This document provides an overview and specifications for campaign tracking fundamentals. It discusses tagging campaigns in Google Analytics for various marketing channels like paid search, display, email, social media, apps and more. Tagging standards are outlined to ensure consistency. Troubleshooting tips are also provided for issues like campaigns not showing up or conversions not being reported properly in Google Analytics.
12. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Campaign measurement is performed by
adding tags to your destination URLs
http://www.medicare.gov?utm_medium=cpc
&utm_source=bing&utm_campaign=brand-
branded_keywords&utm_content=are_you_eligible_for_
medicare&utm_term=medicare_eligibility
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Be consistent
(standardized tag names will make future
analysis easier and more effective)
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Always use lowercase
(Note: we always added a
custom profile filter in Google
Analytics to enforce lowercase)
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Spaces can be tricky due to necessary
URL encoding
utm_campaign=open%20enrollment
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
UNDERSCORES
Use underscores in place of spaces
utm_campaign=open_enrollment
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Use dashes
to separate values in a tag
utm_campaign=open_enrollment-blog_post
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Don’t use punctuation
like commas, question marks, periods,
colons, semicolons, etc in campaign
tags (unless it is for a site URL)
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Keywords = KEYWORDS
Don’t use anything but
keywords in the keyword field
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Don’t use agency names as
campaign names
Use true campaign names for effective multi-directional
analysis.
If necessary, add agency name after campaign name
(e.g. utm_campaign=campaign_name-agency_name).
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26. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
If you link to a micro-site or external site
! that is under your control make sure
cross domain tracking is in place.
Be careful about 301, 302, ad serving and
meta refresh redirects that will lose
campaign tracking.
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28. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Google URL Builder: http://blast.am/urlbuilder
Campaign tagging spreadsheet to simplify tagging
especially for paid search
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Required Tags
Source is where the visitor was sent from.
Examples: google, nytimes.com, facebook.com
Medium is the channel through which the visitor arrived at
your site.
Examples: cpc, display, social, organic
Campaign should either indicate the overarching name for
the marketing effort or just the specific ad campaign in
which the ad lives.
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Optional Tags
Keyword is the search term that you bid on (search
engines only)
Ad Content should indicate the ad name, copy, or other
helpful information to identify the type of ad that was
clicked.
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34. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Email Campaign Tag Specs
Example Email Campaign Tagged Link
http://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter-
creativeprolist&utm_campaign=salesandpromo-make_it_surprising-hurry&utm_content=09am-08_20_11-
creativepro-body
Example Email Reminder Tagged Link
http://www.domain.com/my/book/widgets?
utm_medium=email&utm_source=reminder-2&utm_campaign=your_book_is_ready_to_order&utm_content=b
ody
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
2
Content Link
Specify content area in “Ad Content” tag.
http://www.domain.com?utm_medium=email
&utm_source=newsletter-
2 creativeprolist&utm_campaign=salesandpro
mo-make_it_surprising-
hurry&utm_content=09am-08_20_11-body
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
3
3
Standard Footer Links
Specify footer in “Ad Content” tag.
http://www.domain.com?
utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter-
creativeprolist&utm_campaign=salesandpromo-
make_it_surprising-
hurry&utm_content=09am-08_20_11-creativepro-
footer
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Paid Search Campaign Tag Specs
Example Paid Search Campaign Tagged Link
http://www.domain.com/?
utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=bing&utm_campaign=us_wedding_album&utm_term=wedding_album
&utm_content=make_your_own_photo_book
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Site Placements Campaign Tag Specs
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Site Examples
http://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=display&utm_source=youtube.com-
photography&utm_campaign=us_photo_books&utm_content=make_it_surprising-
save_25_percent-300x250
Facebook Site Example
http://www.domain.com/?
utm_medium=display&utm_source=facebook-55_70_demo&utm_campaign=us_photo_
books&utm_content=make_it_surprising-save_25_percent-300x250
Ad Network Example
http://www.domain.com/?
utm_medium=display&utm_source=doubleclick&utm_campaign=us_photo_books&utm_
content=make_it_surprising-save_25_percent-300x250
Category Content Targeting Example
http://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=display&utm_source=category-
photography&utm_campaign=us_photo_books&utm_content=make_it_surprising-
save_25_percent-300x250
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Social Campaign Tag Specs
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Social Campaign Tag Specs
Example Social Campaign Tagged Links
Facebook Example
http://www.domain.com/?
utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=awareness-photo_book
Twitter Example
http://www.domain.com/?
utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=awareness-photo_book
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Affiliate Campaign Tag Specs
Example Affiliates Campaign Tagged Link
http://www.domain.com/?
utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=shareasale.com&utm_campaign=us_wedding_album&
utm_content=232342
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Feed Campaign Tag Specs
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Feed Campaign Tag Specs
Example Feed Campaign Tagged Link
http://www.domain.com/?
utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner&utm_campaign=feeds.feedburner.
com/domainblog-domainerati&utm_content=google_reader
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Product Feed/Search Campaign Tag Specs
Example Product Feed/Search Campaign Tagged Link
http://www.domain.com/?
utm_medium=feed&utm_source=google_product_search&
utm_campaign=salesandpromo-summer_discounts
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Application Campaign Tag Specs
Example Applications Campaign Tagged Link
http://www.domain.com/?
utm_medium=app&utm_source=booksmart&utm_campaign=booksmart-
in_app_link&utm_content=pc-v3.2.10.6
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48. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Mobile (App) Campaign Tag Specs
Example Applications Campaign Tagged Link
http://www.domain.com/?
utm_medium=app&utm_source=domainmobile&utm_campaign=domainmobile-
in_app_link&utm_content=c102-plus
http://www.domain.com/?
utm_medium=app&utm_source=domainmobile&utm_campaign=domainmobile-
mobile_share&utm_content=c102-plus
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49. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Press Release Campaign Tag Specs
Example PR Campaign Tagged Link
http://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=pr&utm_source=prweb.com&utm_campaign=awareness-
event&utm_content=palm_springs_photo_festival
Note:
Page/Folder redirects, Vanity Campaign URL or URL shortener
recommended to avoid complex URLs/links in PR so that you can
cleanly include campaign tracking tags in PR.
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50. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Offline Campaign Tag Specs
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Offline Campaign Tag Specs
Example Offline Campaign Tagged Link
http://www.domain.com/?
utm_medium=offline&utm_source=outdoor&utm_campaign=us_wedding_album
&utm_content=make_photo_book-005021-14x48
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52. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
QR Campaign Tag Specs
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
QR Campaign Tag Specs
Example QR Campaign Tagged Link
http://www.domain.com/?
utm_medium=qr&utm_source=vehicle&utm_campaign=awareness-
photo_book&utm_content=vehicle123123
Helpful Info:
Google URL shortener http://goo.gl can be used to
create QR codes.
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54. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
TV Campaign Tag Specs
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
TV Campaign Tag Specs
Example TV Campaign Tagged Link
http://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=tv&utm_source=nbc-bravo-
dish&utm_campaign=awareness-photo_book&utm_content=weekday-prime_time-
print_your_story-30_seconds
Note:
Page/Folder redirects, Vanity Campaign URL or URL shortener
recommended to avoid complex URLs/links in TV commercials/etc so that
you can cleanly include campaign tracking tags in TV medium.
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56. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Radio Campaign Tag Specs
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57. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Radio Campaign Tag Specs
Example Radio Campaign Tagged Link
http://www.domain.com/?utm_medium=radio&utm_source=clearchannel-
k101&utm_campaign=awareness-photo_book&utm_content=weekend-
morning_drive-make_facebook_book
Note:
Page/Folder redirects, Vanity Campaign URL or URL shortener
recommended to avoid complex URLs/links in Radio commercials/etc so
that you can cleanly include campaign tracking tags in Radio medium.
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58. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Campaign MEDIUMS REFERENCE
•cpc •pr
•display / cpm / content-text •offline
•social •qr
•affiliate •tv
•feed •radio
•badge / widget •email
•app
Do not create mediums other than those listed unless carefully thought through and
shared with other team members.
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59. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
It is very important
! that mediums are
kept to a small set
for optimal analysis.
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62. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Troubleshooting
Live campaigns are not showing up in Campaign
reports
• Does the landing page have working Google Analytics
page tags?
• Is there a re-direct that is stripping the campaign tags
from the URL?
• Has it been at least 24 hours? (possibly a time lag in
reporting)
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Troubleshooting
Campaigns aren’t reporting conversions, but I know
they have some
• Do you have goals set up in Google Analytics?
• Do all conversions appear to be attributed to your own
domain name? If so, there may be a key page missing
Google Analytics page tags.
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64. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Troubleshooting
Parts of my campaign tag (term, ad content, etc) aren’t
appearing
• Are all campaign tags present in the destination URL
within your ad serving tool?
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65. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Troubleshooting
Inconsistent capitalization is making analysis difficult
• Consider ‘custom profile filters’.
• Choose “lowercase”
• and then apply it to:
• ‘campaign medium’,
• ‘campaign term’,
• etc to force them all to lowercase
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Technical Testing via Tracking Pixel
Tool Recommendation:
You can use any of the recommended tools
described here:
http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/
gaTrackingTroubleshooting.html#debuggingTools.
Easiest to use
GA tracking code debugger for Chrome
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67. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Technical Testing via Tracking Pixel
Looking at utmcc parameter on __utm.gif tracking pixel request...
You can analyze __utmz value within this parameter same way as described
when looking at cookie values.
GA Debugger for Chrome however, renames to friendly parameter names.
Example of GA Debugger for Chrome tool output:
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68. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Technical Testing via Cookies
Tool Recommendation:
Use a browser plugin for Firefox Note:
Each time your
called 'Web Developer Toolbar'. campaign tracking
parameters
change, the
values in the
After installed, it has a toolbar option called 'Cookies' __utmz will
change. This is
where you can 'View Cookie Information' for the current
starting a new
page. You can also delete all of your cookies relative to session in GA.
a domain/page with this tool, which is very handy when
testing.
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69. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Technical Testing via Cookies
After you load your UTM tagged URL, take a look at your browser cookies relative to the domain you are
on and look for the __utmz cookie. After a string of numbers in the front, you'll see a utmcsr, utmccn,
utmcmd, and possibly a few others. The full list is below with a description for each.
utmcsr - Source utmctr - Term
utmccn - Campaign Name utmcct - Content
utmcmd - Medium
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71. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Quick Tips to Analyze Email Campaigns
Where to find Campaign Data
In the ‘new interface’ of Google Analytics, go to
the ‘Standard Reporting’ tab and drill-in to the
Campaigns Report by following this path:
Traffic Sources > Sources > Campaigns
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72. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
1 Email Data
Analyze by Campaign Medium This view of email
campaign data would
not be available without
campaign tracking
1
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Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Analyze by Campaign Source
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74. GAUGE | March 2012
Campaign Tracking Fundamentals
Analyze by Campaign & Ad Content
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