't be updated with UTM parameters automatically.
For Shortened link, please guide the affiliate to click the button Get shortened link again on the affiliate account to get it updated.
Regarding Custom links, you may need to navigate to Shopify Admin > Online Store > Navigation > View URL redirects.
Next, select the affiliate's custom link by clicking on it.
Please then edit the Redirect link (replacing it with the affiliate link with UTM added) > Save changes.
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