At the Marketing Optimist, we’re all about understanding what works best for our different clients. – Just because something works for brand A, doesn’t mean it will work for brand B.

With so many platforms available to us marketers, how do we know which ones to pour our energy and funds into for each client and campaign?

Getting behind the hood to understand what works and where to attribute success is critical, but where can we pull these insights from?

UTM links remain one of the best ways to measure which marketing channels work best for your brand. They give us unique insight into how each particular channel performs, allowing us to see how many website visits it generated, the quality of the traffic and whether visitors took any desired actions such as filling in a form on your site, purchasing a product or another action that you consider to be a conversion.

They’re a pretty important resource in a marketer’s toolkit if you ask me!

So why on earth does the Google UTM link builder look like an unfinished prototype from the early 2000s?

From an all-gray interface to an overly manual process that’s bound to lead to human error, we weren’t sure that Google had taken the time to apply some of their own user-friendliness guidelines when building it. It’s only been 19 years since UTM links were introduced. Maybe it’s time that page was updated, eh Google?

We’re Optimists, but also realists. It might be a while before Google gets our memo, so in the meantime, we got to work and made our very own UTM campaign builder tool. It’s a new interface that allows other marketing performance fanatics to easily create UTM links and track how their campaigns are doing.

The idea came to us in a good old meeting, where we got to chatting about how frustrating (to put it mildly) the official Google UTM link builder is. After throwing some ideas around together and assigning each other tasks, our builder was born.

What is a UTM Link?

If this is a whole new bag of tricks for you, here’s a simple breakdown:

UTM links are a system made by Google that allows you to understand how much traffic a particular channel is driving to a single website landing page. To create a UTM link, you essentially add a series of parameters to the link you want to track. Once added, you’re able to see data reports on that particular link in Google Analytics.

Here’s an example:

https://www.marketingoptimist.co.uk/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sale 

By setting the utm_source as Facebook, we’ll be able to see in Google Analytics how many visitors Facebook drove to a particular landing page.

How Does the New UTM Link Builder Work?

The new tool still uses Google’s UTM link system, but it’s a more user-friendly interface that does the painful work for you ― A.K.A a it removes the chances of you ending up with an error in your link through the inclusion of unintended capitalisation or punctuation. And don’t worry, you’ll be able to see your campaigns in Google Analytics straightaway.

What Makes the Marketing Optimist UTM Link Builder Different?

Here are a few things we focused on during the build:

Simplicity of Design: We knew from the get-go that our tool needed to be easy on the eyes and simple to navigate. We opted for a clean, intuitive interface that guides users through the process without overwhelming them. Clear labels, easy dropdowns, and a visually appealing layout make creating UTM links less of a chore and more of a smooth, seamless experience.

Built-in Error Prevention: As mentioned, errors like unintended capitalisation and punctuation in UTM parameters can skew analytics data, making it harder to accurately track campaign performance. This new tool includes built-in checks that alert users to potential errors before the link is finalised, ensuring that the links are as clean and accurate as possible.

We’ve made it easier and more efficient for marketers like you to make the most of UTM tracking without the headaches of the past.

Ready to try the new UTM link builder and measure your campaigns? Here it is.