UTM Campaign URL Builder
Tag your links so analytics knows exactly where each visitor came from.
Build tagged campaign URLs with the five standard UTM parameters, so traffic from a specific email, post or ad shows up as its own line in your analytics rather than being lumped into 'direct' or a generic referral.
The parameters are just query-string values appended to your URL. What makes them useful is consistency — and what makes them useless is a team that tags the same campaign six different ways.
The five parameters
| Parameter | Answers | Example |
|---|---|---|
| utm_source | Where did they come from? | newsletter, google, linkedin |
| utm_medium | What kind of channel? | email, cpc, social, referral |
| utm_campaign | Which campaign? | spring_sale_2026 |
| utm_term | Which paid keyword? | running+shoes |
| utm_content | Which variant or placement? | header_cta, variant_b |
Source, medium and campaign are the three that matter. Term is for paid search; content is for A/B testing and distinguishing two links in the same email.
Conventions that keep the data usable
- Always lowercase. Analytics treats Email and email as two separate mediums, and the split is invisible until your numbers look wrong.
- Use underscores or hyphens, never spaces. A space becomes %20 and looks broken when shared.
- Agree a fixed vocabulary for medium before anyone starts tagging — email, cpc, social, affiliate, referral — and write it down.
- Never tag internal links. A UTM on a link between two pages of your own site starts a new session and destroys attribution for the original source.
- Don't put anything personal in a UTM. They're visible in the URL bar, stored in analytics and frequently shared or pasted into chat.
- Keep a shared spreadsheet of every campaign URL. It's dull and it's the single thing that stops a tagging scheme decaying.
What UTMs can't tell you
UTMs record where a click came from, not where the customer came from. Someone who sees your ad, searches your brand name three days later and converts is attributed to organic search. The ad did the work; the search took the credit.
They're also fragile: they vanish on a redirect that doesn't preserve the query string, they're stripped by some privacy tools, and the link preview in messaging apps can make a tagged URL look spammy. Treat UTM data as a directional signal about channels, not a ledger of truth.
Frequently asked questions
- What's the difference between utm_source and utm_medium?
- Source is the specific origin — 'newsletter', 'linkedin', 'google'. Medium is the category of channel — 'email', 'social', 'cpc'. Source answers who sent them; medium answers what kind of channel it was.
- Are UTM parameters case-sensitive?
- Yes, and this catches almost everyone. 'Email' and 'email' appear as two separate mediums in your reports. Lowercase everything as a rule.
- Should I add UTM parameters to internal links?
- No. Tagging a link between two pages of your own site restarts the session and overwrites the original acquisition source, corrupting your attribution.
- Do UTM parameters affect SEO?
- They create additional URL variants of the same page, which is why a canonical tag matters. With a correct canonical in place, they're not a ranking problem.
- Can I shorten a UTM-tagged URL?
- Yes, and it's usually a good idea for anything shared publicly. The parameters still reach your analytics after the redirect, as long as the shortener preserves the query string.
- Why does some tagged traffic still show as direct?
- The parameters can be stripped by redirects, privacy tools, or apps that rewrite links. Some email clients and messaging apps also open links in a way that loses them.