How to track campaign links

What is a campaign link? 

Campaign data is traditionally tracked through URL parameters. In marketing, these are called campaign parameters, or tags. A standard link may look like this:

https://www.example.com

The same link, with campaign parameters, may look like this:

https://www.example.com?mtm_campaign=thebestcampaign

The question mark (?) indicates the beginning of the URL parameter, followed by the definition of the parameter. Defining means stating what the parameter mtm_campaign's value is equal to (=), in this case thebestcampaign. 

Mtm_campaign is a predefined parameter by Extellio, but theoretically, one can name a parameter anything. If you visit a website, you can try creating your own parameter. Just add a question mark ?, input your parameter and what value the parameter is equal to. In the end, it should look something like this:

https://www.example.com?monkeysarecool=true

Since this is our own parameter we made up, it won't affect the website or it's content but it will be shown in the analytics. 

Why are campaign links important? 

Campaign links make it easier to measure and analyze the effectiveness of marketing efforts. By tagging the links, one can see which campaigns generate traffic and how these visitors then behave on the website. The parameters allow you to identify the source of the traffic more accurately. For example, you can see if the traffic comes from social media, ad campaigns, or email blasts. This is useful for determining which channels to focus on the most and which ones provide the best return on investment.

In this example, we can see that the weekly newsletter is best at bringing traffic to the website. 

Why is it important that everyone follows the same structure?

The hardest part of campaign tracking is that there is no universal approach on what to name your campaign parameters, and each company will have it's unique convention on how to name them. 

It's essential for everyone using campaign parameters in the company to be aligned on how to name and define the different parameters to understand what campaign strategies work well and which don't. 

When all campaign links follow the same structure, it means that you can analyze at more levels than before. If all campaign links specify the source (mtm_source) from which the person came, you can draw conclusions not just about that campaign, but also about how the source itself is performing. It also makes it easier to create segments, compile custom reports, and analyze data within the tool.

There are 8 pre-defined to use: 

Only one parameter is obligatory to use, and that is the campaign name (mtm_campaign). However, we strongly recommend that you also always specify the source (mtm_source) and medium (mtm_medium). Other parameters should be used when appropriate. 

Campaign name (obligatory): mtm_campaign

The name of the campaign. 

E.g. product-launch, member-newsletter

Source (recommended): mtm_source 

The source of the traffic 

E.g. newsletter, LinkedIn, Facebook 

Medium (recommended): mtm_medium

The type of marketing channel being used. 

E.g. social media, paid search

Content (optional): mtm_content

What specific button, media, or content the user clicked on 

E.g red-button, 30-off-picture 

It's typically used to differentiate between different versions or elements within the same marketing medium or campaign. It should be used for A/B testing or measuring the effectiveness of different ad content, links, or calls-to-action within a campaign. 

ID (optional): mtm_id

The ID of the specific campaign, or the date of the campaign. If you use a lot of campaigns, you should define it with the ID from the marketing tool (like Google Ads) for the specific campaign. The campaign ID could look something like this: 123-456-7890. 

However, if you're not using a lot of campaigns and need to use the slot for the ID, you could instead use it for dates for different newsletters or campaigns. 

 A tip is to format it as: YYMMDD For example: 230331 for March 31, 2023, 230511 for May 11, 2023 

Keyword (optional): mtm_keyword 

The keyword the user searched for to land on your website. For example, if a visitor searches for "banana," the parameter will be mtm_keyword=banana.

In Google Ads, you can set mtm_keyword={keyword} so that the parameter automatically matches what the visitor searched for.

Group (optional): mtm_group 

 If there is a specific group that the ad is targeting

For example: customers, engineers, retargeting

Placement (optional): mtm_placement 

The placement of the link in the ad tool.

For example: news feed, sidebar 

Good to know

Campaign values are visible to the visitor. Only use terms that you are comfortable with the visitor seeing. Never use personal data as a value. Campaign values are saved in lowercase letters.

Special characters will be displayed as UTF-8, which can make it harder to interpret the URLs afterward. This means, for example, that when the URL shows %C3%A5, it means å. Here are the most common characters and how they look in UTF-8:

Å = %C3%A5

Ä = %C3%A4

Ö = %C3%B6

/ = %2F

space = %20

! = %21

" = %22

# = %23

$ = %24

% = %25

& = %26

When using the URL builder in the platform, it will automatically convert the characters to UTF-8.