Have you paid for advertising from sites like Facebook or Twitter (X) to gain insight into Return on Investment (ROI)? Want to know where people who accessed your Webex Events Registration page or Lead Retrieval exhibitor purchase form clicked from? Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters can help!
Want to get more granular insight into Registration page traffic and registrant behavior, including dropped registrations? Integrate third-party analytics tools like Google Analytics into Registration to glean this information and fine-tune the registration process and your promotion strategies.
This article explains:
What UTM parameters are
How to add UTM parameters to your Lead Retrieval Purchase Form URL, Registration page URL, and Widgets
How to access UTM data in Webex Events
How to add page tracking IDs to Registration for third-party analytics tools like GA4
What are UTM parameters?
Let's say you want to publish your registration page URL in the header and footer of your website. You also want to publish the link in an ad campaign on Facebook, and you plan to post the link on your organization's page. The registration page only has one link, so how can you find out which efforts are driving the most traffic? UTM parameters!
UTM parameters are five simple snippets of code that you add (or "append") to the end of a URL. This lets you create different versions of the same URL to help you identify the success of different advertising efforts. Many modern analytics tools like GA4 can capture UTM data to make analyzing traffic easier.
How do UTM parameters work?
First, you identify all the different sites and areas within sites where you want to publish a link. After you identify where the link will be published, you append a unique set of UTM parameters to the URL for each place. Let's explore each parameter and some sample values:
💡 Keep in mind, you can't use spaces in UTM parameters. Instead, use an underscore wherever a space would be.
utm_campaign helps track different unique marketing efforts, such as earlybird promotions and partner campaigns.
Example:
utm_campaign=earlybird
utm_medium identifies the general type of channel the registrant clicked from to get to the registration page or purchase form, like email, social media, or websites.
Example:
utm_medium=paid_social
utm_source identifies exactly which site a person was on when they clicked your URL. The source elaborates on the medium, so if the medium is "social_media", the source identifies which social media site. For a link you're publishing to a Facebook ad, this parameter might appear like this in a URL:
Example:
utm_source=facebook_ad
utm_content identifies which specific ad type or part of a page the person clicked. For example, if you added links to your site's header and footer, this parameter helps you understand which link performed better.
Example:
utm_conent=header_link
utm_term helps you track the success of paid keywords through a service like Google AdWords. This helps you refine your paid keywords to increase traffic to your page for less money. Here's how you'd append this parameter if you paid to show an ad when people search "Chicago events":
Example:
utm_term=chicago_events
When you review UTM data in your analytics software, it's easy to answer questions like:
Which campaigns were most successful?
Which sites drove the most completed registrations?
Were my paid ads and keywords worth the investment?
What can I do differently when promoting my next event?
Now that you know what UTM parameters are and how they work, it's time to start using them with your Webex Events Registration URL, Lead Retrieval exhibitor purchase form URL, and widgets.
Activate UTM parameters in Webex Events
Activating UTM parameters lets the Webex Events platform store UTM values and provide you with that sweet, sweet UTM data. 🥧
💡 Keep in mind, Webex Events captures UTM data only when a registrant completes a purchase, not for dropped registrations. That's where Registration page tracking can help! If you want to track dropped registrations, refer to the 'Registration page tracking' section of this article to learn how to set that up.
Registration
In your Event navigation bar under ‘Registration’, click Promote.
Click Marketing.
On the Marketing page, click the toggle next to a UTM parameter to activate it.
Click Save Changes. Webex Events will now capture UTM data!
Lead Retrieval purchase forms and Widgets
You don't need to activate UTM parameters for Lead Retrieval purchase forms or Widgets. Keep reading. 😉
Append the URLs
Now that UTM is activated in your Event, it's time to append the Lead Retrieval URL, Registration URL, or widget codes. Keep this information in mind as you work:
Some ad providers may have specific requirements for formatting UTMs. For example, here are Facebook's instructions on configuring UTM parameters for ad campaigns.
Google's campaign URL builder is a great tool to quickly append UTM data, even if you're not using paid search.
If you're not using a UTM builder, follow these basic guidelines:
Add a question mark (?) after the base URL before adding your first UTM parameter.
Add an ampersand (&) between each parameter.
Use underscores instead of spaces.
💡 Keep in mind, each place you publish an appended URL should have distinct UTM values that match that place. For example, if you post an appended link on Facebook, the utm_source should include "facebook" or "fb". If you're linking to the registration page from a 'Buy Now' button in a promotional email, the utm_source might be something like 'marketing_email'.
Append a Registration page URL, ticket URL, or Lead Retrieval exhibitor purchase form URL
The process for appending any URL is identical:
Copy the URL from the Webex Events platform.
Registration page URL - After you publish Registration, the Registration page link appears below the page title when editing nearly any aspect of your Registration.
Ticket URL - After you publish Registration, go to the Tickets page and click the Settings (⋯) icon next to a ticket, then click Share link to copy a URL that shows the Registration page with only that ticket. Learn more in our article about creating tickets.
Exhibitor purchase form URL - In your Event navigation bar under 'Lead Retrieval', click Purchase Form. Configure the form as described in our article about Lead Retrieval exhibitor purchase forms, then copy the URL from the bottom of the page.
Paste the URL into your URL builder or a text editor.
Append the UTM parameters.
Paste the appended URLs.
Here's an example of the base Registration page URL without UTM parameters:
This is how the URL might appear after adding three UTM parameters to a link in a marketing campaign email:
https://registration.socio.events/e/agenda/renergizeconference?utm_campaign=earlybird_sale&utm_medium=email&utm_source=internal_marketing
⚠️ Caution! If you change the Registration page URL, the old URL will no longer work. Be careful to append UTM data to the new URL and correct the URL in any places you've previously published it.
Append a Registration widget code
If you're using either of the Registration widgets, you must update the 'href' URL within the widget to track UTM parameters.
After you publish Registration, click Registration, click Promote, then click Widgets.
Copy the URL inside the quotation marks after
href=.Paste the URL into your URL builder or a text editor.
Append the UTM parameters.
Paste the appended URL back into the widget code before publishing it on a site.
Here's an example of the first part of a button-type widget code without UTM parameters:
<a id="__button__widget__" href="https://registration.socio.events/e/renergizeconference" target="_blank"....
This is how it might appear after adding four UTM parameters for a button on a sponsor's website:
<a id="__button__widget__" href="https://registration.socio.events/e/renergizeconference?utm_campaign=sponsorship&utm_medium=website&utm_source=slido&utm_content=bottom_promo" target="_blank"....
Review and export UTM data (Registration)
When an attendee clicks a link with appended UTM data and completes a purchase, the data appears in their attendee profile.
Go to your Event's Attendees page and click on an attendee.
Click the attendee's Registration tab.
All captured UTM data is listed in the 'UTM parameters' section of the page.
UTM metrics
Both the Attendees and Orders exports show captured UTM data for any UTM parameters you've activated.
Go to the Registration Metrics page.
Click the Export Report button.
Select the Attendee Report and Orders Report to download them.
Read our article about Event Registration metrics for more details about exporting these reports and an overview of the data included in each one.
Review and export UTM data (Lead Retrieval)
Simply export one or more exhibitors to examine the UTM data. For details, read our Lead Retrieval Exhibitor Purchase Forms article.
Registration page tracking
⚠️ Caution! Activating these options may affect consumer privacy compliance.
Consult your privacy team and laws that apply to your locality.
If you use Google Analytics (GA4), Meta Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, or Google Tag Manager, consider integrating these analytics tools with Webex Events Registration to track registration page data points like unique page views, average duration spent on the website, dropped registrations, and more.
💡 Keep in mind, you can use multiple page tracking tools for the same Registration page.
Activate page tracking and add the page tracking ID
Copy your analytics tool's ID. If you're not sure where to find the ID, these instructions from each provider will help:
Google Analytics (GA4) Measurement ID - GA4 Measurement ID
Meta Pixel ID - Get your Pixel ID from Facebook
LinkedIn Insight Tag Partner ID - Access the partner ID for your LinkedIn Insight Tag
Google Tag Manager Container ID - Set Up and Install Tag Manager
In your Event navigation bar under ‘Registration’, click Promote, then click Marketing.
In the 'Page tracking' section, activate the toggle next to the web analytics tool you're using and paste in the ID.
Click Save Changes.
Now Webex Events will send registration page traffic data to your integrated analytics tool so you can gain greater insight into registration page traffic and user behavior.
Google and Meta event actions and parameters
Here's a list of all actions that trigger an event that sends data to Google or Meta analytics and the parameters for each.
💡 Keep in mind, even though some actions send the same parameters, the Meta 'content_name' and Google 'page_title' values will help differentiate.
Meta parameters
Registration page visit - ViewContent
Payment page visit - ViewContent
Confirmation page view - ViewContent
Ticket quantity selected - AddToCart
Checkout page visit - ViewContent, InitiateCheckout
Payment information added - AddPaymentInfo
Successful purchase - Purchase
Error - Error
'Accessibility Adjustments' click - AccessiBeClicked
Share button click - Share
Google parameters
Registration page visit - page_view
Payment page visit - page_view
Confirmation page view - page_view
Ticket quantity selected - add_to_cart
Checkout page visit - page_view, begin_checkout
Payment information added - add_payment_info
Successful purchase - purchase
Error - exception
'Accessibility Adjustments' click - accessibe_clicked
Share button click - share
Now you know how to use UTM parameters in Webex Events Registration and Lead Retrieval Purchase Forms, and how to set up Registration page tracking. Did you know that Webex Events can also pass data to external websites? Read all about it in our article about the Pass Data to URL feature!
Questions? Chat with us, email support@socio.events, or attend a Face to Face session.