In 2018, e-commerce accounted for 11.9% of all retail sales. So it’s easy to see how your online marketing strategy can be essential to your success. Urchin tracking module (UTM) links are a great way to identify where your website traffic is coming from so you can target your advertising more effectively.

UTM links are website links with additional markers that specify the campaign and medium that your traffic is coming from. Utilizing a UTM builder, such as Google Chrome’s extension for UTMs, will negate the risk of the links breaking or failing on a technical level. They will also negate any time lost or frustration from building your own.

By adding a source and a medium through one of these tools you can produce a complete UTM link. These links will tell you exactly where traffic is coming from and can be a great way to test if social media ads are proving a return on investment for you. If you have an email list management tool like MailChimp or Drip, you check the performance of not only your emails but also the email content itself! The idea is to hone in your sales funnel; From the email subject line to the content. You can determine which specific line of content inspired your consumers to go to the website when you embed UTM links into the email by setting different parameters between each link you place into the email. This can be as simple as changing the medium to “email line one” and “email line two” between the different links. This technique can help you determine the type of content your consumers are responding to so you can provide better content for them.

If you have any issues regarding UTM links, I implore you to use this as the starting point for your research. If you’re an AFEUSA member, utilize our discussion boards were fellow entrepreneurs can help guide you through the process.