Various of the disclosed embodiments concern systems and methods for tracking virality and social lift of media content. In some embodiments, an analytics engine creates and tags URLs to media content using generation codes, time codes, or both. The codes and their respective values allow the analytics engine to determine whether trends or patterns exist in how media content is viewed and shared. The generation codes and time codes can be used instead of, or in addition to, conventional UTM codes. The generation code, time code, or both, can be used to determine which segments (e.g., generations, time periods) of viewers generate a profit, subsequent viewers, etc. For example, the analytics engine can determine when an advertising campaign for a piece of media content should be terminated, rather than simply indicating whether the campaign should continue.