What UTM parameters do
UTM parameters are tags added to the end of a link, such as ?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=autumn-tax-update. When someone clicks the link, analytics tools including Google Analytics 4, Matomo and Plausible read the tags and attribute the visit to that source and campaign. Without them, visits from email clients, PDFs and many apps show up as direct traffic, and you cannot tell what worked.
- utm_source — where the link is placed: newsletter, linkedin, chamber-directory.
- utm_medium — the type of channel: email, social, referral, cpc.
- utm_campaign — the campaign or initiative: autumn-tax-update, webinar-gdpr-2026.
- utm_term and utm_content — optional: a paid keyword, or which link or variant was clicked.
- utm_id — optional campaign id, used by GA4 for importing cost data.
Naming conventions that keep reports clean
Analytics treats Email, email and e-mail as three different mediums, so agree on lowercase values and a short list of allowed mediums. GA4 groups traffic into default channels partly by utm_medium, so use the standard values — email, social, cpc, referral, display, affiliate — where they fit. Use hyphens instead of spaces and keep campaign names descriptive enough to make sense a year later.
The builder lowercases and cleans values as you type, keeps any existing query string on your URL intact and shows the final link ready to copy.
Where to use them — and where not
Tag links you place outside your website: newsletters, email signatures, social posts, directory and association profiles, printed QR codes, partner websites and paid campaigns. Do not tag links between pages of your own site: UTMs on internal links start a new session with the wrong source and corrupt your data.
Google Ads adds its own click identifier automatically when auto-tagging is on, so you rarely need UTMs there. Everything in the builder runs in your browser and nothing is sent to us.
Keep a campaign log
Record every tagged link in a simple spreadsheet: the date, where it was used, and the source, medium and campaign values. It keeps naming consistent across colleagues, makes reports easy to interpret months later and stops two people from creating competing names for the same campaign. The builder's output can be pasted straight into such a log. Share it with everyone who publishes links.