2 Reasons to Not Use Google’s New Campaign URL Builder
Alternative to Google’s Campaign URL Builder
If you’re not an advanced marketing nerd like me…
I’m talking about the Google URL builder, which marketers like me used to visit 10 times a day as we created and shared links online.
We used to use this tool because we needed a spot to go to easily append those annoying UTM parameters onto the end of our links for a granular campaign and source tracking.
Here’s what the old version used to look like:
With our website URL, Source, Medium, and Campaign. Then we would create a custom link with built-in tracking, and share it with social media, or brand and shrink it inside Rebrandly.
Here’s the newer version, now called “Campaign URL Builder” which comes with real-time link updating (an unnecessary feature) and built-in goo.gl URL shortening:
I wouldn’t say there is much of an upside advantage to the new builder except for the fact that you can instantly create a goo.gl link (but that presents its own problems that I will get to in a second).
But what Google is doing with this move is putting their URL builder closer to some of their other features and tools they have in their GA Dev Tool Kit for advanced marketers and developers.
While this isn’t a major change, it may indicate that they will be overhauling some of these antiquated tools in the future.
What is a URL Builder?
A URL builder, or UTM builder, is any tool or code snippet that helps append parameters to the end of a URL in order to prepare that URL for sharing with a certain channel or audience type.
When do I Need to Use a URL Builder?
For example, if you’ve got a new blog post and want to share it to Twitter under your own account, you might want to embed certain parameters into the link. These parameters will indicate to Google Analytics where the traffic is coming from.
Example:
Original URL:
blog.rebrandly.com/utm-parameters-made-simple-guide-for-marketers/
Now in order to track, you’d set your campaign perhaps to “social-media” your source to “twitter” and your medium to “myaccount-post.”
Tracked URL for sharing on my personal Twitter:
https://blog.rebrandly.com/utm-parameters-made-simple-guide-for-marketers/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=derric-post&utm_campaign=social-media
This will now show up in Google Analytics under Campaigns “social-media” and Source/Medium “twitter / derric-post”:
This can help differentiate which accounts you shared to, how much traffic each account drove, and what audiences are engaging and converting from what content.
This is especially helpful for separating out the traffic you drive from social media, and the traffic other people drive, which can be crucial for reporting and analytics of your digital marketing efforts later, and help influence where you spend your next marketing dollar.
Again, this doesn’t matter if you’re only getting 10 clicks a post, but if you’ve got a medium to large following, and a medium to large digital property, it really is a best practice.
Rebrandly’s Improved URL Builder
Here’s the thing about Google’s URL builder… It sucks.
It requires you to input multiple fields over and over again (if you’re doing the same task day in day out) and doesn’t let you choose the short URL you are creating.
As a URL shortener ourselves, this goes against pretty much all the principles we stand for, which is why we’ve created a tool that is just plain better.
Objectively better, I’m not just saying it. Take a look:
It allows you to:
- Save and load custom presets, so creating custom links for your favorite social platforms takes two clicks instead of two minutes.
- Then you can create a short link with a custom domain and custom URL slug within seconds, and be sharing to your social media channels (or other channels) in a few seconds instead of a few minutes.
This is no big deal if you’re only creating one or two short links a day, but for those of us managing large media properties, or multiple clients’ social media accounts, this will save you hours a week.
So if you think this will save you some time, I’d suggest signing up for a Rebrandly account and tinkering away with our URL shortener with built-in URL builder.
If you’ve already got an account, then log into your dashboard and start tinkering.
So… What do you think?
Are you still using Google’s Campaign URL Builder for creating and sharing links online?
Is there something else you’re currently using?
We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Originally Posted: 5th October 2016
Last Updated: 31st August 2017
