UTM Link Builder

What are UTM parameters?

UTM parameters (they come from the Urchin Tracking Module, the analytics tool that introduced them) are small pieces of text you add to the end of a link so Google Analytics can tell exactly where a visitor came from and which campaign was responsible. Without them, clicks from ads and shares all blur together in your reports.

There are five UTM parameters:

• utm_source — where the traffic comes from: facebook, instagram, google, whatsapp, newsletter.
• utm_medium — the type of traffic: cpc, paid_social, social, email, qr.
• utm_campaign — the name of the campaign or launch.
• utm_term — the paid keyword that triggered the ad (mostly for search ads).
• utm_content — which specific ad or link within the campaign carried the click.

For example, a link like extradigitz.com/offer?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid_social&utm_campaign=diwali_sale tells Analytics to show that visit as source facebook, medium paid_social, campaign diwali_sale.

UTM naming best practices

Analytics matches names exactly, so "facebook", "Facebook" and "FaceBook" become three different sources in your reports. Once you start tagging links, decide on one spelling for each value and never change it.

Keep everything lowercase and use underscores or dashes instead of spaces — paid_social instead of "paid social". Use the same value for the same thing everywhere: WhatsApp should not sometimes be whatsapp and sometimes whats_app. Keep campaign names short but specific to each launch, and it helps enormously to keep a shared naming sheet that everyone on the team refers to before creating a link.

Where to see UTM data in Google Analytics

When someone lands on a UTM link, Google Analytics automatically records the source, medium and campaign with that session. There is nothing to set up on the analytics side — the parameters just arrive and get grouped.

You will find the results in the acquisition reports, where Analytics breaks traffic down by session source/medium and by campaign. That is where the work you put into consistent naming pays off: misspell one value and a whole campaign quietly splits into two rows.

Common UTM mistakes

• Mixing capitalisation or spellings so the same channel appears twice — agree on one spelling and reuse it on every link.
• Tagging internal links within your own site, so your own navigation gets counted as a paid or social visit.
• Reusing the same campaign name for different launches over time, which merges separate campaigns into one confusing row.
• Editing to change a link after it has already been shared, splitting your data between two versions of the same campaign.
• Skipping utm_medium, which leaves you unable to tell an email click from a paid click even though the source is the same.