# Link tracking 101: why retailers need attribution and where to begin

5 Minute Read

- [Cross-Channel Marketing](/content/category/cross-channel-marketing/index.html)
- [Retail Marketing](/content/category/retail-ecommerce/index.html)

With each passing year, the retail industry becomes more and more competitive. New digital natives are entering the fold at a rapid rate, and powerhouses like Amazon continue to increase their market share. To compete, marketers need to be increasingly creative about how they deploy their finite resources and stretch ROI. This has led to greater experimentation with new marketing methods and channels, and the acute need to understand where customers are coming from, how they are engaging with content, and which marketing methods are yielding the most revenue.

Enter link tracking. Link tracking is not a new concept, but it has proven itself as one of the best methods of determining the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. In simple terms, a tracking link is a URL that has a series of tags added to the end. These tags (also known as UTM parameters) can provide marketers with valuable information about the source of traffic, the type of content engaged with, and the specific campaign involved. According to [CrazyEgg](https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/utm-codes-guide-with-examples/), the three most common UTM parameters employed by marketers are:

- **Medium:** Think of this as a channel where the user found your content. Examples could be email, mobile app, social, paid media, etc.
- **Source:** The source parameter allows you to track where the traffic originated from. For example, if a user clicked on a Facebook campaign, the tag would reflect “Facebook.”
- **Campaign:** This parameter tells you which marketing campaign the user originated from; names can be specific to particular promotions or events such as a holiday sale.

##### **Building a link**

Once you determine the appropriate UTM parameters for your business, it’s time to build your links. Many free tools can assist you in adding UTM parameters to your URL. Tools like [UTM Tag Builder](https://www.utmtagbuilder.com/) or [Google’s Campaign URL Builder](https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/) offer simple interfaces for building UTM-enabled links. Just enter your tags in the fields provided, and the tool does the rest. If you implement a link tracking strategy, you’ll be creating many custom links, so find a tool you’re comfortable using.

Let’s look at a quick example: if you’re organizing a dinner for an upcoming trade show and want to track registrations from your Facebook CPC campaign, the tracking link might look like this: www.example.com?utm\_source=facebook&utm\_medium=CPC&utm\_campaign=dinner. Each time a user clicks that link, the UTM parameters can be tracked using a tool like Google Analytics. A pro tip is to use a link shortening service like [Bit.ly](https://bitly.com/) to hide your UTM parameters when sharing.

##### **Link tracking in practice**

There are many ways to use link tracking to understand the reach and effectiveness of your marketing efforts:

**Email.** Use link tracking in your email campaigns to monitor impressions, clickthroughs, and conversions, enabling you to identify which campaigns generate the most revenue.

**Offline marketing.** If you incorporate offline marketing, such as direct mail, include a unique URL in your offers that directs to a dedicated landing page to track user engagement.

**Paid media.** Use different UTM tagged links for various paid media channels to understand where leads originate from and which campaigns yield the highest ROI.

**Website personalization.** Platforms like [Cordial](/content/platform/messaging-channels/index.html) can tailor website content based on the source, medium, or campaign a user interacted with.

##### **The benefits of link tracking**

In an increasingly competitive market, link tracking offers a powerful attribution method, enabling marketers to make data-driven decisions and optimize their efforts effectively. It establishes a direct connection between specific marketing activities and their impact on business revenue, providing quantifiable analytics for better resource allocation.