Valve is adding Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) analytics to Steamworks to help developers better measure the effectiveness of marketing efforts that direct players towards their games.
The new service will let creators see which marketing campaigns are resulting in purchases, wishlists, and product activations while still maintaining player privacy, as outlined in the announcement here.
Valve said UTM analytics will initially be available in open beta form, and will be made accessible to all Steamworks developers while the company continues to expand on the amount of traffic it can measure.
“UTM is an internet standard for measuring whether specific links in your marketing campaigns are being clicked on by customers,” explained Valve. “A link using UTM has specifically named UTM parameters following the link’s destination address. These UTM parameters reveal which link was clicked when a customer visits the destination address.”
Elaborating on how that’ll be useful for developers, Valve suggested it would let devs see which of their Steam store page links are actually being used by customers, providing them with information on how links spread across multiple locations — such as in emails, newsletters, and cost per click campaigns — are faring.
You can learn more about how UTM analytics will work on Steamworks by clicking here.