How to add UTM parameters to your links to track campaigns

To add your UTM parameters in Affiliatly, you will see a column at the bottom of Settings > General > Link Tracking settings

UTM parameters are tags you can insert at the end of a given URL that would be recognized by any marketing/advertisement/traffic platform like Google Analytics or similar.

This is incredibly helpful to those users that manage multiple ways to generate traffic to their websites and thereby are interested in having insights about where the traffic is coming from.

The core question would be: How did visitors find my website?

Here's a nice example of the resulting URL:

http://mystore.com?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=mycampaign&utm_term=promo&utm_content=bannerlink&aff=XXX

As you can see, after the normal URL of the sample store there's a question mark (?) that is followed by the UTM parameters that contain useful information. Each of the UTM parameters is separated by an ampersand character (&).

Let's breakdown the information that each UTM parameter will help you gather:

Where is the traffic coming from? The utm_source parameter could be used to tell you the name of the website with the link that the user clicked.
In the example: utm_source=newsletter
How are they arriving at our website? The utm_medium parameter identifies the communication channel used to create the source.
In the example: utm_medium=link
For what reason are they coming to our website? The utm_campaign parameter identifies the marketing campaign or promotion responsible for the click.
In the example: utm_campaign=mycampaign

What keyword exactly? The utm_term parameter is used mainly to identify the search term, but it can also be used to pass similar information about the element that led the traffic, like the CTA on the link.
In the example: utm_term=promo
Any extra data you might want to include? The utm_content parameter can send additional information about the link that was clicked on. This can be the type of link (e.g., image vs. text vs. button), the placement of the link within a document, the variant in an A/B test, etc.
In the example: utm_content=bannerlink

Aside of these, as you can see at the end of the example above in green, our own parameter aff=XXX where you change "XXX" with the code of the affiliate you want to track is mandatory for us to track the info and show it in our reports.

From there, you can include any of the rest based on your needs. We recommend to also make good use of utm_source and utm_medium.

Here's a very useful reference from Google for each option:

You may notice that aside of the initial five parameters we explained there's a utm=id on this reference from Google. To avoid any confusion let's remember that the utm_id parameter is an extra character that Google invented and it's only used when working with Google Analytics.

Some recommended best practices:

Use only lowercase letters. Each option will need to match on the link and the campaign configuration so you will avoid making errors going this way.
Don't use spaces or any special characters aside of dashes (-).
Example: "super-promo-code" instead of "super promo code"
Use meaningful names to keep track of each parameter on all configurations involved. That would discourage you of repeating terms and causing yourself confusion in the future.
You can Google's Campaign URL Builder to compose the URLs you need easily (just remember that utm_id won't be needed if you're not using Google Analytics)
Don't include sensitive or personal information on the parameters. Remember that anyone could see the info including your competitors and that some platforms forbid to use that type of data on the parameters.
Never use UTM parameters for internal links. You should only use links that go from an external website into your site. If you use UTM parameters for links that navigate within your website you will create multiple sessions on each click and basically destroy your own analytics.

There's so much more that could be told about UTM parameters this should be enough to understand them without going too technical. Just remember that if you need any clarification you can contact our support team.