Knowing which online sources yield the best candidates and the highest return on your recruitment marketing investment is critical. That goes without saying. But there are countless options available, so how do you effectively track things like which job boards candidates are frequenting, which networks drive the most traffic to your website, and how revenue is broken down?
If already familiar with UTM codes and tracking, great. And if not, now is the time to add them to your wheelhouse.
A UTM Primer
UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module. The Urchin Software Corporation was acquired by Google in 2005, and its software became the foundation of what is now known as Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a platform that collects data from your website and apps to create reports providing insight into your business.
- UTM codes are bits of text used to add links, in order to give Google Analytics more information about each link. They’re important because they help you track the performance of links, so you can see where traffic is coming from.
You can utilize various parameters as you tag links for the most effective tracking, which in turn can save you a lot of time in the long run. Most often, URL generators are used to create tags; essentially, this means putting the right string of characters together into an effective URL.
- URL is short for uniform resource locator, which is a specific online address. And a link is the relative path of a URL. The main difference between the two is that a link takes a user from one address to another, while a URL is the address denoted by a link.
- URL generators include Google’s URL Builder, Effin Amazing’s Chrome extension, and The Buffer in-app link shortener.
Tracing UTMs in Google Analytics
Once you’ve been tagging and tracking your links, you can glean valuable information including where traffic is coming from (the source, such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, etc.), how traffic is coming your way, and why. You accomplish this using Google Analytics.
- Optimizing Google Analytics in tandem with UTM link codes, you can easily track down needed information to help you stay on track with your job ads, at no cost.
It’s a lot to absorb, especially if you’re a novice at it. Making the most of your job advertising strategy – including the ins and outs of UTM tracking – is where the Haley Marketing team comes in. Founded in 1996, we’re the largest website development, social and content marketing firm serving the temporary staffing and executive recruiting industries. Our clients include more than 1,400 staffing and recruiting firms, ranging from solo practitioners to larger organizations with regional, national and international reach. Contact us today to learn more.
