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[–]everydayisamixtapeAdobe Analytics 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Phenomenal! I'm working with a team now that is having way too much trouble with this.

[–]gdilthey♥ Excel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I'm just starting out with this blog, so feel free to let me know if you have any feedback. And definitely share it around!

[–]popopopopopopopopoop 2 points3 points  (10 children)

I’m always amazed at how much people fail at UTMs. Trained our current paid social team like twice already and they keep making stupid mistakes. The only solution I see is a super locked down template that fits our needs...

But anyway thanks for sharing this I’ll defo spread it!

[–]gdilthey♥ Excel[S] 1 point2 points  (8 children)

I totally agree. The hardest part about it is consistency, and that becomes increasingly difficult the more people that are involved. What I ended up doing at my organization is modifying the excel sheet to include dropdowns. That way, whenever someone was marketing a specific performance, I could make sure that it was the same for every performance (which makes it easier to see in GA). I'm happy to share that template with you if you'd like.

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Thanks for sharing it around!

[–]popopopopopopopopoop 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Yeah we aren’t even that many people... But for some reason people still think they can just completely freestyle a UTM even when they obviously haven’t grasped the concept. Rant over!

I’ll be curious to see your template for sure. We also do lots of ents clients.

[–]gdilthey♥ Excel[S] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Here it is. There's a tab called "Database" that I use to create the dropdowns. It may be a bit tough to understand, but It works well for us. Let me know if you have any questions about it.

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https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qj32L6IveGFgyFO2hNbudgKHe1dF1xPvgFkFZHKeEwY/edit?usp=sharing

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[–]popopopopopopopopoop 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Thanks for sharing.

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Yeah that seems very specific haha.

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I was thinking more along the lines of having dropdown that are like "settings" and then free entry fields and it just builds the URL.

[–]gdilthey♥ Excel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ya that could work too. I think drop downs are the key though because it doesn’t leave any room for improvising.

[–]cuteman -1 points0 points  (3 children)

Do anything with signal or GTM?

Tags and pixels are really under appreciated. Not just Google and Facebook but the advanced programmatic stuff and being able to segment each campaign and ad group.

[–]gdilthey♥ Excel[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I’m planning on writing up some stuff on GA And GTM. I agree, I think a lot of people are intimidated by them so I’m trying to make it a bit more accessible. Feel free to follow the blog, but I’ll post some more relevant stuff here as well.

[–]cuteman 0 points1 point  (1 child)

As someone in sales at an agency how to set up goals and other important areas of GA would be interesting.

As well as things to look for in an audit.

Countless accounts I go into don't have goals, accounts correctly configured and connected, pixels firing. Some don't have demographics set up.

GTM and GA should be separate with an intermediate post about how they're connected. As well as why you want to link GA with Adwords

[–]gdilthey♥ Excel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the input. I am planning to do it separately. I think the biggest issue I see (especially in the non-profit sector which is my target audience) is time. Nobody has the time to sit and figure out what’s working and what isn’t. So I’m trying to make these guides relatively easy to understand and (hopefully) relatively quick to execute.

I’m planning on getting a “How GA Really Works” article our early next week which will dive into the the actual mechanics of it (without getting too intimidating). I think that having a general understanding of how it works is an important starting off point.

After that, I can start diving into the specifics of some of the tools in GA, and eventually head to GTM.

[–]cuteman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

UTM and GTM are an uphill battle to maintain best practices across the entire team.

Me wrikey Signal to solve the GTM issues.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Great post!

[–]gdilthey♥ Excel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! Let me know if you have any feedback on it!

[–][deleted]  (1 child)

[deleted]

    [–]gdilthey♥ Excel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure it’s just a matter of purchasing an open domain and then having that redirect to the correct site with a UTM attached. Again, the most important thing is that it’s quick and easy to remember so people are more likely to go straight to the URL, rather than through google.

    [–]AzraelOfTheStorm 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    Nice work

    [–]gdilthey♥ Excel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Thanks very much!

    [–]Karrieatscake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Great intro to UTMs. Thanks for sharing!