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Every link its own name
With UTM parameters you see in Google Analytics which newsletter, post or brochure sent a visitor, for example with ?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email after the link. The visitor sees the same page; only the address is longer. Analytics reads the tags on the first page view and credits that visit, and everything the visitor does afterwards, to the source you named.
Without them, a lot of traffic arrives unlabelled. A click from a desktop mail client often shows up as direct traffic, and a QR code on paper never sends a referring site at all. Tag the link and each channel becomes its own row in your report. People call the same thing a UTM code, UTM tags or campaign parameters; a link that carries them is a UTM link or tagged link.
A name from Urchin, at Google since 2005
UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module. Urchin was web analytics software that counted visits from web server log files. Version 4 added a small JavaScript module, the Urchin Tracking Module, which used a cookie to tell new visitors from returning ones. Urchin became part of Google in 2005: Google's annual report for that year lists Urchin Software Corporation as a subsidiary. On 14 November 2005 Google launched Google Analytics, in its own words the same service that used to be called Urchin from Google, now free for every website.
The utm_ prefix survived the move and is still the standard twenty years on, including in Google Analytics 4 (GA4). GA4 reads more than the classic five: utm_id for a campaign ID, utm_source_platform for the platform sending the traffic, and utm_creative_format and utm_marketing_tactic, which GA4 does not yet show in its reports. Google's own advice: always set at least utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign. Setting up GA4 itself, with your enquiries as key events, is covered in Google Analytics 4 setup.
One newsletter link, taken apart
The link behind the button in the newsletter
yoursite.com/fair
?utm_source=newsletter
&utm_medium=email
&utm_campaign=utrecht-fair-2027
&utm_content=button-top
- SourceWho sent the visitor. On LinkedIn this reads linkedin, on the brochure brochure.
- Mediumemail puts the visit in GA4's Email channel. A word of your own lands in Unassigned.
- CampaignThe same name on email, post and brochure, so one filter shows the whole fair.
- ContentWhich button in the email worked, when it holds two links.
Meeting requests per 100 visits, six weeks after the fair
Newsletter4.6
240 visits, 11 requests
LinkedIn1.2
410 visits, 5 requests
Brochure with QR code11.4
70 visits, 8 requests
The brochure brought the fewest visits and the most requests per visit. You only see that with a separate link per channel.
One trade fair, three links
Say a furniture maker near Eindhoven exhibits at a trade fair in Cologne and wants to know which channel brings the follow-up meetings. It sends a newsletter to 900 dealers, posts on LinkedIn and hands out 600 brochures with a QR code at the stand. Each channel gets its own link to the same landing page:
- Newsletter: yoursite.com/fair?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cologne-fair-2027
- LinkedIn: yoursite.com/fair?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=utrecht-fair-2027
- Brochure: yoursite.com/fair?utm_source=brochure&utm_medium=print&utm_campaign=utrecht-fair-2027
Six weeks later the GA4 report, filtered on the campaign, shows the newsletter with 240 visits and 11 meeting requests, LinkedIn with 410 visits and 5 requests, and the brochure with 70 visits and 8 requests. LinkedIn drew the most traffic and the fewest meetings; the brochure, with the smallest audience, converted best at more than one in ten. If the brochures cost 480 euros to print, that is 60 euros per meeting. You can only make that comparison when every channel has its own link, and it tells you where next year's marketing budget should go.
Turn the brochure link into a QR code the same way you would make a QR code for Google reviews, and put the campaign name in your content calendar so everyone who schedules a post spells it the same way.
Five parameters, three required
| Parameter | What it says | Example | When to set it |
|---|---|---|---|
| utm_source | Who sent the visitor | newsletter, linkedin, brochure | Always |
| utm_medium | The kind of channel | email, social, cpc, print | Always |
| utm_campaign | The promotion or product | utrecht-fair-2027 | Always |
| utm_content | Which version or which button | button-top, photo-oak | Two links in one email, or two versions of an Instagram ad |
| utm_term | The paid keyword | oak dining table | Rarely: Google Ads tags its own clicks |
| utm_id | The campaign ID | uf27 | When you import cost or campaign data into GA4 |
Which GA4 channel each medium lands in
GA4 sorts every visit into a default channel from its source and medium, and the words that count are fixed by Google. Invent your own and the visit ends up in Unassigned.
| utm_medium | GA4 channel | Watch out |
|---|---|---|
| e-mail and e_mail also work; newsletter as a medium does not | ||
| social, with source linkedin | Organic Social | For regular posts from your social media management |
| cpc or paid, with a social source | Paid Social | For paid posts and retargeting |
| display, banner or cpm | Display | Banners on other sites |
| print, brochure or qr | Unassigned | Paper has no channel; filter on source or campaign |
Free, and still worth money
The tags cost nothing; they are text in a link. With agreed conventions a tagged link takes a minute. The real work is keeping everyone to those conventions, because one typo creates a new row in your report.
On Google Ads you rarely need them. Auto-tagging adds its own parameter, the gclid, is on by default for new accounts, and GA4 gives it priority over a UTM tag you add by hand. On Meta ads you do add UTM parameters yourself, in the URL parameters field, optionally with dynamic values such as {{site_source_name}}. Budget for Meta in your market is covered in what Facebook ads cost.
What you get is an honest number per channel. Only then can you work out ROAS and ROI per campaign, judge whether a channel belongs in your performance marketing, and see where each source drops out of your sales funnel.
Conventions for the whole team
- Everything in lower case: GA4 treats Newsletter and newsletter as two sources.
- A fixed list for utm_medium: email, social, cpc, print. No synonyms.
- One campaign name per promotion, with the year in it: utrecht-fair-2027.
- Hyphens instead of spaces: a space turns into %20 in the link.
- No email address, name or customer number in a parameter: Google Analytics bans personal data in URLs.
- One shared sheet with every link: who made it, where it runs, since when.
- Every link tested before it goes out: click it and check source and medium in the GA4 realtime report.
Tagged internal links overwrite your data
Never tag a link from your own site to your own site, such as a homepage banner. GA4 does not start a new session for it, but it ties the new campaign to whatever the visitor does next. The lead your newsletter brought in is then credited to your own banner. To see which button works, track the click as an event instead.
What marketers ask about tagging
What does UTM stand for?
Urchin Tracking Module, the tracking piece of Urchin, the analytics software that became part of Google in 2005 and turned into Google Analytics later that year. The name stuck to the parameters, GA4 included.
Are UTM parameters bad for SEO?
Not when you use them where they belong: in emails, posts, ads and print, never in links within your own site. A URL with parameters is technically a different address, so let the page point to the clean version with a canonical tag and Google knows which one to show.
Should I add UTM parameters to Google Ads?
Usually not. Auto-tagging adds a gclid to every click and is on by default. GA4 gives it priority over a UTM tag you add yourself, so the effort is wasted.
Do UTM parameters need cookies?
No. The tags sit in the address itself, so any measurement can read them, including a cookieless one like on our own site. Google Analytics itself does set cookies, and in the EU those need the visitor's consent.