Urchin Tracking
UTM variables (Urchins) are qualifiers you can add to the end of a URL to help you track in Google Analytics where traffic to a page is coming from. UTM stands for Urchin Traffic Monitor and is meant to create the most accurate measurements of unique website visitors. In Google Analytics,this information appears as source/medium.
To see our recently created urchins, go to the Urchin Tracking Sheet Google Doc
https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/ - This is where you go to urchin a link
Examples
Our"Please Help Us" top banner on our website:
https://votesmart.org/donate?utm_source=votesmart&utm_medium=helpusbanner&utm_campaign=donate
A link to a the donate page from within an IContact Email:
votesmart.org/donate?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Membership%20&utm_content=AMB%3A+Not+in+Iowa%3F+Not+a+problem
Link from a Google AdWords ad focusing on President Trump:
http://votesmart.org/candidate/biography/15723/donald-trump?utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ad&utm_campaign=donald-trump&gclid=CPe5nIyjotMCFQYJaQodpWwHSQ
Sources (utm_source)
A source tag is used to signify the source of where the link is coming from. For instance, if sharing link on Facebook, you would use utm_source=facebook in the URL.
- votesmart - users coming from inside a Vote Smart site.
- voteeasy - users coming from the Vote Easy application.
- facebook - users from our Facebook page.
- youtube - users coming from YouTube
- twitter - users from Twitter.
- Google - user coming from a Google search
- direct - When someone types in "votesmart.org" or clicks in a link from a PDF, bookmark, etc.
- IContact - When someone gets to our website from a recent email message via IContact
- Ad Square - When user is directed to a page from the Ad Square
Mediums (utm_medium)
Mediums are used to signify the type of medium used(email, web, etc) and sometimes something more specific, like a specific part of navigation, or a specific part of our facebook page if necessary.
- help-us-banner - users coming from red top banner on votesmart.org
- email - users usually coming from IContact
- cpc - users coming from Google Ad Words (CPC stands for 'Cost Per Click')
- organic - users coming from a search engine
- bottomnav - users coming from footer of votesmart.org
- ad - users coming from Google AdWords campaigns
- Political Poo - users coming from political poo ad square
- donatenowbutton - users who clicked the "donate now" button on our Facebook page
- referral - users who were referred from any website without an urchin.
- category_tab - The "Help us if you can" tab at the top of Vote Easy
- plane_btn - The Plane that flies across the screen in Vote Easy
- about_us -The About Us module in the footer of Vote Easy
Campaigns (utm_campaign)
Campaign tag names the specific campaign that this traffic is a part of, e.g. Holiday Campaign, Donation Campaign, etc
- flavourswitch - campaign referring to the website on mobile
- donate - General donation campaign.
- voteeasy - Campaign to get views to VoteEasy
- about - Getting people to the /about page
