UTM Parameters for Campaign Tracking

Symptom	First action	Planning use
Campaign visits show up as direct traffic	Add UTM tags to the link that was shared	An untagged visit is likely to be classed as direct in GA4, so tag every link before it goes live.
The same source appears twice in reports	Switch every value to lowercase	Values are case-sensitive, so one capital letter splits a source into two rows.
Links break or campaign names look garbled	Replace spaces with hyphens	Settle the separator once in your naming convention.
Several links in one email are indistinguishable	Give each link its own utm_content value	Decide the content labels while the email is still being drafted.
Email sessions look inflated	Check whether an auto-UTM feature and a manual tag are both active	Choose one tracking method per platform and document it.
Internal navigation is overwriting campaign data	Remove parameters from internal links	Reserve tags for links that bring people in from outside your site.

Symptoms and fixes here follow tagging guidance from Plum Good Marketing and CPV Lab.

This guide shows how to use UTM parameters: tag every campaign link with source, medium and campaign values in lowercase, build it in a URL builder, and check it before launch.

Tagging is the groundwork for the online advertising metrics you report on later. The work happens before launch, so this walkthrough stops at the tagged link and leaves interpretation of results aside.

The five parameters and what each one does

There are five UTM parameters. Three are required and two are optional but recommended. The three core ones answer different questions, so each needs its own value rather than a repeat of the same word.

• utm_source names where the traffic comes from: the platform or publisher sending the visitor, such as Instagram.
• utm_medium names the marketing channel or type of traffic. Typical values are social, email and cpc.
• utm_campaign names the specific campaign, for example spring-sale-2026. This is the value that lets you group and compare efforts.
• utm_content separates multiple links within the same campaign, for example hero-image and bottom-cta.
• utm_term was originally designed for paid search keywords and is less commonly used now.

A quick way to remember the difference between source, medium and campaign: source is who sent the visitor, medium is how they were sent, and campaign is why. Instagram (source) through social (medium) for spring-sale-2026 (campaign) reads clearly in a report. Using “social” as both source and medium does not.

Building a tagged link step by step

The Google Campaign URL Builder is the simplest route, because it fills in the parameters and outputs the full tagged URL for you. Plum Good Marketing’s walkthrough describes the form: a destination field, then source, medium and campaign, with content and term optional.

1. Choose the landing page. Enter a specific landing page as the destination, not the homepage, so the click lands where the campaign points.
2. Enter the source. Use the platform or publisher name in lowercase.
3. Enter the medium. Use the channel type from your agreed list, such as social, email or cpc.
4. Enter the campaign. Use the campaign name from your naming convention, with hyphens instead of spaces.
5. Add content only when links compete. If a newsletter or page carries several links to the same landing page, give each a distinct utm_content value.
6. Copy the generated URL. Paste it into the ad, post or email, then open it in a browser to confirm the page loads.

A naming convention template

A convention is a short, written list of allowed values that everyone tagging links agrees to follow. It matters because UTM values are case-sensitive. According to Plum Good Marketing, Instagram and instagram are two different sources in GA4.

Rules to write down

• Lowercase everything. This removes the most common cause of split rows.
• Hyphens, not spaces. Write spring-sale, not spring sale, because spaces break URLs.
• Dates when relevant. A campaign name such as may-newsletter-2026 keeps recurring sends apart.
• A fixed medium list. Keep a short approved set of mediums, with examples like social, email and cpc, and add to it deliberately rather than ad hoc.
• One owner for the list. Keep the convention in a shared spreadsheet with columns for source, medium, campaign, content and term, so each new link is checked against existing values before it is created.

Tagging by channel

Each channel has its own constraints, and tagging should follow them rather than copying one URL everywhere.

Email newsletters

When a newsletter contains several links to the same landing page, CPV Lab suggests giving each link a unique UTM content value. That is the practical use of utm_content: it shows which placement earned the click, not just which email.

Social posts

Instagram does not allow clickable links in posts, only in the bio and Stories, according to Plum Good Marketing. Tag the bio and Story links, and expect a post that merely mentions a URL to produce untagged visits.

How tagged links appear in Google Analytics

Google Analytics reads the parameters on arrival and records where the visitor came from, for example Instagram, via social media. In practice the source, medium and campaign values you typed become the source, medium and campaign dimensions you filter by in acquisition reports.

The value of tagging is clearest in the alternative. Without a UTM tag, GA4 would likely categorise a campaign visit as direct traffic, and the campaign’s contribution disappears into a general bucket. Lowercase, consistent values mean each campaign appears as a single, countable row.

Avoiding conflicts with auto-tagging

Duplicate tagging is the main conflict to plan for. Plum Good Marketing gives the example of Klaviyo: with its auto-UTM switched on and Google Analytics also connected inside Klaviyo, you may see double-counting.

The remedy given there is to pick one tracking method and commit to it. Apply the same rule to any platform that tags links on its own. Decide whether the platform’s automatic tagging or your manual UTM values own the data for that channel, record the decision beside your naming convention, and do not layer the other method on top without a reason.

Checks before launch

Run these checks on every new link before it is scheduled or published.

• Open the link. Confirm it reaches the intended landing page and the parameters are intact in the address bar.
• Scan for capitals and spaces. Anything that is not lowercase or hyphenated breaks the convention.
• Compare against the sheet. A new source or medium value should be a deliberate addition, not a near-duplicate of an existing one.
• Confirm the tagging method. Check that no automatic tagging is also active for the same channel.
• Keep tags off internal links. CPV Lab’s experts recommend staying away from adding parameters on internal links.

Consistent campaign labels also keep spend lines tidy when you later compare customer lifetime value vs customer acquisition cost. For measurement that looks beyond click-level tagging, what is marketing mix modeling explains another approach.

Frequently asked questions

Question	Answer
Which UTM parameters are required?	Of the five parameters, three are required and two are optional but recommended. Source, medium and campaign are the core trio, with content and term as the extras.
Do I still need utm_term?	It was originally designed for paid search keywords and is used less commonly now, so add it only if a keyword value is useful to you.
Should internal links carry UTM parameters?	No. CPV Lab advises keeping UTM parameters off internal links.
Which URL should I tag?	Tag a specific landing page rather than the homepage, so the campaign link leads straight to the relevant content.