Link tracking is done via UTMs which are special links that we create for Google, to help our Google Analytics Account understand where our marketing traffic is coming from. 


Tracking campaigns correctly helps us to understand what is working, which marketing tactics should be invested in, and how well (or not) our business is performing overall. More importantly, having tracking data helps to justify marketing budget and resource allocations.


Very important: UTM tracking links are only ever to be used for external marketing, like email or social media campaigns. Do not, repeat – do not – use these links on our website. 


When they’re created, UTM tracking links look something like this:


https://www.eitfood.eu/#utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=eitfood_2023&utm_content=video


Any visitor clicking on a UTM tracking link will still get to the intended page(URL), only now Google Analytics knows exactly where that traffic has come from. 

How do I set up a tracked link?


We have built a tool to simplify the creation of your tracked links (UTMs). Simply follow the steps below using the tool.


Steps to create a tracked link (UTM):

  1. Open our Tracked Link Builder

  2. Create your campaign name via the Campaign Name Generator (first tab in the sheet) - you will use the same campaign name for the entirety of the campaign so this step need only be done once per campaign
  3. Navigate to the UTM Builder tab in the same sheet (2nd tab in the sheet)
  4. Fill in the details to generate your tracked link (mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk and highlighted in orange).
  5. OPTIONAL: Shorten the link using Bit.ly -  Bitly shortens long URLs without altering the destination. This can be used to disguise URL parameter links, cut down on the characters needed, or just to look cleaner. 



The data collected via UTM link tracking provides unique insight into exactly what is driving traffic to a website.


For EIT Food, it means we will be able to track performance and optimise our efforts accordingly. 


UTM tracked links allow us to: 

  • Analyse our content performance: UTM tracked links empower us to understand which types of content work best for our audience and which channels are most effective for reaching our KPIs. With this data we will also be able to optimise the performance of our marketing efforts across EIT Food channels.

  • Promote cross-functionality across teams: Using UTM links allows us to properly track campaign performance based on the respective goals of each team,  allowing different teams to seamlessly access the data they need centrally.

  • Measure impact: Using UTM links for our marketing activities allows us to organise and track progress and see what value these activities bring to EIT Food. 


Please note: this can only work if we all commit to using the same process for link tracking, as detailed in this article. 


Correctly labelling your links in this way is also important if you want your content to appear in our data dashboard. To find out more, go to: How to use the EIT Food data dashboard. 


More information on UTM tracking parameters


MEDIUM


This is a big broad bucket to define the marketing channel. Organic, Social, Email, these are all mediums.


SOURCE


The source tells you where your UTM link lives. So if its medium is organic, its source might be Bing or Google. If its medium is email, then the source will be the name of the data set, e.g. newsletter database or customer database. And if the medium was social, the source would be a social site – for instance facebook.com or linkedin.com.


TERM


This is used for paid search campaigns. Enter the search term you are targeting e.g. regenerative agriculture


CAMPAIGN NAME


This, as you probably guessed, is the name you can give to a campaign if you so choose. Say you were doing a marketing campaign that included a channel mix of paid search, social media and email, you can name all the traffic involved in said campaign under one name: e.g. ‘eitfood_2023’. 


CONTENT


Content is an optional but very helpful link element. 


For instance, in a paid social campaign your UTM link would be tagged medium=paid, source=facebook.com, and campaign=eitfood_2023


But say your advert included two links to the same URL, one from an image and one from a call to action (CTA) button. utm_content lets you create two UTM codes so you can gain added insight into your creative content and see exactly which bits of it are working harder at driving traffic and conversions. The only difference between the two links would be the variation in the utm_content parameter, which for this example could be content=video and content=image.


MARKETING TACTIC


This is a new UTM parameter intended to help identify the specific marketing tactic used e.g. remarketing, prospecting, email marketing, or social media advertising



This article was last updated in June 2024 and is regularly reviewed. 

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