Resources
What should I put in each UTM parameter?
A practical guide to naming every UTM field, with examples and conventions that make attribution clear and reporting dependable
When you add UTM parameters to your URLs, you give your analytics tools important clues about your marketing efforts. You may promote a new product on Instagram, send an email to your subscriber list, and run several Google ads, but which effort actually brought them in? Were most visitors from email, social media, or the ads?
This is where UTM parameters come in. Think of them as tiny labels you attach to your marketing links that tell your analytics tools the full story behind each click. When set up properly, UTMs reveal not just that someone visited your site, but exactly how they found you — down to the specific email, ad, or social post that caught their attention.
This guide explains what belongs in each UTM parameter field, with practical examples and context for real-world marketing scenarios. Whether you're just getting started with campaign tracking or looking to clean up your current approach, you'll learn how to tag your URLs for maximum clarity and insight.
UTM parameters enable precise attribution by tracking which campaigns, channels, and ads drive traffic and conversions. This clarity helps marketers allocate budgets confidently and optimize performance based on real data rather than guesswork.
Combined with platform identifiers like gclid and fbclid, UTMs provide granular insights into campaign effectiveness. Marketers can quickly identify top performers—whether Facebook or Google Ads—and shift resources accordingly. This data-driven approach reduces wasted spend and improves ROI by focusing investment on what actually works. Ultimately, UTM tracking makes marketing measurable, transparent, and continuously improvable.
The utm_source parameter identifies where your traffic is coming from by naming the specific platform, channel, or referrer that sent visitors to your website. Example values include "google," "facebook," "newsletter," "mailchimp," or "johns-blog." This platform-level view shows which sources create the most visits, conversions, and revenue, etc. By using utm_source, you make it clear in analytics reporting exactly which external platform, sender, or channel drove the traffic to your website, supporting accurate attribution and reporting.
For instance, in the URL, the utm_source value "newsletter" shows the traffic was referred from an email newsletter campaign.
example.com/product?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=black-friday-sale
If the source is a social media post on Facebook, your UTM might look like:
sample.com/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=winter-sale
The utm_medium parameter describes how visitors arrived at your website by naming the marketing channel or method. Typical values include "cpc" for paid ads, "email" for newsletters, "organic" for unpaid search traffic, "social" for social media posts, and "referral" for traffic coming from other websites. This channel-level grouping reveals which marketing methods deliver the best ROI, helping teams allocate resources strategically across their entire marketing mix. By clearly defining utm_medium, you group traffic types together, making it easier to analyze channel performance across campaigns and marketing strategies.
For example, in the URL, the utm_medium value "cpc" indicates that the traffic came from a paid Google ad.
example.com?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=spring-sale
Another example, "social" shows that visitors came from a social media post on Facebook.
sample.com/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=holiday-deals
The utm_campaign parameter identifies the specific marketing initiative driving traffic to your site. Use a clear, consistent name to group all related ads, emails, and posts under one campaign. Common patterns include event or promo names like “spring_sale_2025,” “black_friday_push,” or “product_launch.” This campaign-level grouping shows which initiatives move visits, conversions, and revenue, making it easier to compare results across time periods and decide where to invest next.
For example, in the URL, the value “spring_sale_2025” lets you see the full impact of that sale across search ads, social posts, and email sends.
www.example.com?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=spring_sale_2025
Another example groups all Facebook posts tied to the launch.
sample.com/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=product_launch
Use utm_term to record what you targeted: a search keyword, an audience, or an ad set. In paid search, it answers “which query triggered this click?” In paid social, it answers “which audience did we aim at?” This level of detail helps marketers understand which keywords or segments generate the best results, allowing for better optimization of paid search and other targeted campaigns.
Captures keyword search terms, "brand shoes"
example.com/product?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=brand-us&utm_term=brand-shoes
Differentiate though audience segmentation, "prospecting cmo titles".
sample.com/signup?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=webinar-series&utm_term=prospecting-cmo-titles
The utm_content parameter is used to distinguish between different elements, creatives, or links share the same source, medium, and campaign. This is especially useful when you have multiple calls-to-action or ads pointing to the same URL but want to track which specific one drives more traffic or conversions. This level of granularity enables detailed performance tracking at the creative level, helping marketers optimize specific content elements instead of just campaigns or channels.
In an email with two buttons (🟢 🔵), you might tag them so reports show performance by color, use utm_content=button-blue and utm_content=button-green to learn which style resonates. For ads, the same idea helps you separate formats, like utm_content=video-ad versus utm_content=text-ad.
In a URL, this might look like:
www.example.com?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=winter_sale&utm_content=video-ad
Click IDs function as digital fingerprints, enabling granular tracking of each ad interaction and helping tie conversions back to the exact ad, keyword, or campaign that drove them. They are complementary to UTMs... UTMs organize results into clear buckets, while click IDs enable exact matching back to the ad platforms.
Unlike manual UTM tags, these click IDs provide more granular, automated tracking of paid ad performance throughout the customer journey, from the initial click to eventual conversions. Paired together, UTMs provide human-readable grouping (source/medium/campaign), while click IDs enable precise ad matching. Common examples include Google’s gclid, Microsoft Ads’ msclkid, Meta’s fbclid, TikTok’s ttclid, LinkedIn’s li_fat_id, and Snapchat’s sc_click_id.
A GCLID contains encrypted details such as the exact campaign, ad group, keyword, time, device, and location related to the click.
example.com?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=2024-special-guide&gclid=CjwKCAiA75itBhA6EiwAkho9e3beDPVw96xj-xI3kMHHjLgwrozkbjrSh9nfeaeBRMWtKeGO3n13UBoCZF0QAvD_BwE
Custom parameters are additional URL parameters beyond the standard UTM tags that marketers may use to track extra details about campaigns, audience segments, or user behavior. These might include things like influencer_name, geo=chicago, product_line=fresh, or other specific factors relevant to your business.
While custom parameters can provide valuable, granular insight, they should be used sparingly because they complicate data collection and analysis. Too many custom parameters can lead to data fragmentation, increase reporting complexity, and require extra setup (such as registering custom dimensions or metrics in tools like Google Analytics). This can result in higher maintenance overhead and make it harder to maintain clean, consistent attribution data across campaigns.
Therefore, it’s best to carefully plan which custom parameters truly add value to your tracking and limit their use to avoid overwhelming your analytics systems and teams. When used thoughtfully, they enable richer segmentation and deeper insights but demand more governance and integration work.
https://yoursite.com/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=paidsocial&utm_campaign=q1_promo
Wrapping up, UTM parameters enable marketers to uncover the full story behind every click by providing clear, structured data about traffic sources, channels, campaigns, keywords, and creatives. When used consistently and thoughtfully, they transform raw visitor numbers into actionable insights, helping you measure which marketing efforts drive results and where to focus your resources. Whether you're managing a few campaigns or dozens, understanding UTM tagging ensures your analytics reports are accurate, meaningful, and ready to guide smarter marketing decisions.
