Introduced by Google Analytics' predecessor, Urchin, these parameters allow marketers to attribute website sessions to specific campaigns, helping to understand which marketing efforts are driving the most valuable traffic.
| Parameter | Purpose | Example |
|---|---|---|
| utm_source * | Identifies the specific source of your traffic, such as a search engine, social media platform, or email newsletter. | utm_source=google |
| utm_medium * | Identifies the marketing medium or channel, such as organic search, paid social, or email. | utm_medium=cpc |
| utm_campaign * | Identifies the specific campaign or promotion the link is associated with. | utm_campaign=summer_sale |
| utm_term | Identifies the paid keywords that you're targeting with your ad. This is an optional parameter, primarily used for paid search campaigns. | utm_term=running+shoes |
| utm_content | Used to differentiate similar content, or links within the same ad or promotion. This is useful for A/B testing and can help you determine which call-to-action is more effective. This is an optional parameter. | utm_content=cta_button |
Granular Tracking: Go beyond just knowing that traffic came from "Facebook." With UTMs, you can see if it came from a specific post, ad, or even a link in your profile. This allows for precise measurement of your marketing efforts.
Improved A/B Testing: By using the `utm_content` tag, you can test different versions of ad copy, images, or calls-to-action to see what resonates best with your audience.
Better ROI Analysis: UTMs provide the data needed to understand which campaigns are driving not just traffic, but also conversions and revenue. This allows you to allocate your marketing budget more effectively.
Informed Decision Making: The insights gained from UTM tracking empower you to make data-driven decisions about your marketing strategy, leading to more successful campaigns.
- Be Consistent: Establish a clear and consistent naming convention for your UTM parameters. For example, always use "facebook" instead of "Facebook" or "fb." Inconsistent naming will fragment your data in Google Analytics.
- Use Lowercase: Google Analytics is case-sensitive, so using lowercase for all your UTM parameters is a best practice to avoid data discrepancies.
- Use Underscores or Dashes, Not Spaces: Spaces in URLs can cause errors. Use underscores or dashes to separate words within your UTM parameters (e.g., `summer_sale` or `summer-sale`).
- Don't Use UTMs for Internal Links: UTMs are for tracking external traffic sources. Using them on internal links can overwrite the original source data and skew your analytics.
- Keep a Record: Use a spreadsheet to keep a record of all the UTM links you create. This will help you and your team stay consistent and avoid duplication.
- Shorten Your Links: For use on social media or in other places where a long URL might be cumbersome, consider using a link shortener after you've created your UTM-tagged URL.
- Mixing Up Source and Medium: Remember, the source is *where* the traffic came from (e.g., `facebook`), and the medium is *how* it got to you (e.g., `social`).
- Using Vague Names: Be descriptive with your campaign names. `summer_sale_2024` is much more informative than `campaign_1`.
- Inconsistent Capitalization and Spelling: As mentioned, these inconsistencies can lead to fragmented data and make it difficult to get a clear picture of your campaign's performance.
1. Facebook Ad for a Summer Sale
You're running a paid ad campaign on Facebook to promote your summer clothing line.
2. Link in a Monthly Email Newsletter
You want to track clicks on a link to your new blog post from your monthly newsletter.
3. Google Ads Campaign
You are running a search campaign for a specific keyword.
Once you've implemented UTM tracking, you can find the data in your Google Analytics account. In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), you can find this data in the Acquisition reports.
- Navigate to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition.
- In the report table, you can see the Session campaign dimension, which corresponds to your `utm_campaign` parameter.
- To see other UTM dimensions, you can add a secondary dimension to the report by clicking the + icon. You can then search for and add Session source and Session medium.
By analyzing this data, you can see which of your campaigns are most effective at driving traffic and conversions, allowing you to optimize your marketing efforts for better results.