Where to capture UTM data
There are numerous ways you can capture the UTM data and the decision comes down to how you’d like to report on it. If you’ve deployed Google Analytics (GA) tracking code in your web properties then you can start reporting on your UTM data immediately as GA will capture this data in a cookie and make it available on their platform. This means you won’t necessarily need to invest in additional development and need to get yourself accustomed to GA’s reporting tools and you’re off to the races. For many companies the GA method works great. Especially with Google’s new 4th generation, aptly named GA4, the analytics reporting is taken to the next level. If you haven’t upgraded your GA from Universal Analytics to GA4 you are missing out. Also, Google just announced that Universal Analytics will be discontinued in 2023.
There will be times where your company will want to see the UTM data in another system. One of the popular systems I’ve seen and worked with to bring in the UTM data to is Salesforce’s Sales Cloud CRM. If you are looking to capture the UTM data and bring it into, say, Pardot or Salesforce, or another CRM or a database, then you’ll need to invest in a little bit of web development work. I’ve worked with both web and Salesforce developers in capturing this data in Salesforce and Pardot from websites. The work isn’t terribly complex and with a few days of work you can start seeing the UTM data populate in your CRM or Pardot.
You need to consider a few things before you get on the road to implement. Where you capture the UTM data is important. For years we’ve captured the UTM on the Lead/Contact object in Salesforce. This made sense because our goal was to capture only the First Touch data. This meant that we were only interested in and reporting on UTM parameters that existed the first time a visitor landed on our page. If you are interested in the First Touch attribution then Lead and Contact objects may be suitable. Another option would be to capture the data on the Opportunities if you are using them. Then you can attribute sales to the first touch point though since opportunities will tie to contacts then capturing directly on contact object should suffice.
First touch attribution isn’t the only attribution model out there. Last touch and multi touch are also available methods for consideration and each has their own challenges. Especially in the recent years I am seeing the multi touch gaining popularity, which also comes with its own different attribution models like even-touch, time decayed, or your own custom built model, etc. There is no one-size-fits-all approach so you will need to consider each model and make a decision that makes the most sense for your business. I’ve implemented the first-touch combined with the multi-touch time-decayed model for a customer which worked well for their business.
The last touch model is closer to the first touch but this time it allows you to collect the last marketing touch point before conversion. This is the least used model between the three I’ve mentioned here especially if you are doing email marketing heavily because you’ll like to collect your email UTM data. Though if your customers touch multiple digital assets equally and if you are wondering which one converts to sales the most then last touch will provide you with that insight.
Back to the technical side of how to capture the UTM parameters in your CRM, this will require your web team to work with your CRM admins. First the web developers will implement a Javascript on your website which will capture the UTM parameters in the URL and write them in a cookie. Then another piece of Javascript will be responsible for inserting the cookie values in to hidden form fields when a form is submitted. It’s really that simple.
If you have any questions about this article or know of another way to capture UTM parameters please reach out to me using the form below. I’ve worked with UTM data for over 4 years now and I am always curious to find out new ways people utilize.
