UTM parameters versus tracking links

The short answer

Use UTM parameters when the destination is a web page. Use a tracking link when the destination is the app or the app store. When an ad leads to a web page that then leads to the app, the ad's URL carries UTM parameters and the page's store button is a tracking link.

How they differ

Both are defined on their own pages: UTM parameters in this site's glossary, and the tracking link in how a tracking link carries a click to an install.

Why UTM parameters stop at the store

A UTM parameter only means something to the page that loads it. When a visitor taps through to the app store, the store opens its own listing and your page's URL is left behind. After the install, the app starts with no memory of that URL. Nothing is broken. It is simply how the handoff works, and it is one reason attribution platforms exist.

A tracking link avoids the problem by recording the click on a server before the store opens. The app's SDK later asks that server about the click. On Android there is also a store mechanism that hands a referrer string to the app, covered in the Google Play Install Referrer.

Using both on one journey

For an ad that leads to a landing page and then to the app, set up the chain like this.

1. Put UTM parameters on the ad's destination URL so the landing page knows the source, medium and campaign.
2. Make the page's store button a tracking link.
3. Copy the UTM values into the tracking link's own campaign fields when the page loads. A web SDK from your attribution platform usually does this for you. Airbridge lists a related feature, automated UTM tracking, which it describes as collecting UTM parameters for web and web-to-app attribution analysis.^[1]
4. Check one test install and confirm the campaign name in the app report equals the campaign name in the ad's URL.

Without step three you get a common and confusing result: web analytics shows ten campaigns, and the app report shows one source called "landing page".

Three mistakes to avoid

• Renaming between systems. If the ad platform says "spring_sale" and the link says "Spring Sale", the reports will not join. Pick one spelling.
• UTM parameters on links inside your own site. In many web analytics tools they overwrite the original source of the visit. Keep them for links that come from outside.
• A tracking link where a web URL would do. If the destination is a blog post that nobody will install from, plain UTM parameters are enough.

What to do next

List every link you publish this month and mark its final destination as web or app. The app ones need tracking links. Then follow measuring a landing page that sends visitors to the app store to line the two reports up.