UTM

UTM is the acronym for Universal Transverse Mercator, a plane coordinate grid system named for the map projection on which it is based (Transverse Mercator). The UTM system consists of 60 zones, each 6-degrees of longitude in width. The zones are numbered 1-60, beginning at 180-degrees longitude and increasing to the east.

The military uses their own implementation of the UTM system, called the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS). One system is no more or less accurate than the other. They are just two different ways of positioning a point. Many experienced users prefer UTM over latitude/longitude when using 7.5' topographic quadrangle maps. Ocean-going sailors and other marine users almost always use latitude/longitude because navigation charts are optimized for this method.

Unified threat management (UTM) refers to when multiple security features or services are combined into a single device within your network. Using UTM, your network’s users are protected with several different features, including antivirus, content filtering, email and web filtering, anti-spam, and more. UTM enables an organization to consolidate their IT security services into one device, potentially simplifying the protection of the network. As a result, your business can monitor all threats and security-related activity through a single pane of glass. In this way, you attain complete, simplified visibility into all elements of your security or wireless architecture.

A UTM comes with antivirus software that can monitor your network, then detect and stop viruses from damaging your system or its connected devices. This is done by leveraging the information in signature databases, which are storehouses containing the profiles of viruses, to check if any are active within your system or are trying to gain access. Some of the threats the antivirus software within a UTM can stop include infected files, Trojans, worms, spyware, and other malware. Unified threat management protects your network against malware by detecting it and then responding. A UTM can be preconfigured to detect known malware, filtering it out of your data streams and blocking it from penetrating your system.

UTM can also be configured to detect novel malware threats using heuristic analysis, which involves rules that analyze the behavior and characteristics of files. For example, if a program is designed to prevent the proper function of a computer’s camera, a heuristic approach can flag that program as malware. UTM can also use sandboxing as an anti-malware measure. With sandboxing, a cell inside the computer is confined to a sandbox that captures the suspicious file. Even though the malware is allowed to run, the sandbox prevents it from interacting with other programs in the computer.

A firewall has the ability to scan incoming and outgoing traffic for viruses, malware, phishing attacks, spam, attempts to intrude on the network, and other cybersecurity threats. Because UTM firewalls examine both the data coming in and out of your network, they can also prevent devices within your network from being used to spread malware to other networks that connect to it. A UTM system can provide an organization with intrusion prevention capability, which detects then prevents attacks. This functionality is often referred to as an intrusion detection system (IDS) or intrusion prevention system (IPS). To identify threats, an IPS analyzes packets of data, looking for patterns known to exist in threats.

When one of these patterns is recognized, the IPS stops the attack. In some cases, an IDS will merely detect the dangerous data packet, and an IT team can then choose how they want to address the threat. The steps taken to stop the attack can be automated or performed manually. The UTM will also log the malicious event. These logs can then be analyzed and used to prevent other attacks in the future. The virtual private network (VPN) features that come with a UTM appliance function similarly to regular VPN infrastructure. A VPN creates a private network that tunnels through a public network, giving users the ability to send and receive data through the public network without others seeing their data.

All transmissions are encrypted, so even if someone were to intercept the data, it would be useless to them. A UTM’s web filtering feature can prevent users from seeing specific websites or Uniform Resource Locators (URLs). This is done by stopping users’ browsers from loading the pages from those sites onto their device. You can configure web filters to target certain sites according to what your organization aims to accomplish. For example, if you want to prevent employees from being distracted by certain social media sites, you can stop those sites from loading on their devices while they are connected to your network.

The data loss prevention you get with a UTM appliance enables you to detect data breaches and exfiltration attempts and then prevent them. To do this, the data loss prevention system monitors sensitive data, and when it identifies an attempt by a malicious actor to steal it, blocks the attempt, thereby protecting the data.

UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) tracking is a method used to monitor the effectiveness of digital marketing campaigns by appending specific parameters to URLs.

These parameters help track the source, medium, campaign, content, and keyword associated with traffic coming to a website.

By using UTM tracking, marketers can gain detailed insights into how visitors are finding their website, which campaigns are driving the most engagement, and where to focus marketing efforts for better performance.

The key UTM parameters include: utm_source – Identifies the website or platform sending the traffic (e.g., Google, Facebook).

utm_medium – Specifies the marketing medium (e.g., email, CPC, social).

utm_campaign – Names the campaign for better organisation (e.g., summer_sale).

utm_content – Differentiates variations of an ad or link (e.g., header_banner, sidebar_link).

utm_term – Tracks specific keywords for paid search campaigns.

Using UTM tracking in combination with analytics tools like Google Analytics enables businesses to measure ROI accurately, optimise their marketing strategies, and make data-driven decisions.

An urchin tracking module (UTM) is a snippet of code added to a URL for the purpose of tracking online marketing performance and better understanding audience behavior.

These custom URLs, known as UTM codes, provide marketers with detailed information on how a specific campaign, content piece, or channel is performing.

The phrase UTM originates from the now-discontinued web analytics software Urchin, which initially designed UTMs to monitor the behavior of unique website visitors.

Urchin was acquired by Google in 2005 and was foundational to Google Analytics (now Google Analytics 4).

UTM parameters detail the criteria a UTM code can track.

The five main UTM parameters are: Source: Shows where the traffic is coming from, such as social media platforms, search engines, or other sources like a paid ad or newsletter.

Example: utm_source=LinkedIn Medium: Reveals the channel type that’s driving the traffic, like organic social, email, paid social, pay-per-click (PPC), etc.

Example: utm_source=paid_social Campaign: Tracks a specific campaign’s performance.

Note in GA4, this parameter is expressed as “utm_id=[campaign]” and is required for GA 4 data importing.

Example: utm_campaign=Cyber_5 Content: Tracks the different content a user can interact with within the same campaign.

The content parameter is particularly useful for landing pages or emails that contain multiple CTAs so marketers can see which one performs the best.

It’s expressed as “utm_content=[content]”.

Example: utm_content=video_ad Term: Identifies the keyword that’s driving traffic and is most often used to see which PPC campaign keywords are performing well to optimize a bidding strategy.

The term parameters is expressed as “utm_term=[term].”

Example: utm_term=cyber_five The first three UTM parameters listed above are required in Google Analytics 4, with the last two being optional.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4), the latest iteration of Google Analytics, combines both app and web data in the same property and offers more robust UTM tracking capabilities than Universal Analytics.

Marketers can get data for eight GA4 UTM parameters to help them analyze different traffic sources and marketing campaigns.

In addition to the five UTM parameters mentioned above, there are three additional optional UTM parameters in GA4.

Optional UTM parameters only in GA4: Source platform: This parameter identifies the platform responsible for directing traffic to a given Google Analytics property, typically used by platforms for media ad-buying or those that manage organic traffic data.

Example: utm_source_platform=search-ads-360 Creative format: This parameter distinguishes between creative type, such as native, video, search, display, etc, as well as creatives.

Example: utm_creative_format=native_holiday2024.

Marketing tactic: This parameter reveals the targeting criteria that have been applied to a campaign, such as prospecting, retargeting, bid strategies, etc.

Example: utm_marketing_tactic=remarketing_90days.

Currently, the values of the parameters “utm-creative-format” and “utm_marketing_tactic” are not reported in GA4 properties but are listed in the Google Support.

As a cross-device measurement and analytics platform, Adjust works with marketers to set up their UTM parameters to categorize attribution data appropriately.

For example, the campaign structure parameters on Adjust link URLs offer valuable insights into where your mobile users come from.

Adjust link URLs support up to four levels of data, including network, campaign, ad group, and creative.

UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) codes are an essential tool for marketers as they allow them to track the effectiveness of their digital marketing.

By adding UTM parameters to URLs, marketers can track the specific source, medium, and journey name that generated website visitors.

Using UTM codes makes it easier to understand which journeys are driving the most traffic and conversions.

The traffic and conversion information can then be used to optimize marketing strategies and allocate budget more effectively.

UTM codes also provide valuable insights into customer behavior.

UTM codes can help identify which channels are most effective in generating traffic for your websites and landing pages, which enables you to attribute conversions to the right source.

Enable UTM codes To use UTM codes, an administrator needs to enable the UTM codes feature switch.

To enable the switch: Go to Settings > Overview > Feature switches.

Enable the UTM tracking feature switch toggle, then select Save in the upper right.

When you enable UTM tracking, you see the default values for each UTM parameter.

These are the values that are added to all URLs that you add to your emails or text messages.

Tip It may take up to five minutes after enabling the feature switch toggle before the UTM settings are propagated across the channels.

Note UTM parameters are only added to emails that allow tracking.

If you use a restrictive consent model, UTM Parameters are only added to your URLs if a Contact has a Contact Point Consent record for tracking, and the status is Opted In.

If you use a nonrestrictive consent model, you can set the default tracking to Track.

This means that even without a Contact Point Consent record, the UTM Parameters are added to the URL within the email or SMS for all Contacts who go through your journeys.

Use UTM codes in a journey Imagine an abandoned cart scenario in which website visitors add items to their carts but leave your website without completing their purchases.

By using UTM codes in your retargeting journey, you can reach out to the abandoned cart visitors and track the campaign (journey name), medium (channel), and content that results in customers returning to complete their purchases.

Here’s how you would use UTM codes in an abandoned cart journey First, create a journey that targets visitors that abandoned their cart.

After the journey trigger, you'll add a reminder email that nudges visitors to complete the purchases.

Because completing the purchase is the purpose of the journey, you can also set a goal that measures success whenever a visitor completes a purchase.

To use UTM codes in the reminder email, go to Emails and select the email you plan to use in your abandoned cart journey.

Add a URL to the email that directs your customers back to your website.

In the Add a link window, you see the default values that are automatically appended to every URL in your message, including unsubscribe.

In this case, the source value Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys, the campaign value is the name of the abandoned cart journey, the medium is channel that you're using which is email, and the content is the name of the email.

Once your journey is live and customers start using your links, you're able to review insights including how many people clicked your link and how many successfully completed a purchase.

You can also use Google Analytics to determine how successful the email you sent was in driving traffic to your website.

Customizing UTM links After enabling the UTM code feature, you can customize UTM links by going to Settings > Customer engagement > UTM tracking.

To begin customizing your links, select the + New button at the top of the page.

Set the following parameters: Name: The name of your UTM record.

Business unit (if enabled): If business units are enabled, this shows you which business unit the UTM record is tied to.

You can only create one UTM record per business unit.

UTM source: You can change the UTM source to align with your existing naming convention.

UTM campaign: If you've created a custom solution for a campaign, you can have UTM campaign point to the campaign entity.

UTM medium: The channel that the UTM record is used on.

UTM content: Captures UTM content as message name.

If you turn it off, UTM content won't be added to the URL link.

To save your customize settings, select the Save button at the top of the screen.

UTM parameters in Universal vs Google Analytics 4 Here's how to view UTM data in Google Universal Analytics and in Google Analytics 4: In Google Universal Analytics, go to Acquisitions > All Campaigns.

Your default view is the list of all campaigns.

In Google Analytics 4, go to Acquisitions > Traffic acquisitions.

Troubleshooting If you've enabled the UTM feature switch and you don’t see any UTM parameters when you select a link in your inbox, check your Compliance settings.

If your compliance setting consent model is set to Restrictive, then (depending on how your Tracking consent is configured), this can mean that a user must explicitly opt in to having tracking links included in emails you send to them.

If the system doesn't have consent to include tracking links, UTM codes won't be inserted into emails.

The setting that controls how and if links include tracking query parameters is in the Tracking Consent section.

For example, if you're configured to “Get tracking consent from customers” and the consent model is Restrictive, then you need prior consent for tracking to include tracking links: To guarantee that tracking links are always included (the links don’t require customer consent for tracking), the settings should look like this:

UTM employs Apple's Hypervisor virtualization framework to run ARM64 operating systems on Apple Silicon at near native speeds. On Intel Macs, x86/x64 operating system can be virtualized. In addition, lower performance emulation is available to run x86/x64 on Apple Silicon as well as ARM64 on Intel. For developers and enthusiasts, there are dozens of other emulated processors as well including: ARM32, MIPS, PPC, and RISC-V. Your Mac can now truly run anything.

Emulate classic operating systems. Not only can you run the latest and greatest operating systems, you can also emulate older operating systems whether it's on PowerPC, SPARC, or x86_64. Check out the gallery for some examples of what you can run. Virtualize macOS as well. Run multiple instances of macOS on your Apple Silicon Mac with UTM. This can be useful for developers as well as security conscious users. Note that macOS VM support is limited to ARM based Macs running macOS Monterey or higher.

Designed for macOS Unlike other free virtualization software, UTM was created for macOS and only for Apple platforms. It is designed completely from the ground up for the new style introduced in Big Sur. UTM looks and feels like a Mac app with all the privacy and security features you expect as well. QEMU and Apple Virtualization without the headache UTM uses QEMU, a decades old, free and open source emulation software that is widely used and actively maintained. While QEMU is powerful, it can be difficult to set up and configure with its plethora of command line options and flags. UTM is designed to give users the flexibility of QEMU without the steep learning curve that comes with it. UTM can also be configured to use Apple Virtualization, a native framework for virtualizing macOS and Linux on Apple Silicon.

What's the difference in the Mac App Store version? UTM is and always will be completely free and open source. The Mac App Store version is identical to the free version and there are no features left out of the free version. The only advantage of the Mac App Store version is that you can get automatic updates. Purchasing the App Store version directly funds the development of UTM and shows your support. How do I contribute? You can find UTM on GitHub. You can also contribute to the QEMU project.

Can I run games? No, probably not. UTM does not currently support GPU emulation/virtualization on Windows and therefore lacks support for 3D acceleration (e.g. OpenGL and DirectX). You may be able to run older games with software rendering options, but nothing with hardware acceleration. There is experimental support for hardware OpenGL acceleration on Linux through Virgl. UTM for iOS?

Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters are five variants of URL parameters used by marketers to track the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns across traffic sources and publishing media.

They were introduced by Google Analytics' predecessor Urchin and, consequently, are supported out of the box by Google Analytics.

The UTM parameters in a URL identify the campaign that refers traffic to a specific website,[1] and attribute the browser's website session and the sessions after that until the campaign attribution window expires to it.

The parameters can be parsed by analytics tools and used to populate reports.[2]

UTM parameters in a URL identify the marketing campaign that refers traffic to a specific website.[1]

To define and append the relevant UTM parameters to the appropriate URLs, marketers routinely use simple, spreadsheet-based, or automated UTM builder tools,[3] including the Google Analytics URL Builder for websites.[4]

When a hyperlink contains a URL with UTM parameters, the web analytics software of the destination website interprets the parameter information and attributes it to the browser's website session and the sessions after that until the campaign attribution window has expired (by default, six months in Google Analytics).[5]

UTM parameters that are passed to URLs can be parsed by analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics, with the data used to populate standard and custom analytics reports.[2]

Web analytics software may attribute parameters to the browser's current and subsequent sessions until the campaign window has expired.

There are five different UTM parameters, which may be used in any order:[1]

UTM code can take good marketing analytics and make them great. The acronym UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module, but that’s not a helpful UTM definition when you have questions like “What is UTM tracking?” or “What does UTM stand for in marketing?” In answer to those questions, UTM is a set of parameters (or, UTM code) added to URLs to identify and track website traffic generated by a specific marketing campaign, and traffic sources (social media marketing, pay-per-click ad campaigns, email, etc.). This is useful when you’re testing what promotion methods work best and to track the performance of certain content pieces. There’s no reason to be intimidated by a lengthy URL containing UTM code. Everything after the question mark is easily broken down into chunks that identify UTM medium and campaign source. UTM DEFINITION: UTM is a set of parameters (or, UTM code) added to URLs to identify and track website traffic generated by a specific marketing campaign, and the source of that traffic (social media, pay=per-click ads, email, etc.). It also can include the following subcomponents: CAMPAIGN: Identifies your campaign and organizes your analytics by placing different content in separate areas. MEDIUM: Identifies the medium that you’re featuring the link on, for example email, PPC ads, etc. SOURCE: Identifies the specific source where the link is featured; Twitter, Facebook, a third-party email newsletter, etc. There are five UTM parameters, the first three of which are demonstrated in the infographic above. You can set all five if you wish — just make sure you have the content set with an original URL on your site BEFORE you go about making a UTM code. Otherwise, you don’t have anything to build off of and track. You don’t need to be a coding wizard to create these helpful URLs. Both Google and HubSpot have you covered. The intuitive Google UTM generator syncs nicely with Google Analytics. Just enter the needed information, and Google spits out a ready-to-use URL. If you’re already using HubSpot, definitely take advantage of the UTM creation tool in HubSpot. The analytics you’re already familiar with are used, and seamlessly pull into your Marketing reports dashboard. Set up and measure UTM parameters for campaigns in HubSpot as follows: In your Marketing Hub dashboard, select “Reports” on the top navigation bar then select “Analytics Tools” in the dropdown. Look to the bottom right hand corner and click “Tracking URL Builder.” Click “Create Tracking URL” in the top right hand corner. Complete each attribute of your UTM code and click “Create.” Many CMS tools, such as HubSpot, allow you to track specific URL codes, but each CRM tool has its own set of rules. If you’re not a HubSpot user, the most universal tool for doing this is Google Analytics. UTM sources are tracked in many places in Google Analytics. One of the most common places to view them is under Acquisition, so you can see where your traffic is coming from. Here’s a quick how-to on finding that UTM code information in Google Analytics: Log into your Google Analytics account that’s associated with your website. Click “Acquisition” in the left hand side menu. Click “Campaigns” and then “All Campaigns.” This will track any URL with a UTM campaign setup. Similarly, instead of navigating to “Campaigns,” under “Acquisition” you can navigate to “All Traffic” and then “Referrals.” This will track referrals from other sites, specifically so you can see your best backlink sources, for example. Google automatically tracks UTM codes associated with your website, so there’s nothing you’re required to set up — the Google Analytics tracking code on your website is doing all the work behind the scenes. Social media Email campaigns PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns Third-party sites (linking to your site). Anytime you want to know exactly where traffic is coming from. Initially, start tracking only a few URLs to see how the process works, then add more as you become more comfortable. Remember, if you’re using a CMS tool like HubSpot, a certain level of UTM source tracking is available out of the box (organic, email, referral, social, direct, etc.). If you want to dig deeper than those broad traffic sources, you’d need to then create specific tracking URLs. UTM codes can really help prove to upper management that all your LinkedIn posts and articles published on your blog pay off by attracting qualified traffic. This is the best way to track specific promotions on your website because you have total transparency into what works and what doesn’t in your content conversion rate, social network impact, and other marketing campaign strategies. Determine where and how UTM code could help your website with a quick and easy report card generated using our Free Website Grader.