Search advertising is no doubt one of the best ways to reach the people your business is looking for. This is the reason why taking advantage of Google AdWords is important. However, in order for your campaign to be effective, you need to invest time and effort in managing it.
One way to make sure your campaign works every time is by customising your Google Ad Destination URLs to meet your current needs. A Destination URL is a landing page where you want to take your customers whenever they click on your ad. You can change this any time with or without having to change your ad’s Display URL.
For instance, if you’re the owner/marketing manager of an online shoe store that’s running a new campaign, you can choose your ad’s Display URL to remain as it is (e.g. www.sportshoesinmelbourne.com.au). But you can change your Destination URL from your current one to a URL that suits your current campaign (e.g. www.sportshoesinmelbourne.com.au/nikefree.html to www.sportshoesinmelbourne.com.au/onitsukatiger.html).
Editing the Display URL and Destination URL of your ads can be done either manually or in bulk. You’ll find the steps on how to do it at the bottom part of this Google support page.
Using UTM Parameters
Adding UTM parameters to your Destination URLs is an excellent way to efficiently measure your marketing efforts.
Depending on the nature of your business, you may have to target different types of audiences, which will require you to distribute various pieces of marketing resources across different channels. In terms of online advertising, this may mean displaying ad banners of different sizes on a range of websites, placing content in an online magazine or having your product featured in your own monthly newsletter.
While it’s not that difficult to determine which among the channels you’re using is bringing more traffic, how can you determine which banner size you’re using for your ads is more effective? Which brings more traffic – the ad in your newsletter or the guest article you placed in a partner website? This is where the importance of UTM parameters comes in.
UTM is short for Urchin Tracking Module, a format used by Google to track unique URLs. It is a type of tag added to the end of the URL, which, when clicked, sends information back to Google Analytics. In a way, it is similar to Value Tracking in the sense that it allows you to extend your AdWords keyword tracking.
By adding UTM parameters to your Google AdWords Destination URLs, you’ll be able to track your online marketing efforts more accurately. When you go to Google Analytics, you’ll see details as to how many clicks a particular link you’re tracking has received compared to other links you are using. You can even go deeper to find out how your leads convert into sales and determine which of the strategies you are using are most effective. You can use UTM for a number of applications such as your social media accounts, your email signature and, of course, your banners and advertisements.
Call Dynamics understands the importance of using such parameter in your marketing campaigns. It has the ability to read UTM parameters in custom campaigns in Google Analytics and allows you to track which of your leads come through phone calls. In fact, it can tell you almost anything you need to know regarding the details on how the most important part of your website is getting traffic.