Quick Refresher on UTMs

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UTM, or UTM parameters, stand for Urchin Tracking Module. They are strings of text that are appended to the end of a URL Basically anything typically after the “?” in a links URL. When a user clicks on a URL with UTM parameters, the information contained in these parameters is sent to web analytics tools like Google Analytics. Things like source / medium / campaign are all common UTMs that are typically passed through to other platforms.

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Newer UTMs often include an automatically created click ID developed by larger advertisers like Google, Meta, & Microsoft Ads which contain unique individual string of text every time you click. That information is passed back to the advertisers respective platform.

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Why are they important?

These are often used to track the effectiveness of online paid campaigns by adding specific snippets of code to their URLs. These codes provide valuable insights into where website traffic is coming from, allowing marketers to analyze the success of various marketing channels and make informed decisions about their strategies. However, with the introduction of iOS 14 and subsequent updates like iOS 17, there have been significant changes that could potentially impact the way UTM parameters function.

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iOS 14 Releases Impact

With the growing concern over user privacy, tech companies have been taking measures to enhance user control over their data. Apple's iOS 14 introduced significant privacy changes, requiring apps to request user permission to track their activity across other apps and websites. This feature called App Tracking Transparency (ATT), gave the users the choice to opt out and when they did it would not longer collect data thus allowing anything after that point to not be passed back.

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iOS 17 Taking it a Step Further

Apple is now introducing it’s newest update which will be released sometime in 2023 which will include Advanced Tracking and Fingerprinting Protection. It does so by removing some UTMs, mainly the automated click IDs mentioned earlier. Here’s the example provided by apple to developers

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In the example above Safari will be automatically removing anything it identifies as a “click_id” in the link, but will continue to keep things like “campaign_id=23”.

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So What Does This Mean for Marketers & Businesses?

In light of these changes, marketers and businesses need to adapt their strategies. Rather than relying solely on a automated Click ID, many will need to also use other resources that may collect more basic UTM parameters for tracking. They may need to explore alternative methods for collecting data and measuring campaign effectiveness such as using a third party tool that collects UTM data for multiple sources. Investing in more in first-party data collection may be needed in order to utilize contextual targeting/effectiveness and maintain their collection of data to better segment their peak performing or growing audiences.

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There’s no telling whether or not Apple will continue to expand what it decides to remove from link tracking. As a result, many larger advertisers such as Google and newer attribution based businesses have been working to tackle a more data driven approach using algorithms to predict tracking that may not be as readily available such as revenue, purchases, or any other conversion that may be impacted as a result in this loss of information.

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But for the time being it’s important to prepare for this shift, understand what looking at data, and how to adapt to ongoing releases like iOS 14 and upcoming iOS 17.

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