How do you track marketing campaigns with UTM parameters?

To track a campaign with UTM parameters, add utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign to every external link that points to your site, using values from one written naming convention. When someone clicks, Google Analytics and most other tools read those tags and attribute the visit to that source, medium and campaign, so you can compare channels by sessions, conversions and revenue.

The mechanics take five minutes to learn. What breaks UTM tracking in practice is inconsistency: one person writes Facebook, another facebook, a third fb, and the same campaign ends up split across three rows that nobody adds up. Most of this guide is about preventing that.

What are UTM parameters?

UTM parameters are name and value pairs added to a URL after a question mark, separated by ampersands. They do not change the page someone sees. They only pass information to your analytics tool about where the click came from. The name comes from Urchin Tracking Module, the analytics product Google acquired and turned into Google Analytics.

Google's own example for a summer email campaign is:

https://www.example.com/?utm_source=summer-mailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=summer-sale

Without tags, that visit would usually appear as direct traffic or as a referral from an email provider, with no link to the campaign. With them, it is reported under the email medium and the summer-sale campaign.

Which UTM parameters should you use?

Google Analytics supports more parameters than most teams need. These are the ones that matter, with Google's definitions:

Parameter	Google's definition	Example values	Use it
utm_source	Referrer	google, newsletter, linkedin, partner-acme	Always
utm_medium	Marketing medium	cpc, email, paid-social, organic-social, referral	Always
utm_campaign	Product, slogan or promo code	2026-11_black-friday, product-launch-q1	Always
utm_content	Used to differentiate creatives	hero-button, footer-link, video-15s	When you have more than one link or creative
utm_term	Paid keyword	crm-for-agencies	Paid search, if not auto-tagged
utm_id	Campaign ID	cmp-0142	If you import cost or campaign data
utm_source_platform	The platform directing the traffic	search-ads-360	Rarely, for buying platforms

Google also lists utm_creative_format and utm_marketing_tactic, but notes they are not currently reported in Google Analytics properties. For Google Ads, auto-tagging passes campaign and keyword data automatically, so most advertisers do not add manual UTMs to Google Ads links.

What naming convention should you use?

A naming convention is a short written rulebook for allowed values. Google's own best practice table recommends one unique source per platform, one unique medium per channel, campaign names that match the exact campaign name in the ad platform and a strict, case-sensitive convention across all fields. A practical version:

1. Lowercase only. Google says values are case sensitive, so SpringSale and Spring_Sale become different rows.
2. Hyphens between words, no spaces. Spaces turn into %20 or plus signs and are easy to mistype.
3. A fixed list of mediums. Pick a small set, such as cpc, paid-social, organic-social, email, referral, affiliate and display, and do not invent new ones per campaign.
4. A fixed list of sources. One value per platform: google, bing, linkedin, facebook, instagram, newsletter. Google suggests distinct values for sub-platforms, such as separate sources for Facebook and Instagram.
5. A campaign format with a date. For example yyyy-mm_campaign-name, such as 2026-11_black-friday. Dates make campaigns sort correctly and stop names being reused by accident.
6. Content describes the creative or position, such as hero-button, footer-link or carousel-card-2, and stays the same across ads that use the same creative.

One detail deserves attention. In GA4, the medium and source values feed the default channel groups. Google's channel definitions use patterns, for example matching medium values such as cpc or ppc to paid channels and email to the Email channel. If you invent a medium like newsletter-blast, the traffic may land in Unassigned, which Google describes as the value used when no other channel rule matches. Offline sources such as QR codes on print have no default channel at all, so either accept Unassigned for them or create a custom channel group. Check your values against Google's default channel group definitions before you lock the list.

What do tagged links look like for each channel?

Channel	Tagged URL
Newsletter	example.com/pricing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2026-11_black-friday&utm_content=hero-button
LinkedIn post	example.com/guide?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=organic-social&utm_campaign=2026-11_geo-guide
LinkedIn ad	example.com/demo?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=2026-q4_demo-push&utm_content=carousel-a
Partner blog	example.com/?utm_source=partner-acme&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=2026-11_co-webinar
Printed QR code	example.com/offer?utm_source=trade-show-flyer&utm_medium=qr&utm_campaign=2026-11_expo
Microsoft Ads (manual tagging)	example.com/crm?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=crm-agencies&utm_term=crm-for-agencies

Illustrative examples. Replace values with the ones in your own convention.

Parameters can appear in any order. If the URL already contains a question mark, for example a product page with ?color=blue, add your tags with an ampersand instead of a second question mark.

Automated emails need the same discipline. Tag every link in an email welcome sequence with the email number in utm_content, so you can see which message drives sign-ups. For Google Ads, auto-tagging handles attribution inside Google, and the new Customer Journey Insights card adds a view of how campaigns move people toward conversion.

How do you build and manage tagged links?

For a handful of links, Google's Campaign URL Builder is enough: you enter the page and values and it assembles the URL. Google recommends the separate Play Campaign URL Builder for Android app ads. Many ad platforms also support dynamic parameters that fill in values automatically, such as the campaign name, which Google recommends to reduce manual errors.

For a team, the tool matters less than the log. Keep one shared sheet with columns for date, owner, channel, destination page, source, medium, campaign, content and the final URL. Use dropdowns for source and medium so nobody can type a new value, and build the final URL with a formula. That single sheet does more for data quality than any builder. Before a campaign goes live, click every link, confirm the page loads and check that the visit appears in real time reports with the expected values.

Where do UTM results appear in Google Analytics?

In GA4, open Reports, then Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition. Google says you can view Session source/medium, Session medium, Session source and Session campaign there. Add Session manual ad content to compare utm_content values. For conversions, add your key events as columns, or use an exploration to compare campaigns by revenue.

Note that Google strips UTM values from the Landing page + query string and Page path + query string dimensions; they appear in Page location instead. If a report seems to be missing your tags, check that dimension.

Which mistakes break UTM reports?

Mistake	What happens	Fix
Mixed capitalization	Facebook and facebook appear as two sources	Lowercase only; clean old values in reports with a custom channel group
Missing source, medium or campaign	(not set) rows and traffic in Unassigned	Always set all three; Google strongly recommends setting all relevant parameters
Tagging internal links	A visitor from Google who clicks your own tagged banner is re-attributed to your campaign	Never add UTMs to links between pages on your site; use events instead
Inventing new mediums	Traffic misses the right default channel	Use a fixed medium list that matches Google's channel definitions
Reusing campaign names	Two campaigns months apart merge into one row	Add a date prefix to every campaign
Redirects that drop parameters	Tags vanish before the page loads and the visit looks direct	Test tagged links through any shortener or redirect
Manual UTMs on auto-tagged Google Ads	Conflicting data between Ads and Analytics	Rely on auto-tagging for Google Ads unless you have a clear reason
Personal data in values	Emails or names stored in analytics	Never put personal information in a URL parameter

The internal link mistake is the most damaging because it is invisible: reports look fine, but your best organic and paid visits are quietly credited to a homepage banner. If your numbers suddenly shift between channels after a site change, check for it alongside the other causes in our guide to why website traffic drops.

Make an audit part of the routine. Once a month, export Session source/medium for the past 30 days and sort by sessions. Anything that does not appear in your naming convention, every (not set) row and any traffic in Unassigned is a link to trace and fix at the source. Ten minutes a month keeps a year of reports usable.

How do UTMs fit with AI search traffic?

You cannot tag the links an AI assistant chooses to cite, because you do not write them. Visits from ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini usually arrive as referrals, and what you see depends on what the assistant passes along. That makes clean tagging of everything you do control more important, not less: when your own campaigns are tagged consistently, untagged referral traffic from AI assistants is easier to separate and size.

For ChatGPT specifically, OpenAI's new Business Hub reports recorded website clicks on its side, which you can compare with the referral sessions your analytics records; our guide to ChatGPT Business Hub explains what that data does and does not show. Once campaign data is reliable, it also feeds better budget decisions, which our guide to calculating CAC and LTV builds on. For help connecting analytics, search and AI visibility, see our expertise, Blog Ranking service and case studies.

Sources

• Google Analytics Help, "URL builders: Collect campaign data with custom URLs", accessed November 11, 2026. support.google.com
• Google Analytics, Campaign URL Builder, accessed November 11, 2026. ga-dev-tools.web.app
• Google Analytics Help, "[GA4] Default channel group", accessed November 11, 2026. support.google.com

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