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When it comes to UTM tracking, one of the most overlooked aspects is ensuring that UTM parameters are carried through a user’s journey across your website. If your UTMs drop off after the first page, you lose critical attribution data that can help you measure the performance of your marketing campaigns.
In this blog post, I’ll explain how to pass UTM parameters to next page seamlessly, ensuring accurate tracking throughout the user’s visit.
Why Passing UTM Parameters Matters
Imagine this: A visitor clicks on your Facebook ad, lands on your homepage with UTMs in the URL, and then navigates to a product page or fills out a form.
If you don’t pass UTM parameters to next page, Google Analytics or your CRM might treat the session as "direct traffic." This misattribution skews your data, making it harder to measure the true ROI of your campaigns.
When you don’t pass UTM parameters to next page, you risk losing critical data that helps you understand the full journey of your visitors.
Without the UTM parameters, Google Analytics may not be able to attribute the traffic to the right source, campaign, or medium. As a result, you’ll have incomplete insights into how effective your marketing efforts truly are.
Passing UTM parameters ensures:
- Accurate Attribution: By passing UTM parameters to next page, you retain the source, medium, and campaign data for every action a user takes. This guarantees that the session’s traffic is correctly attributed, even as the user moves through different pages of your site.
- Better Funnel Insights: Passing UTM parameters allows you to track a visitor’s entire journey across your site. This means you can get a clearer understanding of how visitors flow through your site, which pages they visit, and how they interact with different parts of your funnel. It’s crucial for determining which campaigns drive conversions, allowing you to optimize accordingly.
- Improved Reporting: By passing UTM parameters to next page, you can get a clearer view of your campaign’s performance in tools like Google Analytics, Looker Studio, or your CRM. This enables you to create more detailed, accurate reports that reflect the actual impact of your campaigns.
Not passing UTM parameters can lead to misattribution, making it harder to track your campaign's true performance. Learn how to fix this and optimize your tracking in my detailed guide:
Scenarios Where UTM Passing is Crucial
There are several common scenarios where ensuring you pass UTM parameters to the next page is absolutely critical:
- E-commerce Funnels: In an e-commerce environment, from product pages to checkout, it’s essential to pass UTM parameters to next page. This allows you to track the origin of conversions, ensuring that sales are correctly attributed to the marketing channels that brought in the traffic. Without this data, your campaign performance metrics will be skewed.
- Lead Forms: When a visitor fills out a form, you need to capture the UTM parameters to attribute the lead to the correct campaign. If you don’t pass UTM parameters to the next page, you might lose valuable attribution data that can impact your lead generation efforts.
- Multi-Step Landing Pages: If your landing page contains multiple steps, such as a signup form, an upsell page, or a checkout page, UTMs must persist across each stage. Passing UTM parameters ensures that you can track the user's journey throughout the entire multi-step process, improving the accuracy of your attribution and helping you fine-tune your funnels.
Methods to Pass UTM Parameters to Next Page
There are several methods you can use to ensure UTM parameters are passed to the next page, depending on your site's setup and tracking needs:
1. Using Hidden Fields in Forms
When users submit forms, passing UTM parameters to the next page can be done by capturing the UTM values and sending them to your CRM for tracking.
Steps:
- Add hidden fields for utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content, and utm_term to your form.
- Use JavaScript to extract the UTMs from the URL and populate the hidden fields.
- Pass these values to your CRM or email marketing platform during form submission.
Example:
2. Appending UTMs to Internal Links
If your site relies on internal links, you can dynamically append UTMs to ensure they are retained as users navigate. This ensures that users who pass through various stages of your funnel still carry the original UTM parameters to the next page.
Steps:
- Write a script to detect UTMs in the URL.
- Append these UTMs to all internal links.
Example Script:
3. Storing UTMs in Cookies
For longer user sessions, cookies can be used to store UTM parameters. This method ensures that UTMs persist across multiple pages, even if users leave and return to your site later.
Steps:
- Use JavaScript to set a cookie when a user lands on your site with UTMs.
- Retrieve the cookie on subsequent pages to pass UTMs where needed.
Example:
4. Using Google Tag Manager UTM Parameters
Google Tag Manager UTM parameters makes it easier to track UTMs without modifying your website code directly. With GTM, you can pass UTM parameters to next page by creating variables and setting up triggers.
Steps:
- Create a variable in GTM to capture URL parameters.
- Set up a tag to fire on pageviews and store the UTMs in cookies or send them to Google Analytics for tracking.
5. Use the UTM Grabber Plugin
The UTM Grabber plugin is a powerful tool designed to automate the process of capturing and retaining UTM parameters across multiple pages. This approach eliminates the need for manual implementation or custom JavaScript, making it ideal for marketers who want a quick and reliable solution.
How the UTM Grabber Plugin Works
- Automatic UTM Capture: The plugin detects UTM parameters when a user lands on your site and stores them in cookies for the duration of their session.
- Hidden Form Field Integration: It automatically populates hidden form fields with UTM values, ensuring the data flows directly into your CRM or email marketing tool.
- Cross-Page Persistence: UTMs are carried through the user's journey, regardless of the number of pages they visit before converting.
Why Use UTM Grabber?
- No Coding Required: Ideal for non-technical users or teams without developer resources.
- Seamless Integration: Works with popular form builders like Gravity Forms, WPForms, and Contact Form 7.
- Reliable Tracking: Ensures UTMs are never lost, even on multi-step journeys or complex sites.
How to Implement UTM Grabber
- Install and Activate the Plugin:
- Go to your WordPress admin dashboard and navigate to Plugins > Add New.
- Search for "UTM Grabber" and click Install Now, then Activate.
- Configure Settings:
- Access the plugin settings from your dashboard.
- Enable UTM parameter storage and form field mapping.
- Add UTM Fields to Forms:
- Open your form editor (e.g., Gravity Forms).
- Add hidden fields for utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, etc.
- Ensure the plugin is set to populate these fields dynamically.
- Validate UTM Flow:
- Test your forms by accessing the landing page with UTM-tagged links.
- Submit the form and check if the UTMs appear correctly in your CRM or database.
Advantages of Using UTM Grabber
- Error-Free Implementation: Avoid manual mistakes in appending or retaining UTM parameters.
- CRM-Friendly: Effortlessly map UTM data to CRM fields for deeper attribution insights.
- Enhanced Reporting: Gain a clearer view of how users move through your funnel.
This method is helpful for WordPress users.
Ensuring UTM Data Flows to Your CRM
To maximize tracking accuracy and gain deeper insights into your campaigns, it’s essential to pass UTM parameters to the next page and integrate that data with your CRM system.
Properly handling UTM data ensures that you can track the performance of your marketing efforts seamlessly and capture key metrics that inform decisions.
- Map UTM Fields – Start by creating custom fields in your CRM to store UTM data. This will allow you to pass UTM parameters to the next page and ensure they are captured in your CRM records. By mapping these fields, you can easily access the UTM source, medium, campaign name, and other important parameters within your CRM.
- Integrate Forms – To pass UTM parameters to next page, make sure your forms are set up to capture these values. Using tools like Zapier or native CRM integrations, you can automate the flow of data from your landing page forms to your CRM. This enables you to track the full customer journey, even after visitors leave the initial page.
- Track Conversions – Once UTM data flows seamlessly into your CRM, use your CRM dashboard to track conversions. By connecting UTM parameters to your conversion data, you can analyze the effectiveness of each campaign, making it easier to see which channels and campaigns are driving the best results.
Benefits of Retaining UTM Parameters Across Pages
Ensuring that UTM parameters are passed from one page to the next helps you maintain consistency in your tracking efforts across the entire user journey. This will provide you with deeper insights and more reliable data for optimization.
- Granular Reporting – When you pass UTM parameters to the next page, you can break down the data to identify the most effective campaigns. This granular approach allows you to pinpoint which strategies are driving traffic, conversions, and engagement.
- Cross-Device Tracking – Maintaining UTM parameters even when users switch devices is a key advantage of retaining UTMs across pages. With UTMs consistently passed along from one page to another, you can track users across multiple devices and gather a comprehensive view of their journey, no matter where they browse.
- Better Campaign Optimization – By ensuring that UTM parameters persist across pages, you’ll have a clearer understanding of your campaigns’ performance. This data can be used to allocate your budget effectively, ensuring your marketing spend is directed to the highest-performing strategies.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Failing to manage UTM parameters properly can lead to significant gaps in your tracking and reporting. Be mindful of these common mistakes to ensure your data remains accurate.
- Forgetting UTMs on Thank You Pages – One of the most common errors is neglecting to pass UTM parameters to next page after a form submission or checkout, especially on thank you pages. If UTM parameters aren’t carried over to the thank you page, you may lose track of the campaign’s performance.
- Not Testing Links to Ensure UTMs Persist – Before launching campaigns, make sure you test links to ensure that UTM parameters are being passed across pages. Not verifying this can result in incomplete data and missed tracking opportunities.
- Overlooking CRM Field Mapping – Always ensure that your CRM fields are properly mapped to capture UTM parameters. If the mapping is incorrect or absent, valuable campaign data may be lost, reducing your ability to analyze and optimize your efforts.
To learn more about avoiding these UTM tracking mistakes and ensuring accurate data collection.
Tools to Simplify UTM Passing
Using the right tools can simplify the process of passing UTM parameters to the next page and ensure seamless tracking across your marketing funnels.
- UTM Grabber Plugin – This plugin automates the process of extracting and storing UTM parameters from URLs. It helps ensure that UTM data is consistently passed across pages, reducing the risk of losing valuable tracking information.
- Google Tag Manager – With Google Tag Manager UTM parameters, you can easily configure tags for passing UTM parameters. This tool simplifies setup and helps maintain consistency in your UTM tracking without needing extensive coding skills.
- Looker Studio Dashboards – Visualize UTM performance using Looker Studio Dashboards, which allow you to aggregate UTM data from across your pages and campaigns. With clear visualizations, you can gain actionable insights and optimize your marketing strategy.
FAQs
Conclusion
It is critical to pass UTM parameters to next page for accurate campaign tracking. By implementing these techniques, you’ll ensure your marketing data remains actionable and precise, enabling you to make informed decisions.
If you want to master UTM tracking, check out my UTM Attribution Course—packed with strategies to optimize your marketing campaigns like a pro.
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