How to Use UTM Codes on TpT

Spending time, energy, and sometimes even money to market your TpT store and resources can be a scary thing, especially if you have no idea if your efforts are even working! The last thing we want to do is waste our time on things that aren’t giving us a good ROI (return on investment).

To be honest, you could never do a bit of your own marketing and still make some sales, because people are already coming to TpT to search for resources. In fact, if you check out your traffic tab in your seller dashboard, you will find that a large percentage of your overall sales come from TpT itself. This year, only 14% of my sales have come from traffic that originated outside of TpT.

But being strategic in your marketing efforts and tracking what is and isn’t working can really boost the traffic coming to your store and get you those sales and ratings that will in turn help you show up higher in TpT search results.

TpT gives us the ability to create UTM codes so we can see exactly where our traffic is coming from! In your traffic tab, you probably can see some traffic that comes from your blog, Pinterest, Facebook, or Instagram, and sometimes even from other people’s sources. But if you are posting a lot of links in a lot of places, you never really know which posts are working the best. Using a UTM code can help you see which exact posts are actually bringing in the most traffic.

Start by going to the traffic tab in your seller dashboard. Scroll down and you will see the “Premium Tracking Tool.” Click on the URL builder button to get started!

First, choose the link you are going to share. This can be a general link to your store or a specific product. Next, type what the source is going to be, meaning where you are putting the link. I recommend having something specific to you and your store so that it is super easy to see the results in your traffic tab. For example, my store name is Mrs. Thompson’s Treasures, so these are my source names: MTT Facebook, MTT Pinterest, MTT Instagram, MTT Newsletter, etc. Now when I want to see results in the traffic tab, I can search by MTT and all of my sources come up and are easy to see. 

Finally, choose a campaign name. For me, this is usually just the name of the resource. Sometimes, if I’m sharing a general link to my store for a sale, for example, I might put in the name of the sale such as Cyber Sale 2020. The main thing is to use whatever will help you remember what the link is to and where you put it.

Now you can click on “Generate URL”, copy the link, and use it in your post, pin, or email!

Finally, it’s time to be patient for a few days and then check your results! As you start to check your traffic tab, note that it is not updated in real-time. It updates only once a day. Also, remember that even if you don't see a ton of traffic right away, some can still show up later, especially from places like Pinterest. 

Here are a few more ideas for using UTM codes:

• In your free resources, use a UTM code when you link to other paid resources. (Remember, like I shared in this post, your own resources are your best free marketing tool.) This way you can see how much traffic is coming from your free downloads back to your store to purchase!
• Try doing some A/B testing to really figure out what kind of marketing is working for you so you can do more like it! For example, create a couple of different pins on Pinterest for the same product, but experiment with different photos and descriptions, using a unique UTM code for each pin. Your results can tell you which one generates more traffic.
• If you ever want to put a little money into boosting a post on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest, doing this little bit of testing and research can be very beneficial in helping you determine the kinds of marketing that is working for you and would do well if you boosted it through paid marketing.
• Adding the UTM code makes links to your products even longer, so if you are sharing the link visibly, such as through Facebook, you can always use a link shortener (such as Bit.ly) so that it isn't so long and obnoxious. 😆

I hope this information helps you feel a bit more comfortable using UTM codes! While it is an extra step to take, it can really be worth it. Try it out, give it some time, and see what you learn!