It is interesting to know how Google Analytics became what we know and love today. Even though Google analytics existed way back, way before Universal Analytics ( GA3), it was not well adopted and very helpful.
Google then bought the company Urchin in 2005 because of its ability to use parameters called UTM in URLs to understand where your traffic is coming from.
UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module.
UTM parameters are codes or “tags” added to a URL’s end. They are used to track the performance of marketing campaigns and to help understand where website visitors are coming from.
With this acquisition, the popular report in Google Analytics that we love today ie the “source/medium” report, became more valuable because of UTM parameters.
This made Google Analytics more valuable and gained widespread adoption and popularity.
Check out the next video in the series to learn more about UTM parameters
