UTM Guide

What are UTM parameters?

UTM parameters can be added at the end of an URL to transport information about the person clicking the link. Their primary purpose is to measure the performance of marketing campaigns. There is a total of five UTM parameters:

utm_source - which site/app the user comes from
utm_medium - type of traffic, e.g. organic vs. paid
utm_campaign - name or ID of the marketing campaign
utm_term - a search term
utm_content - name or ID of the ad

Why does AdWhatCost asks me to use UTM parameters?

Big tech companies and governments are currently raging a privacy war and as a result the accuracy of ad performance tracking is at an all-time low. It is increasingly difficult for ad platforms such as Facebook and TikTok to follow their users to your store to continue tracking their behavior. That is where AdWhatCost and UTM parameters come into play! We analyze your ad platform & Shopify store data and use UTM parameters to build a bridge between both data sets to give you the full picture of your ad performance.

What UTM parameters should I use for my ads?

Some ad platforms such as Facebook Ads and TikTok Ads support the usage of so-called URL macros – sometimes also referred to as dynamic UTM parameters - that are dynamic variables which will be replaced with the correlating data generated based on the user's interaction with your ad.

The Facebook Ads supported URL macro {{campaign.name}}, for example, will be dynamically replaced by the name of the campaign the clicked ad belongs to. For reference, the URL macro __CAMPAIGN_NAME__ is the counterpart on TikTok Ads. Both Facebook and TikTok support a variety of URL macros including but not limited to names & IDs of campaigns, ad sets (ad groups) & ads. We recommend including the ad ID in your UTM parameters, since it is unique by design and guarantees that the recorded data is clearly distinguishable from other ads.

We took the liberty and prepared UTM parameter sets that pair greatly with our tool.

Please feel free to use the snippet below for your ads on Facebook Ads:

utm_source={{site_source_name}}&utm_medium={{placement}}&utm_campaign={{campaign.id}}&utm_term={{adset.id}}&utm_content={{ad.id}}

Please feel invited to use the snippet below for your ads on TikTok Ads:

utm_source=__PLACEMENT__&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=__CAMPAIGN_NAME__&utm_term=__AID_NAME__&utm_content=__CID_NAME__-__CID__

If you are looking to further customize the UTM parameters to your needs, then I can highly recommend our UTM generator. There you can conveniently select the available URL macros from a dropdown.

In case an ad platform does not support URL macros, we recommend manually adding the ID of the ad in question to your UTM parameters along with other information you deem important. If you need a second pair of eyes to check your UTM parameters, don't hesitate to give our support team a shout.

How do I add UTM parameters to my Facebook & Instagram ads?

When you create a new ad via the Facebook Ads Manager, navigate to the Tracking section and locate the input field with the name URL Parameters, as can be seen in the screenshot below.

where to add utm parameters on facebook ads

If you want to add or change UTM parameters of an already existing ad, just navigate to the Ads tab of the Facebook Ads Manager. Locate the ad that you would like to make changes to and click on edit. Just as described in the paragraph and screenshot above, head to the Tracking section and locate the input field with the name URL Parameters.

Please keep in mind that editing running ads, can lead to them being set back to the learning phase or a reset of the ongoing learning phase.

How do I add UTM parameters to my TikTok ads?

When you create a new ad via the TikTok Ads Manager, navigate to the Destination page section and locate the input field with the name URL, as can be seen in the screenshot below. There you can add your landing page URL along with your UTM parameters. Please don't forget to add a question mark between your landing page URL and your UTM parameters so that browsers can properly process the URL along with the UTM parameters.

where to add utm parameters on tiktok ads

As for adding or changing UTM parameters of an already existing ad, just head to the Ad tab of the TikTok Ads Manager. Locate the ad that you would like to make changes to and click on edit. Once you are at the edit screen refer to the instructions in the previous paragraph and screenshot.

Don't forget that editing a running ad leads to that ad being resubmitted for review and in turn a restart of the learning phase.

Should you still have any unanswered questions regarding the setup of AdWhatCost or UTM parameters in general, please know that our customer support team is always happy to help. 🙂