Google UTM Parameters
In Google Analytics (GA4), UTM parameters, also known as UTM codes or UTM tags, are a technique for identifying the origin and context of traffic.
In some situations, Google Analytics is unable to correctly identify the source of a visit, marking it as direct. This can happen for a variety of reasons, such as a link being opened from a mobile application, or the presence of a browser extension that simply blocks the retrieval of this information. In such cases, the source of the visit is lost.
Furthermore, getting only the referring domain where the traffic comes from might not be enough. When a visitor clicks on a link from a social media or a search engine, you may want to distinguish traffic coming from paid advertising from traffic coming simply from organic content. And you may also want to identify more precisely the content that led a visitor to visit your website, such as a certain post on social media or a specific version of a newsletter.
This is where UTM codes come in handy.
Building UTM links
By adding additional parameters, known as UTM params, to the URL of links pointing to your website, you can manually define the source of traffic and provide more precise information about it.
In concrete terms, this takes the following form.
Here’s a URL for a page without UTM codes:
https://example.com/my-pageHere’s the same URL with UTM codes:
https://example.com/my-page?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=my_first_ad_campaignWith the second URL, when someone clicks on the link and opens the page, Google Analytics will automatically detect the presence of these extra parameters and use them to determine the source of the traffic. These parameters will serve as reference values.
In this case, the traffic will be interpreted as coming from a LinkedIn ad as part of a campaign called my_first_campaign_ad. The source displayed in the dashboards will be LinkedIn, and if you display the list of mediums or campaigns, you’ll get the values cpc and my_first_campaign_ad.
There are five UTM parameters you can use, standardized as follows:
| Name | Parameter | Mandatory | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UTM source | utm_source | yes | Identifies the website or platform that sent the traffic. | reddit, google |
| UTM medium | utm_medium | yes | Describes the general category of the traffic, such as organic, paid, or referral. | referral, cpc, email |
| UTM campaign | utm_campaign | yes | Names the specific marketing campaign. | google_ads_campaign_2 |
| UTM term | utm_term | no | Tracks specific keywords or phrases used in paid ads. | running+shoes |
| UTM content | utm_content | no | Distinguishes between different versions of an ad, email, or link in the same campaign. | blue_banner_ad |
In practice, you won’t be editing your URL by hand to add UTM parameters. Instead, you’d rather use a campaign URL builder to generate your links. The advantage of such builders is that they avoid encoding problems or typos in names. In the case of Linito’s UTM generator, it also helps you apply best practices and advises you on the values to use depending on the origin you wish to identify.
Best practices
In terms of best practices, here are the most commonly accepted:
- Always use lower case.
- Do not add spaces.
- Use descriptive names.
- Be consistent in naming, especially sources and mediums, across all links.
- Do not add UTMs to internal links.