UTM Parameters: Track Your Best Traffic Sources

It’s a daily grind. You know, most small business owners and marketers start their days with the analytics dashboard.

They try to make sense of the numbers, charts, and vague traffic sources like “social” or “direct” to determine what’s working for the business, but these surface-level metrics don’t tell the whole story.

You need something to dig deeper. UTM parameters help you do just that. These small text tags added to your links reveal the complete story of how customers find you.

But first, what the heck are UTM parameters?

Understanding UTM Parameters

You already track your website visitors with Google Analytics.

However, when someone clicks a link to your site from Instagram, most analytics platforms can only tell you they came from “Organic Social.”

Alas, you can’t be sure if the clicks came from your latest tweet, LinkedIn article, or Instagram story from last week.

Without this knowledge, you don’t know what platform is actually sending traffic to your website.

If you add unique UTM parameters to the links you post on social media platforms, your analytics platform can clearly show where a certain click came from.

Look at this link with UTM parameters:

https://www.dreamhost.com/hosting/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=spring_sale_2025

• Everything before the “?” is the base URL. 
• Everything after it — the UTM parameters — carries tracking information.

When you create tagged links for each post, you get to see which platform and what content drives engagement.

With these links created for each of your social media posts, it becomes easy to know exactly which post from which platform resulted in a click.

In Google Analytics, you’ll see the names you’ve added for these UTM parameters.

Take a look at the “Audience Overview” section with “Session manual source” selected on the top left.

The link clicks that don’t have UTM parameters get clubbed into the (not set) source. For the rest, you’ll see the appropriate source names. If you want to dig deeper, you can use the Google Search Console to find out the keywords driving traffic.

Note that not all of them are manually tagged. Search engines (in this case), and some sites auto-append their UTM parameters to promote themselves and to help users see the traffic source from their website easily.

What Information Can UTM Links Carry?

Each click on a UTM link carries information about where a click came from, which campaign triggered it, and even which specific element caught your visitor’s attention. It all depends on how you build out the link (yes, it’s manual work).

Say you have this link to promote on social media:

“https://www.dreamhost.com/hosting”

Clicking on this link right now will only provide vague information like “social” or “organic” in analytics. Here’s how you can add data to the link:

1. Campaign source (“utm_source”) – Required

The “utm_source” records where your visitors originated.

When you mark a link with “utm_source=newsletter,” you’re essentially saying, “This visitor came from our email list.”

Mark it as “utm_source=instagram” instead of newsletter, and Google will show the source as Instagram (even if the click actually came from your newsletter).

2. Campaign medium (“utm_medium”) – Required

With “utm_source,” you know where a user came from.

But did they arrive via a paid advertisement (“utm_medium=cpc”)? Through an organic social media post (“utm_medium=social”)? Or perhaps through your email marketing efforts (“utm_medium=email”)?

Setting “utm_medium” will help you determine the vehicle through which the traffic was delivered.

3. Campaign name (“utm_campaign”) – Required

You know that a click is coming from a marketing email, but you don’t know which one.

Your campaign name serves as a way for you to identify exactly which campaign sent this click.

This also helps you with conversion rate optimization (CRO) as you can tag each CTA uniquely, giving you data on which CTA in which newsletter (or any other marketing material) was clicked.

For instance, “utm_campaign=spring_sale_2025” groups all traffic related to your spring promotion, regardless of source or medium.

4. Campaign ID (“utm_id”) – Optional

The campaign ID parameter lets you attach a unique identifier to your campaign.

It’s handy when your marketing efforts need that extra layer of detail. Using
“utm_id,” you can distinguish between similar campaigns or sub-campaigns that share the same source, medium, or campaign name.

For example, if you run a spring sale across multiple platforms, assigning each variation a unique ID helps track which performs best.

5. Campaign term (“utm_term”) – Optional

For paid search campaigns, “utm_term” captures the exact keywords that triggered your ad.

This gives you visibility into which search terms drive valuable traffic, helping you refine your bidding strategy. If you’re targeting multiple keywords in a campaign, tagging each with “utm_term” lets you compare performance.

For example, if you’re running ads for web hosting and want to track the keyword “best hosting,” you can add “utm_term=best_hosting” to the link.

With this, you can see which keywords attract clicks, and optimize your paid search efforts accordingly.

6. Campaign content (“utm_content”) – Optional

The “utm_content” parameter is useful for A/B testing.

If you have multiple variations of an ad, email, or CTA leading to the same destination, this tag helps identify which version performs best. Use it to differentiate between a banner ad and a text ad or track which button in an email got more clicks.

For instance, if you’re testing two different email CTAs — one that says “Get Started” and another that says “Claim Your Discount” — you can tag them separately on the same page too.

How To Set Up UTM Parameters: A Step-by-Step Guide

It’s easy to build a UTM link. You could do it manually by typing the link or using the Google Campaign URL Builder to do the same.

1. Start With Your Base URL

Identify the URL of the page you want to promote. For example:

“https://www.dreamhost.com/hosting”

2. Add UTM Parameters

UTM parameters are added to the URL after a question mark (“?”).

• Each parameter consists of a key-value pair, joined by an equal sign (“=”). 
• Multiple parameters are separated by ampersands (“&”). 
• Use underscores (“_”) to separate words within parameter values for better readability. For instance, “utm_source=newsletter” indicates that the traffic came from a newsletter.

Here’s how you can build your URL with UTM parameters:

• Campaign source (“utm_source”): Identifies the platform or source, such as “utm_source=facebook”.
• Campaign medium (“utm_medium”): Specifies the marketing medium, like “utm_medium=email.”
• Campaign name (“utm_campaign”): Names the specific campaign, for example, “utm_campaign=spring_sale_2025.”
• Campaign term (“utm_term”): Used for paid search to identify keywords, e.g., “utm_term=affordable_hosting.”
• Campaign content (“utm_content”): Differentiates similar content or links, useful for A/B testing, such as “utm_content=cta_button.”

Combining these, your URL might look like this:

“https://www.dreamhost.com/hosting?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=spring_sale_2025&utm_content=cta_button”

3. Use a UTM Builder Tool

For a simpler, more accurate process, try a free UTM builder tool such as Google’s Campaign URL Builder. It lets you enter each parameter as a separate input in the form. And once you’re done, the Campaign URL Builder combines it into a link you can copy.

This makes the process easy and error-free.

4. Test Your Links

Before deploying your UTM-tagged URLs, test them to make sure they direct users to the correct page and that your analytics platform records the parameters accurately.

How? Just click on the link and see if the click shows up in your Analytics dashboard from the parameters as you’ve set them.

How To Analyze and Make Sense of UTM Data

Once you’ve implemented UTM parameters in your marketing links, the next step is to analyze the collected data to gain actionable insights. Here’s how to effectively interpret UTM data:

Step 1: Access Your Analytics Platform

Begin by logging into your web analytics tool, such as Google Analytics. Navigate to the section where campaign data is displayed.

In Google Analytics 4 (GA4), you can find this under Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition.

Step 2: Customize Your Reports

To focus on UTM parameters, customize your reports.

Primary dimension: Set this to “Session source” to view the origin of your traffic.

Secondary dimension: Add Campaign to see which campaigns are driving traffic.

Additional filters: Include filters for “Term” and “Content” if you’ve used these parameters, allowing for a more granular analysis.

Step 3: Evaluate Key Metrics

Analyze the following website metrics to assess campaign performance:

• Sessions: The number of visits initiated from each source/medium.
• Bounce rate: The percentage of single-page sessions; a high rate may indicate irrelevant traffic.
• Conversion rate: The percentage of sessions that completed a desired goal, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
• Average session duration: The average time users spend on your site; longer durations often suggest higher engagement.

Step 4: Compare Performance Across Campaigns

With this data in hand, you can identify which campaigns, sources, or mediums are most effective.

For instance, you might discover that email campaigns (“utm_medium=email”) have a higher conversion rate compared to social media campaigns (“utm_medium=social”), informing your future marketing strategies.

When you combine this information with the number of sessions, conversions, and revenue values (if you’ve integrated payments data with Google Analytics), it becomes clear what sources are generating value for the business and which ones need to be improved.

Step 5: Find Areas for Improvement

This brings us to the final step.

If certain campaigns show high bounce rates or low conversion rates, start digging into them to understand what’s going on.

Some important factors, such as landing page relevance, audience targeting, and the clarity of your call-to-action, can all affect conversions.

Pro Tips for Effective UTM Parameter Management

UTMs are easy to create — and they’re just as easy to get wrong.

Think about it: if someone accidentally types “utm_source” as “utmsource,” you’ve lost the ability to track that link since Google cannot recognize that UTM parameter.

Develop a Consistent Naming Convention

Suppose you’re trying to gather data on how CTA buttons are performing across your website. For the data to get pulled together correctly, you need every UTM link added to a CTA to follow a standardized naming convention.

If someone names the “utm_source=ctabutton” and another person uses “utm_source=cta_button,” you’ll have a hard time merging the data and making sense of it.

To prevent that, establish a standardized approach for naming your UTM parameters to ensure consistency and accuracy in your data.

For example, decide whether to use “email” or “newsletter” for the “utm_medium” parameter and apply it uniformly across all campaigns. Consistency prevents data fragmentation and helps with a more straightforward analysis.

Use a UTM Parameter Builder

We’ve talked about using Google’s Campaign URL Builder. Other similar tools like utmbuilder.net and utmbuilder.com help you create URLs with UTM parameters efficiently.

While it’s not necessary to use these tools, it helps you maintain consistency and make sure there are no errors in the created UTM links.

Maintain a Centralized Tracking Document

Keep a shared spreadsheet or database where all UTM-tagged URLs are recorded. Include details such as the campaign name, parameters used, creation date, and the team member responsible.

Here’s an example of the type of sheet you can create.

Go further and create dropdowns for each of the UTM parameters so your team can only pick from the standardized parameters instead of using custom-made ones for each campaign.

Test Your UTM-Tagged Links Before Deployment

Before launching your campaigns, thoroughly test all UTM-tagged links to ensure they direct users to the correct landing pages and that the parameters are accurately captured in your analytics platform. You don’t want misconfigured UTM URLs floating around while you wait for data to show up.

Avoid Using UTM Parameters for Internal Links

UTM parameters are designed for tracking external traffic sources.

Applying them to internal links can disrupt session tracking, display inaccurate data, and overwrite data if a visitor clicks on different links while browsing your content.

Use alternative methods, such as event tracking, to monitor internal link performance.

Shorten Lengthy URLs for a Better User Experience

Long URLs with multiple UTM parameters can appear cluttered and may deter users from clicking.

URL shortening services like Short URL, Bitly, and many others help you create cleaner, more user-friendly links without losing tracking capabilities.

Remember the DreamHost UTM link we created?

This is what it looks like when shortened.

Start Small, Win Big with UTM Links

Implementing UTMs is a long-term game. Don’t worry; you don’t need to start tagging every single link tomorrow.

But it’s one of the most accessible ways to upgrade your marketing from guesswork and intuition to a data-backed strategy.

So, here are your immediate next steps:

1. Pick your busiest traffic channel.
2. Create UTM links for your next week of content.
3. Watch your analytics tell you exactly what’s driving results.
4. Rinse and repeat with your next channel.

Every successful marketing strategy is built on solid data — and UTMs give you that data.