What is a UTM parameter?

UTM parameters (Urchin Tracking Module parameters) are tiny bits of text you add to a URL to make your reporting actually make sense. They don’t change the page; they make reporting make sense by attributing visits and conversions to the right campaign, channel, and creative.

Start with utm_source. Think of it as “who sent the visitor.” It’s the location or provider where the link lives—Facebook, Google, Bing, The New York Times, your email service, a partner’s site, even a specific newsletter. If it’s not a website, use the platform/provider name (e.g., “marketo”). When in doubt, ask: “Where did this visitor come from?”

utm_source identifies who sent the visitor. Where the link lives, such as Facebook, Google, Bing, a partner site, or a specific newsletter.

utm_medium defines how the visitor arrived by channel type — social, email, cpc, display, affiliate, sms, or podcast. Specificity matters: labels like “paid_social” vs. “paid_search” prevent ambiguity and make cross‑channel comparisons reliable.

utm_campaign is the campaign label for the thing you’re promoting, such as a sale, launch, event, or content push. It’s the biggest bucket that ties all the placements back to the same push. Pick durable names you’ll recognize in future reporting so performance rolls up correctly (e.g., “summer_sale,” “spring_launch_2026,” “brand_retarg”).

utm_content distinguishes the exact creative or placement variant. It’s the key to testing and learning within a campaign. As the lowest level and perfect for creative and placement testing: different ad sizes, headlines, CTAs, or variations (“image_1200x628” or “cta_learn_more”).

utm_term is primarily used for paid search. It’s the keyword or query that triggered the click. If you’ve got auto-tagging turned on in Google Ads or Microsoft Ads, you usually don’t need to set this manually — those platforms pass click IDs (like gclid/msclkid) that GA can use to derive the details. Outside of search, some marketers repurpose utm_term to label audiences or ad sets, but do that intentionally and document it so it stays consistent.

utm_source is who sent the click, utm_medium is how it got to you, utm_campaign is the thing it belongs to, utm_content is the specific content they saw, and utm_term is the keyword (mostly search).

Why are UTM parameters important

Every team spends real time and money on campaigns and content across paid and organic channels. UTMs make that effort measurable to see exactly which messages, channels, and placements drive visits, leads, and revenue; and which ones need a rethink.

Without UTMs traffic fragments into near‑duplicate categories and referrer buckets that obscure what’s working. UTMs impose a shared vocabulary—source, medium, campaign, content, term—so sessions and conversions align the same way in analytics and your CRM.

Consistent UTMs tagging give you precise attribution by pinpoint whether traffic sources came from a TikTok ad, an Instagram story, a partner newsletter, or a specific QR code. They also make post-click analysis better: pair UTMs with on-site behavior, such as lead capture forms and you’ll see which campaigns drive deeper engagement, stronger conversion rates, and better landing-page fit, instead of just counting clicks.

With UTMs, links carry clear context, making reports coherent across tools and keeping optimization grounded in real signal.

‍

Try our campaign builder

Madlitics has a simple campaign name and URL builder to help you generate consistent, UTM-tagged links. It structures your campaign names, applies your preferred source/medium patterns, and outputs copy-paste-ready URLs so you can keep everything clean across teams and channels.

What tool can help track UTM parameters?

Madlitics of course! Madlitics is a form-first way to capture and standardize marketing channel attribution, through campaign segments (ie. UTM parameters), landing page data, and click IDs—right inside each form submission. First‑party data is captured inside each form submission so CRMs, BI and other marketing tools inherit it automatically with no additional customizations or dashboards required.

Beyond UTMs, Madlitics gives you dependable, first-party context from click to close. You’ll see which ads, audiences, and creatives drive real pipeline, reallocate budget with confidence, and prove ROI without wrestling spreadsheets or rebuilding your stack.

Madlitics is built to help marketers see where leads come from and send the data where it belongs. Start a free 14-day trial and get decision-ready attribution without changing your tools.

What you can do with Madlitics

• Capture source, medium, campaign, content, and term, and alongside customer submission data.
• Reveal reliable channel categorization (Paid Search, Paid/Organic Social, Email, Affiliates, etc.)
• Send clean attribution into your CRM, MAP, and analytics so reporting aligns everywhere.
• Preserve gclid, fbclid, msclkid and other IDs for ad platform matching and revenue attribution.
• Store landing page and landing page group to compare performance by entry point.
• Normalize UTMs automatically so “Paid_Social,” “paid-social,” and “paidsocial” don’t fracture your reports.
• Track leads, customers, and revenue by channel/campaign to spot what deserves more spend.
• Drop-in fields for popular form builders and site platforms; quick install, clear guides.

Tips

• Use lowercase only: UTM parameters are case-sensitive, so stick to lowercase to avoid duplication issues (e.g., utm_source=facebook, not Facebook).
• Use hyphens instead of underscores or spaces: Hyphens are the preferred separator in UTMs for readability and consistency
• Avoid special characters: Keep UTMs clean by excluding characters like &, %, $, which can break URLs or cause errors.
• Maintain a shared naming convention: Develop and use a standardized naming system for campaign, source, and medium labels across your team and channels for consistency.
• Don’t tag internal links: Use UTMs only for inbound traffic from external sources; internal links should not include UTMs to prevent skewing data.
• Order UTM parameters consistently: Place important parameters like source, medium, and campaign early in the URL to prevent truncation issues and ensure key data is captured.
• Avoid over-tagging: Only include parameters that provide actionable insights; too many parameters can clutter your data and complicate analysis.
• Capture UTMs at the form. Store first-touch fields in hidden inputs so attribution flows into your CRM and stays attached to each record.

UTM parameters make marketing measurable and repeatable, explaining where traffic comes from and why it arrives. Adding UTM tags to your marketing efforts removes ambiguity, preserve data integrity, and let you compare results confidently across channels and creatives.