Mastering Email Attribution Strategies Beyond UTM Parameters

It's a very common request for the email marketing team to use UTM parameters to use for links inside of email campaigns for attribution. There are so many reasons why this will not always work and that means for actually tracking what you want and also how you get to the data.

Before you go the utm route, let's look at some alternatives:

Unique Landing Pages

Creating unique landing pages for each email campaign. By sending recipients to a page designed specifically for that email, it comes down to looking at page visits. Make sure you mark the page as a no index / no follow.

Email Platform Analytics

Pull a list of people who clicked on a specific link in an email campaign and compare against conversions for that time period. Depending upon what you want to track specifically, this may require some VLookup fun ;)

Hidden Tracking Pixels (Image Beacons)

You can embed a 1×1 transparent pixel in your email with a unique identifier per campaign or user. When the email is opened, the pixel loads and logs the open event. You should then be able to combine this with cookie or localStorage tracking on your site to link visits back to that open.

Use Referral Codes

Incorporate unique referral codes in your emails to track conversions without needing UTM parameters. When recipients use these codes, you can link sales back to the specific campaign.

Custom Redirect Links (think bit.ly)

You can use a redirect service to forward users while capturing tracking data.

One of the most - if not THE - that you must consider when adopting one of these approaches is to ensure the data is available to the people who need to see it.

If you go with a Referral Code, for example, can the website manager see who redeemed the code to see if the page converted? Can the email manager access who redeemed the code? How about the CMO or Head of Sales?