UTM links have become an important reference in the world of web marketing. Indeed, when well used, these links let you know which campaign, which media, which source and which content a visitor comes from. But should we trust them blindly?
No. And here are two stories that make it clear why.
Julie’s story
Julie is one of your clients and newsletter subscribers. Over her lunch hour, July sees your new promotion in a campaign that you sent her. She’s interested, clicks on the link, but doesn’t have time to go any further in the buying process. That night, Julie goes on Facebook on her tablet. She sees your promotion again in a Facebook ad. She’s interested but her attention is pulled away by the headlines and her family. The next day, Julie gets another email including your promotion and, since it says “Last chance,” she clicks on a link in the mailing and completes her transaction on your website.
In this story, the sale will be attributed to the first or last e-mail depending on the UTM attribution when in fact, Julie had been interested in the promotion from the very beginning and had wanted to make a purchase several different times. The click on the link, therefore, only represents the end of the process. In reality, it was all of the marketing strategies together that led to the final action. Unfortunately, the tunnel vision created by UTM links often makes us lose sight of the golden rule of marketing: REPETITION IS KEY.
Statistics obtained by UTM links are precious, but it’s important to know how to analyze them and not blindly believe them. For example, if your statistics show that 60% of sales were generated by a Google ad, does that mean, then, that in your next campaign, you’re only going to invest in that media? That would be a serious error because in the bigger picture, it’s the fact that Julie had seen the promotion several times that led to the action. Julie’s story is like so many others. Each customer is going to end up following a different path, which is why it’s hard to know which tactic was the decisive element.
Leo’s story
Leo is a fan of your clothing brand and a dedicated Instagram user. Leo sees an Instagram post advertising a sweater from your new collection. He’s interested, likes the post but is distracted by the other posts on his feed and doesn’t take action. Later in the day, Leo sees the same sweater several more times on a variety of sites that are showing your ad, but he doesn’t have the time to stop. That evening, Leo remembers the sweater and goes directly to your website to finish his purchase. This sale will not be attributed to any of your campaign tactics. And yet, it’s the fact that he was exposed to multiple elements of it that led to the sale.
5 lessons worth noting
1. UTM links tell you about the first or last stop on the customer’s buying journey and not about the whole journey.
2. A portion of the traffic remains unexplained because consumers can choose to go directly to the company’s website without clicking on an ad, but after having been exposed to it several times.
3. While the statistics gleaned from UTM links can give an indication of the performance of a certain tactic, they often have to be analysed in a campaign context when several tactics are put in place at the same time.
4. In general, the success of an ad campaign lies with the media mix rather than on only kind of media.
5. In advertising, repetition is key. To read more about this, check out our blog article: Increase sales through repetition
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