UTM Link Builder & Campaign Manager

What are UTM parameters?

UTM parameters are tags you add to the end of a link, such as ?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid_social&utm_campaign=spring_sale. When someone clicks the link, Google Analytics 4 (and most other analytics tools) reads the tags and credits the visit to that source, channel and campaign. Without them, traffic from emails, PDFs, QR codes and many apps shows up as "direct" and you cannot tell which promotion worked.

The five tags

• utm_source – who sends the traffic: facebook, newsletter, partner_blog.
• utm_medium – the type of channel: email, social, paid_social, cpc, referral. GA4 uses this value to sort visits into its default channel groups, so stick to common names: "Paid Social" needs a paid medium such as paid_social or cpc, and "Email" needs email.
• utm_campaign – your campaign name: black_friday_2026.
• utm_term – optional, the paid keyword or audience.
• utm_content – optional, tells two links in the same campaign apart: header_banner vs footer_link, or ad version A vs B.

Rules that keep your reports clean

• Use lowercase. UTM values are case-sensitive: Facebook and facebook become two sources in your reports.
• Never put UTM tags on internal links (links from one page of your site to another). The tags on the internal link replace the visitor's real source, so later conversions are credited to your own website instead of the ad or email that brought them.
• Don't tag Google Ads links by hand if auto-tagging is on; the gclid parameter already sends richer data.
• Write your naming rules down and share them with everyone who creates links, so the same campaign is not spelled three different ways. The CSV export above is a simple way to keep a record.
• UTM tags do not hurt SEO, but they make links long. For social posts and print, shorten the final link or put it in a QR code with the QR Code Generator.

Where to see the results

In GA4, open Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition and change the first column to Session source / medium or Session campaign. New data usually appears within 24–48 hours.