The first step in creating a custom campaign through Google Analytics is learning about custom campaigns. A custom campaign is a website’s URL containing either UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) or GCLID (Google Click Identifier) parameters which are detailed instructions on procuring information about marketing campaigns. GCLID is an auto-tagged URL used by Google Analytics to track and display AdWords. Because the GCLID is automatically added (if the auto-tagging feature is turned on) this article will focus on UTM parameters.
The five types of UTM parameters are source, medium, campaign, term, and content.
Source
A source parameter is the information related to the traffic source of a custom campaign.
Some examples of system-defined sources include Google, Bing, Yahoo, Twitter, and Facebook which are included by default in Google Analytics. Data from a system-defined source is lumped under its corresponding source. So, unless it’s defined, all data from Facebook would be labeled as Facebook and not the specific source. A user-defined source would be anything not recognized by Google Analytics, such as a specific Facebook ad campaign.
Medium
A medium parameter is information related to the categories of traffic, for example, organic, social, pay per click, banner, and email. Again, unless the data is defined, the data received would fall under its corresponding category.
Campaign
A campaign parameter is information related to a custom campaign name. Campaign parameters can use any text, any number, a combination of text and number, and words separated by white spaces.
Term
Highly ranked quality score PPC ads win the top slots. A good quality score can decrease costs as much as 20-30 percent. Ways exist to increase one’s quality score. Keywords, landing page copy, on-site usage metrics, and PPC ad metrics can either increase or decrease the bid necessary to gain a position.
Content
A content parameter is information related to the content of the campaign. For example, a scenario containing two banner ads that are the same except for the images used. Content parameters allow ads in this scenario to be differentiated so the data collected can reflect the correct ad.
Also, think “long-tail search terms.” For example, “restaurants near me” versus “Italian restaurants near me that do take out.” Be specific to stand out.
In closing, is PPC still worth it? The answer is yes as long a business understands their business and pays attention. It is possible to be out bided or someone drops out resulting in bids needing to be increased or decreased to keep a spot. Searches are continuously changing, making PPC best for the short term.
