UTM code, (also known as the UTM parameter), stands for Urchin Tracking Module code. To give you some back story, Urchin Software Corporation was acquired by Google in 2006, and their software was the start of what we now know as Google Analytics.
UTM codes are text strings which can be added on to URLs to enable tracking via web analytics software such as Google Analytics.
There are five standard parameters:
- utm_medium – identifies the channel e.g. organic, paid, email, affiliate, social
- utm_source – identifies the website that sent the traffic e.g. Google, Facebook
- utm_campaign – identifies the marketing campaign e.g. summer sale
- utm_content – identifies what specifically was clicked e.g. banner ad, text link
- utm_term – identifies search terms e.g. shoes
