Previously I shared a framework for using UTMs in you marketing links (How to setup UTMs to understand what marketing is driving site traffic). Sometimes understanding the theory is much easier than putting it into practice. The devil is in the details... We all can use examples to give us a starting point that we build on and modify for our own needs.
There isn't a right way to do this... there will be many differing opinions. Just make sure you are able to group things the way you want in your reporting. You may not want to use all of the UTM query strings as you are not that organized yet... and that's ok. When you are ready and need that detail you can add it then. but know that you just won't have reporting at that detailed level for that period of time.
Remember UTMs represent where and what you promoted to the prospect to get them to consume your content. It may not directly match up to what they ultimately consumed (SFDC Campaigns that are Content/Offer centric). Usually it should if your landing pages are focused (not making it easy for the visitor to wander off). You can use SFDC campaigns as the collector of what content/asset/offer was actually consumed. By having the UTM attached to the Campaign member you can see what was promoted to people to get them to consume that piece on content. In the past, I've seen a lot of unexpected cross pollination... and this type of framework let's us see that.
TIPS:
using utm_campaign to include a foreign ID can help you stitch together data from internal and external sources.
If you don't have enough content in each medium... some can logically be merged
you may want to customize how your site works with UTM parameters and persist them for a visitor session (that way if they wander off you still know where they came from
The table below is a Content/Offer centric approach in your CRM Campaign Structure that uses UTM to describe the channel the offer was presented (is fairly broadly used in high-tech companies I've worked for or consulted with).
An Alternative perspective (that I had wonderful debate about with a former colleague), is a Marketing Channel and Tactic approach in your CRM and use UTMs to describe the content piece. In this approach you likely will not want to have UTMs persist and all content pieces must have UTMs in the URLs. This approach focuses you reporting on Channels and Tactics vs Content.
With good data collection, processing and analytics software and practices... either approach should give you the base data you need for any reporting scenario. Share in comment below, how you approach UTMs and campaign tracking.
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