Explain Like I am 5 (ELI5): Tracking Parameters
In today's digital world, knowing where your website visitors are coming from and what they do on your site is very important. This is where special tags added to the end of a URL, known as tracking parameters, come in handy. Among these, UTM parameters are very popular. They help track the success of online marketing campaigns. Let's simplify what tracking parameters are, explore where the UTM prefix comes from, and show how you can use UTM parameters to see if your marketing efforts are working.
Think of tracking parameters as extra pieces of information added to website links. When someone clicks on a link that has these extra bits, the website can understand where the visitor came from and how they got there. This helps people who run websites and marketers learn more about what their audience likes and does.
UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module. This story begins with a company called Urchin Software Corporation, which made software to analyze web traffic. Google bought Urchin in 2005, and this technology eventually turned into what we know today as Google Analytics. The term "UTM" is a nod to the original Urchin software, and it's still used today.
