URL parameters have become a standard way to measure online campaigns. From emails, to landing pages, to ads, pretty much any kind of marketing campaign that has a link associated with it. While there are other email metrics, if your goal is to get someone to perform an action from your email, the best way to track that it’s done is by adding tracking parameters to the links they click on.

"While there are other email metrics, if your goal is to get someone to perform an action from your email, the best way to track that it’s done is by adding tracking parameters to the links they click on."

How parameters work

URL parameters are variables that are added to any URL within an email for the purpose of tagging additional information to the URL. That information is then picked up by your website's analytics.

A link parameter can be as simple as using ref with a value of your email campaign to simply track where the link was clicked from:

https://blocksedit.com/?ref=newsletter-july-2021

Or, it can get more complex, with additional parameters, usually following the UTM format:

https://blocksedit.com/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter-july-2021&utm_content=feature-banner

• utm_medium - marketing channel; sometimes used as utm_source
• utm_campaign - name of campaign
• utm_content - specific content piece for the link

Putting email metrics in perspective

Because of how different email clients work, the results for certain email metrics, such as email opens, can be, at best, inaccurate, and, at worst, unnecessary. But URL parameters are part of the links you set and are not affected whatsoever by email clients. They’re simple to setup, flexible to work with, and allow for full control over your tracking efforts.

"URL parameters are part of the links you set and are not affected whatsoever by email clients. They’re simple to setup, flexible to work with, and allow for full control over your tracking efforts."

Manually building tracking for URLs can get cumbersome. The Blocks Edit link tracking feature allows adding parameters you define for your URLs automatically, and generates links for you. Sign up to start using it for free.