What Are UTM Parameters in Marketing Cloud

What Are UTM Parameters in Marketing Cloud?

UTM parameters are essential for tracking the effectiveness of your marketing messages by linking user clicks to actions on your website within Marketing Cloud. Once set up, the Marketing Cloud Engagement tool automatically adds these parameters to the URLs in your messages, enabling detailed performance tracking.

You can track five key UTM parameters: source, medium, campaign, term, and content. These parameters are captured in Google Analytics reports, offering insights into your marketing efforts, such as total goal conversions, bounce rate, and average time spent on your site.

What is a UTM Code?

A UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) code is a text string appended to a URL to help monitor the performance of digital marketing campaigns. UTM codes include up to five key parameters: Campaign, Source, Medium, Content, and Term.

UTM Parameter Channel Support:

Email messages: Automatically include all parameters set up in Parameter Manager unless link tracking is disabled for the email.
SMS activities: Do not track the Campaign Term, Campaign Content, or Subscriber ID parameters.

Example URL with UTM Parameters:

arduinoCopy codehttps://www.example.com?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TestCampaign&utm_term=MyLink123&utm_content=123456&utm_id=f521708e-db6e-478b-9731-8243a692c2d5&sfmc_id=245678&sfmc_activityid=598741568

Parameter Breakdown:

utm_source: Campaign Source
utm_medium: Campaign Medium
utm_campaign: Campaign Name
utm_term: Campaign Term
utm_content: Campaign Content
utm_id: Campaign ID
sfmc_id: Subscriber ID
sfmc_activityid: Activity ID

For more on UTM parameters, refer to the Google Analytics documentation.

Configuring UTM Parameters in Marketing Cloud Engagement

In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), UTM parameters are automatically appended to links in all sent messages unless the domain or subdomain is not on the allowlist in Journey Builder Settings. They will also not apply if click tracking is disabled.

Adding UTM Parameters in Salesforce

To track UTM parameters in Salesforce, follow these steps:

Add UTM fields to Salesforce to capture the data.
Include these fields in Web-to-Lead forms as hidden fields.
Add JavaScript code to your webpage to retrieve UTM parameters and store them in the hidden fields.