Your Foleon Doc has been published, you’ve promoted and your audience is reading it. What’s important now is figuring out where all these visitors are coming from. Are they coming to you from Facebook, email, a banner, or some other channel?
Using UTM codes in the links to your Foleon Doc allows you to determine the sources that generate traffic with extreme precision. You’ll soon find out which campaign leads to the best results.
💡 Do you have external links in your content, and do you want to track the traffic from your Foleon Doc to these web pages? Check out this article.
In this article
Why use UTM codes?
Google Analytics gives you a rough estimate of which channels generate the most visitors, even without using UTM codes. Go to Acquisition All traffic Channels on the Report page. This will show you how many visitors have come to you through Google, social media, or links from other sites.
UTM codes, however, allow you to zoom in even further. You’ll be able to find out exactly where your visitors originate. This allows you to measure the success of specific social media posts: has your tweet or Facebook post actually resulted in any visitors?
Which UTM codes are available?
You add a UTM code (or ‘tag’) to the link to your Foleon Doc. Because you’re using an adapted URL, Google Analytics is able to determine and segment exactly where visitors are coming from. A UTM code consists of a maximum of five segments:
Adding UTM codes to the URL
You can add the desired UTM codes to the referring URL. The only required codes are for source, medium, and name. The other codes are optional. The example below shows what a URL including codes looks like:
This example in Google Analytics shows that visitors have come to your Foleon Doc through a Facebook post about advice that was part of a spring campaign.
Creating and shortening URLs
You do not have to create a coded URL manually; this is easily done using the Google URL builder. A downside to UTM codes is that your URL becomes very long. However, that can also be easily remedied: shorten the link that you have generated with the URL builder by using bit.ly, goo.gl, or another URL shortener.
Measuring the effect of banners and buttons
UTM codes allow you to tag all the traffic that you can control: for example if you’re sharing the Foleon Doc on Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, other social media, or via email or a QR code.
The UTM codes utm_term allow you to test exactly which button or banner on your website yields the most traffic. Consider using the following utm_term terms: website-button-top, website-button-bottom of website-banner-right-side.
Adding tags to links to your website
UTM codes can of course be used for much more than just measuring inbound traffic to your Foleon Doc. You can also tag outbound traffic: traffic from your website to another location, for example, in your link to pages where people can sign up for newsletters or events, or where they can make purchases. Tagging these links allows you to closely monitor their conversion. Are they producing the desired results? This yields more valuable insights that can lead to further optimization.
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Be consistent in using UTM codes - You determine which names and words you use in your UTM codes. Make sure that you keep a good overview of your codes. Be consistent. Create a document that includes all codes per channel and per type of content and make sure that all employees working with these codes have access to this document and use it. Please also read 6 tips for creating UTM-codes.
Tagging + measuring = better campaigns
The combination of UTM codes and Google Analytics produces rock-solid metrics. Acquisition Campaigns All campaigns shows the exact number of visitors to your Foleon Doc for all tagged links including specific UTM codes. Do you get much traffic through LinkedIn or through Twitter? Does call-to-action A lead to more conversions in your Foleon Doc than call-to-action B? Test it, measure it, and draw your conclusions. You will instantly know how successful your campaigns are and how to optimize them for your next Foleon Doc.