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How to Use UTMs (Urchin Tracking Module)

Attribution tracking refers to mapping your customer's journey. We help you understand where your students signed up by tracking UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) data and three extra custom pieces of information. For UTM data, you simply need to add the desired UTM parameters at the end of the URL you wish to share in your campaigns while we track the extra custom data, whether you use UTMs or not. An example looks like this: 


https://myschool.learnworlds.com/courses?utm_content=buffercf3b2&utm_medium=social

&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer


You can write the UTM-enhanced URLs yourself or use a builder to help you out, such as this one by Google.

Trackable Parameters

We keep track of the 5 classic UTM parameters:


1. utm_source

2. utm_medium

3. utm_campaign

4. utm_term

5. utm_content


You can check here what each parameter stands for.


In addition, we also track 3 extra pieces of information:


1. referrer: The URL of the previous page the visitor was navigating before clicking the link.

2. landing: The school page the visitor landed on (i.e., the page the link was pointing to).

3. country: The country the visitor came from (tracked via their IP address).


Those parameters are always tracked for everyone, regardless of whether the link has UTM parameters or not. Meaning that even if an admin doesn't use the UTM feature, these three pieces of information are still collected for the user.


Collecting referrer depends on the browser and the configuration of the page where your link resided (so, if the user found a link to your school on a LinkedIn post, keeping referrer data depends on both the browser settings and whether LinkedIn allows such tracking).


First and last click

For more accurate campaign tracking, all the above parameters are tracked twice:


1. For the first click: the first time the visitor lands at the school (it will appear like fc_utm_xxxxxx under the User export)

2. For the last click: the last page they visited right before they sign up if they sign up (it will appear like lc_utm_xxxxxx under the User export)


First clicks are extracted on the first visit, whereas last clicks are extracted and overwritten on every subsequent visit unless a visit was UTM enhanced, which gets overwritten only on every UTM enhanced visit.

Where to find your users’ attribution data

To find the attribution data for a specific user, you can go to the Attribution tab of the user's card on your User management page.

You can search for a specific UTM parameter from your school's User Progress under Advanced Search.

Example

Imagine that you have created a new course to advertise via different campaigns and mediums. One example of the UTM-enhanced URLs you will be sharing could look like this: 


https://myschool.learnworlds.com/course/free-course?utm_medium=banner&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=buffer


  • A visitor clicks on the link and is taken to the course description page of the “Free Course.”
  • The UTM data are extracted from the link and saved to the visitor's session.
  • If the visitor doesn't clear their browser's cookies (and the information we saved doesn't expire), the visitor can close the tab, come back later, and the browser will still remember these UTMs. 
  • The visitor signs up at the school a couple of days later. 
  • The UTM parameters saved persist to the user's profile, and the admin can see the UTM parameters, where the visitor came from (referrer), and which page they first visited (landing).

In general, attribution is used so that you know where users discovered the school before signing up. A user first visits the school through somewhere (for example a link with UTM params through Facebook). Attribution info is extracted from the URL and added to the (still anonymous at this point) user session.


These session data are stored for up to 30 days and are lost if the user clears their cookies or were in incognito at the time.


If the user decides to register at that point, those extracted attribution data are then committed to the now-known registered user and are transferred to their user model so they are visible on the User Card. At this point, these UTMs become part of the user data and are persisted indefinitely.

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