With your HealthSherpa landing page and direct link, you can track lead sources by adding UTM parameters at the end of your unique URL. This article will cover the following:
What are UTM parameters
UTM parameters are structured bits of information you can add to the end of any URL. They include the following:
UTM medium : what type of channel the lead came from (e.g. social)
UTM source : where leads are coming from (e.g. facebook, linkedin)
UTM campaign : which specific marketing effort the lead clicked through (e.g. november-1)
UTM term : the keyword used in paid search advertising (e.g. austin-aca-agents)
UTM content : the specific link the lead clicked through (e.g. logo, button, image)
You can pass none, one, or all of these UTM parameters. Because the HealthSherpa Export Report includes UTM source and UTM campaign, we will focus on them in this article and cover examples of how to use them in the last section of this article.
Why are UTM parameters useful
If you have multiple marketing campaigns in flight for your business, you can create a unique link for each campaign using UTM parameters.
All of these links point to your HealthSherpa enrollment landing page, but they will include a bit of information that identifies that your lead arrived to your page due to a certain marketing campaign.
Where you can access UTM parameter data
Through the HealthSherpa Export Report, you are able to see the UTM source and UTM campaign for your leads and clients. Learn more about export reports here.
How to create UTM parameters
You can write UTM parameters directly into the URL.
However, if you’re new to UTM parameters, we recommend that you start out using tools like this URL builder from Google Analytics to create them. Here are the steps you’ll take:
Go to the “Marketing” tab in your HealthSherpa account and copy your direct link.
Paste it into the Campaign URL builder and fill out the fields for ‘campaign source’ and ‘campaign name’.
Copy the generated URL at the bottom.
Start using the generated link for the appropriate campaign.
Watch the following video to see this in action.
You can also convert these URLs into QR codes. To do this, it’s recommended to create a shortened version of your link and paste it into a QR code generator like https://www.qrcode-monkey.com/.
Examples of UTM parameters
To make this more concrete, imagine that an agent who is doing the following Marketing tactics to drive leads to their HealthSherpa landing page:
Emails to clients from other lines of business
Blog posts on their website about ACA plans
Flyers at in person events
Social media posts
If their HealthSherpa landing page URL is healthsherpa.com?_agent_id=test, they will add the following UTM source which will show up in their HealthSherpa Export Report:
Marketing Tactic | UTM parameters |
&utm_source=email | |
Blog posts | &utm_source=blog |
Flyers | &utm_source=flyer |
Social media | &utm_source=social |
The information in the table above lets you see what channels your leads are coming from, but it doesn’t tell you anything about which specific effort (i.e. email or social media post) the lead clicked on to arrive at your landing page.
That’s where UTM campaigns come in. If the UTM source is telling you where they came from, the UTM campaign is telling you why they clicked through to your landing page.
For example, if you post on Facebook and LinkedIn on a daily basis, the format of your full URL could be the following:
Social Media Platform | UTM parameters |
&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=date | |
&utm_source=linkedin&utm_campaign=date |
HealthSherpa tips on UTM parameters
In the social media example, we used the date as the identifier for specific social media posts. You can create UTM parameters with whatever logic makes the most sense for your business, but here are some tips to keep in mind when creating your tracking strategy:
Do | Do not |
Use lowercase | Use '&' in the parameters |
Use plain, appropriate language | Write long descriptions |
We also recommend thinking through a strategy for your UTM parameters before creating them. To help you with this process, we’ve put together a UTM strategy template that you can download and use.