- UTM parameters tell GA4 where a visit came from: source, medium and campaign are the three that matter most.
- GA4 uses source and medium to sort visits into channels, so a medium like "paid_social" or "email" decides where your traffic shows up.
- GA4's channel rules ignore capital letters, but your reports don't: "Facebook" and "facebook" show up as two separate rows.
- Pick one naming style, write it down and use a builder every time.
What UTM parameters are
UTM parameters are short tags added to the end of a link. When someone clicks it, GA4 reads the tags and records where the visit came from. Without them, a click from your newsletter or an Instagram story can end up counted as direct traffic.
| Parameter | What it records | Example |
|---|---|---|
| utm_source | The site, platform or list the click came from | facebook, google, newsletter |
| utm_medium | The type of traffic | paid_social, cpc, email |
| utm_campaign | The campaign or promotion | black-friday-2026 |
| utm_term | The paid keyword or audience (optional) | lookalike-1 |
| utm_content | The ad or link variation (optional) | carousel-a |
How to use this UTM builder
- Paste the page you're linking to. Existing UTM tags on the link are replaced, and anything after a # stays at the end.
- Pick a quick start or fill in source, medium and campaign. Quick starts fill source and medium with values GA4 recognises.
- Add term and content if you need them, for example to compare two ads in the same campaign.
- Check the GA4 channel badge and the checks. If a link would land in Unassigned, the tool tells you what to change.
- Copy the link, or switch to Bulk links to tag a list of pages at once and copy them all or as CSV.
How GA4 reads your UTMs
GA4 sorts every visit into a default channel using its source and medium. Get the medium wrong and paid ads show up as organic, or traffic lands in Unassigned where nobody looks. These are the combinations most campaigns need:
| Source and medium | GA4 channel |
|---|---|
| facebook / paid_social | Paid Social |
| instagram / social | Organic Social |
| google / cpc | Paid Search |
| newsletter / email | |
| partner-name / affiliate | Affiliates |
| any source / display | Display |
| any source / referral | Referral |
Any medium that starts with "paid", contains "cp" (like cpc or cpm) or is "ppc" counts as paid. Whether it becomes Paid Search, Paid Social or Paid Video depends on the source. A campaign name that contains "cross-network" goes to the Cross-network channel. Google keeps the full lists of sites and rules in its default channel group documentation.
A UTM naming convention that stays clean
- Lowercase everything. It's the simplest way to stop one source turning into three rows.
- Use hyphens or underscores, never spaces. Spaces turn into %20 or + in links and look different in reports.
- Keep a fixed list of sources and mediums. Share it with your team or your clients so everyone uses the same values.
- Give campaigns a pattern, such as date, offer and audience: 2026-11-black-friday-retargeting. You can sort and filter by it later.
- Use content for variations, not new campaigns. One campaign with carousel-a and carousel-b is easier to compare than two campaigns.
Common UTM mistakes
- Tagging links inside your own site. A UTM on an internal link starts the visit again with new campaign details and breaks the original source. Only tag links that point to your site from somewhere else.
- Adding UTMs to Google Ads with auto-tagging on. Auto-tagging already sends the campaign, keyword and ad details to GA4. Only add UTMs to Google Ads if auto-tagging is off.
- Using "social" for paid ads. That puts your ad clicks in Organic Social. Use a paid medium like paid_social.
- Mixing capital letters. Facebook, facebook and FB become three separate sources in your reports.
- Leaving the campaign empty. Your traffic arrives, but you can't tell which promotion sent it.
How to find your campaigns in GA4
In GA4, open Reports, then Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition. Change the main dimension to Session source / medium or Session campaign to see each tagged link. Give it a day after launch for the numbers to fill in.
To see which campaigns turn into signups or sales, add your key events to the report, or compare campaigns over the same date range each month.
Connect GA4 to Analyse8 and ask which campaigns drove the most signups, which ads to scale and where traffic dropped. You get the answer in plain English, ready to share.