UTM Source Codes
Creating your firm's various marketing sources and campaigns in your account is a very key step to getting insightful reporting on the performance of each source. When you add in a new source or campaign, you will have the option to enter a UTM code.
The UTM code is only relevant for online advertisements, so if the source you are creating is not an online ad, you can simply disregard this option. The purpose of this code is to automatically track which landing page a lead clicked on to end up on your website, filling out your contact form, eventually winding up in Lawmatics.
There are multiple steps to set up this automatic tracking. Let's walk through them.
The first step is to make sure you enter the appropriate UTM code for any sources and/or campaigns where it is applicable. The UTM source or campaign code are found in the URL for your landing page. Let's look at the sample URL to a Lawmatics advertisement below:
https://www.lawmatics.com/crm/utm_campaign=GS_Brand_Mixed&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=1356659972&hsa_cam=15594694460&hsa_grp=129057151417&hsa_ad
At first glance, this URL looks like a lot of mumbo jumbo. As you look closer, you will see both a utm_campaign and a utm_source. Each are followed by the = character. The data that comes after the = is going to be your UTM code. So for the URL above, the UTM Source and the UTM campaign are as follows:
UTM Source: adwords
UTM Campaign: GS_Brand_Mixed
Notice that we are just including the data that falls between the = and the & characters.
Each time you create a new source in your Lawmatics account (found on the marketing settings page), you will see the window shown below.
The field labelled URL Params Match Value (UTM_Source) is where you will paste or type in the UTM Source code. So for our example above, we would type in adwords for that field.
If we are also adding a campaign within this source for the specific ad campaign, then in that box we would enter the UTM campaign from above.
After you have populated your various UTM codes onto the marketing settings page, you have one more step to allowing Lawmatics to automatically track the UTM of leads coming from these online ads. You will need to place a Lawmatics tracking pixel in the code for your website, so that we can read the UTM source and campaign of your incoming leads.
To generate a tracking pixel, go to settings > Tracking. If you have not yet added in your site, you will click the button highlighted below to add your firm's website.
Feel free to add multiple websites if your firm has more than one. You will then click the eyeball icon, shown on the right side above, to view and copy the tracking pixel.
Click the copy button to easily copy your snippet, and then paste it into the code for your website. This step is done outside of Lawmatics, with whatever provider you use to host your website. Ideally you will want to paste the code on the same page where you have your contact us form embedded.
This snippet will not add anything visual to your site, it will simply be used for that UTM tracking in the background. Once you have all of these steps in place, then when a lead clicks on an online ad, is brought to your website, fills out your contact form, and enters Lawmatics, we will be able to automatically assign the source and/or campaign for that lead according to their UTM code.
FAQ's
Do I need to include the tracking pixel on my site for tracking UTM codes?
Yes, this is an essential step for this automatic tracking to work. We will not be able to read the UTM codes of your incoming leads if you do not have the tracking pixel on your site. If you are not trying to track your sources using UTM codes, then you do not need the tracking pixel.
Is there a way to have sources automatically assigned without using UTM codes?
Yes, you can always use a Lawmatics automation to auto-populate a source and/or campaign for a lead. However, this gets tricky if you cannot easily differentiate which source the lead came from. For example, if you are able to use a different form for each of your sources then you can easily attribute the proper source to the proper form, but if all of the leads are funneling to your website and filling out one form, then the source can't necessarily be assigned using a Lawmatics automation, so UTM codes are your best bet.