What Are UTMS and Why Do I Need Them? (Free Templates)
What are UTMs & Why Do We Use Them?
I’m bullish in having data and analytics in place. Especially using Google Analytics in addition to any platform analytics your CMS or e-commerce platform offers. The next step, after setting up analytics, is to develop a UTM strategy so that your channel efforts are properly tracked.
You'll want to make sure that you are using UTMs to give you a better understanding of how your marketing and sales efforts are working, as well as identify where your successes and sales are coming from.
For those of you that don’t know what they area, UTMs (Urchin Tracking Modules) are tracking parameters; when you use them, you create codes (snippets of text define marketing activities) that are added to the end of your destination URL (www.company.com) to help you track the success of your digital marketing efforts online.
If UTMs are added, it allows you to measure where your traffic is coming from and also gives you tons of granularity into the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. If you do not use UTMs you will still see the referrer of traffic, but this is not typically very structured and still leaves you wondering what particular post, tweet, page or link the user clicked on to find your site.
Using UTMs means we can know what’s working, what’s not, what needs improvement and ultimately where to focus our time, effort and budget!
Understanding Default Google Analytics Traffic Sources Before You Build UTMs
Before you start building UTMs and setting up a UTM structure, it’s important to understand how Google classifies (or assigns) traffic that it reads when people come to your website. Inbound traffic is automatically classified into default traffic sources:
Direct: Direct traffic indicates visits where users navigate directly to the URL or the source of the visit is unknown. This is usually determined by a source of direct and medium of (not set) or (none); usually caused by untagged emails, links to PDFs on site, accessing the site from a shortened URL and clicking links from mobile versions of social media apps (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram).
Organic Search: Organic search indicates visits from organic (unpaid) search results where site visitors found your information, blog posts, content, etc through a search query in Bing, Yahoo and/or Google.
Social: Social media visits from social networks are those that come from social network sites like Facebook, YouTube. Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest or other platforms used in other countries. Social media referrals are determined when the social source referral matches “yes;” in Google Analytics’ algorithm. It also places these in the referral “bucket” matching a list of known social sources or when medium matches social, social-network, social-media, sm, social network, or social media.
Email: Email indicates traffic from links clicked in email messages, whether mass email marketing or individual messages.
Affiliates: Affiliates indicate traffic from affiliate marketing efforts. This is from software or platforms that run affiliate programs, not partner programs or sponsored content.
Referral: Referral indicates traffic where users clicked a link from another site, excluding major search engines. These can link from ads on partners' sites not classified in an AdWords by, a direct media buy, a partner link or anything that is connected to a website from another site (related or unrelated to its business).
Paid Search: Paid search shows traffic from PPC campaigns run in search results. PPC campaigns are automatically understood by Google Analytics’ algorithm, Adwords is already integrated and paid social is also defined in “social media”. This traffic is shown in the medium labeled as cpc, ppc, or “paidsearch”; it excludes traffic in “Content” bucket of ad networks.
Other Advertising: Other advertising Indicates traffic from online advertising outside of search and display, such as cost-per-view video advertising. The medium is labeled by cpc, cpa, or cpp.
Display: Display indicates traffic from display advertising, such as Google AdWords remarketing campaigns. Display as a medium is labeled as , cpm, or banner, or in “Content” bucket of ad networks (indicating Google Display Network).
Clarifying Your Google Traffic Source Data in Google Analytics 4
In GA4, the concept of "Default Channels" has been replaced by a more flexible, event-based model focusing on "Traffic Sources." The quality of data in GA4 still heavily relies on how accurately you tag your campaigns, so using a consistent naming structure for your UTMs remains essential.
If you use a non-standard medium such as "google_paid," GA4 will not auto-categorize this traffic under any predefined category like "Paid Search." Instead, you'll find these under a custom source/medium, making it your responsibility to dissect and understand these custom tags.
Using a Standard Naming Criteria in Google Analytics 4 – UTMs
Just like in Universal Analytics, maintaining a standardized UTM naming criterion is vital for understanding your traffic sources. This becomes even more critical in GA4, given its emphasis on customizable, event-based tracking. Here are some key pointers for using UTM fields in GA4:
How to Use UTM Fields in Google Analytics 4
Campaign Source (utm_source): This is essentially the platform from which the traffic originates, such as Google, Facebook, Social Media. Given GA4's emphasis on event-based tracking, knowing your source is crucial for measuring event performance by platform.
Campaign Medium (utm_medium): This tags the general type of activity responsible for the traffic, such as "email" or "cpc." In GA4, you can map this to specific user actions to see, for example, how often users from PPC campaigns complete a certain event on your site.
Campaign Name (utm_campaign): Still a non-negotiable, this UTM helps identify the specific campaign, product, or offering you're focusing on. This field is event-agnostic, meaning it will apply to all events coming from that tagged URL.
Campaign Content (utm_content): While optional, this UTM field gains more importance in GA4 for differentiating among ads or even among different creative elements within the same campaign. This is especially valuable for A/B testing.
Campaign Term (utm_term): Also optional, this parameter allows you to track the paid keywords or organic terms driving traffic to your website. In GA4, you can use this to set up more detailed event tracking tied to specific keywords.
You need to use at three of these fields: Source, Medium, and cCampaign are the most commonly used.
In GA4, it's about granular, event-based metrics, so your UTMs must be structured with the foresight to leverage this functionality. Accurate UTM tagging plays a crucial role in making this work for you, allowing you to dive deep into individual user journeys, understand your audience more thoroughly, and therefore, make more data-driven decisions.
How to Build UTMs Links – Single and Bulk
For one-off campaigns, using the Google UTM Generator is excellent. But for campaigns that require multiple URLS (registration campaigns, inbound sales campaigns, or lead generation), it’s best to create a master of UTMs using a bulk builder (achieved in Excel) in order to build URLs quickly, but also to ensure tagging accuracy (a simply google search will give you plenty of templates for them).
You can also copy my Google Excel Sheet for Bulk UTM creation
Success Lies in Naming & Consistent Use
To sum it all up, by using a common naming criteria and standardized tags aligned to Google’s channel classification, all shows will have the same method of comparison and analysis. This will save lots of time of manual editing/comparison if we are all trying to make our own logics.
How to Track Ads – PPC and Social in Google Analytics 4 (ADVANCED)
Once you've crafted a URL with UTM parameters using Google's Campaign URL Builder, you can now track those visits via the "Traffic Acquisition" section in GA4. In GA4, "Source/Medium" dimensions are also auto-tracked, especially for major platforms like Google Ads, which simplifies tracking PPC.For tracking social ads, particularly Facebook, the game has slightly changed. As I mentioned earlier, GA4 no longer uses the concept of "Channels" as we knew them. Instead, it uses "Traffic Sources," and to filter down to specifics, you'll now use the event-based tracking system that GA4 employs. This allows you to view parameters like campaign, source, and medium, which correspond to your UTM codes.
If your social ads aren't tagged correctly, they will be lumped into the broader category, just like before. However, GA4 provides more granularity. You can customize your "Source" and "Medium" parameters, like setting up a "Source" as "Facebook" and "Medium" as "cpc" or "ppc," depending on how you tagged your URLs. You don't have to create channel groupings anymore. Instead, you can use "Comparisons" within your reports to compare various metrics side by side based on your custom source and medium settings.
To isolate Facebook traffic, use the 'Traffic Acquisition' report. Here you can add comparisons to segment the data. For example, setting "Source" to "Facebook" and "Medium" to "PPC" will allow you to isolate Facebook PPC traffic. You can then save this configuration for future reference.
Note: I’ve seen many paid search agencies change “Facebook” or “Instagram” as source to “Meta” in campaign UTM naming criteria. That is entirely up to you. I personally prefer to leave the name of the social channel as the source because it makes the naming conventions across other channels more of a challenge to visualize. If you go this route, make sure you build naming conventions that allow you easily identify like sets.
Collect campaign data with custom URLs (REALLY ADVANCED)
Another feature in GA4 was the implementation of collecting campaign data with custom URLS. I know, I know, you’re just wrapping your head around using UTMs at all and learning how to use them in your paid ad efforts to show the true ROI on the money you’re spending. So why the hell do you need to know about custom URLs with UTM parameters? Well, they allow you to create more nuanced and tailored insights.
By adding utm campaign parameters to the destination URLs you use in referral links and ad campaigns, you can see which campaigns refer traffic. When a user clicks a referral link, the URL parameters are sent to Analytics and the parameter values are visible in the Traffic acquisition report. You can also add the following parameters to your destination URLs:
utm_id: Campaign ID. Used to identify a specific campaign or promotion. This is a required key for GA4 data import. Use the same IDs that you use when uploading campaign cost data.
utm_source_platform: The platform responsible for directing traffic to a given Analytics property (such as a buying platform that sets budgets and targeting criteria or a platform that manages organic traffic data). For example: Search Ads 360 or Display & Video 360.
utm_creative_format: Type of creative, for example: display, native, video, search (utm_creative_format is not currently reported in Google Analytics 4 properties).
utm_marketing_tactic: Targeting criteria applied to a campaign, for example: remarketing, prospecting (utm_marketing_tactic is not currently reported in Google Analytics 4 properties.)
Note: Each parameter must be paired with a value that you assign. Each parameter-value pair then contains campaign-related information.
But when does it make sense to actually leverage this custom tracking capability? Here are a few reasons an extremely advanced company may want to use custom parameters in GA4:
Unique Campaign Variables: If your campaigns have unique attributes that don't fit into the standard UTM parameters, custom parameters can be invaluable. For instance, let's say you want to track user interaction based on a special offer code in an email campaign; a custom parameter could help you do that.
Advanced Segmentation: Custom parameters allow you to slice and dice your data in advanced ways, facilitating more effective targeting and retargeting campaigns.
Multi-Channel Funnels: If you're using multiple platforms to generate leads or conversions, custom parameters can help you understand how these channels interact and contribute to the customer journey.
Enhanced Reporting: You get a more detailed level of reporting that standard UTM parameters can't provide. This can include custom event tracking, or other specific user interactions that you want to monitor.
Holistic View: Custom parameters provide a fuller, more nuanced view of your campaign performance. This helps you to make more data-driven decisions, optimizing your marketing strategies in real-time.
When to Be Cautious
Complexity: More customization can lead to more complexity. Ensure your team understands how to interpret the new parameters you are introducing.
Data Integrity: Make sure you aren't creating too many similar custom parameters, which could potentially muddy your data. Stick to what’s necessary for accurate analysis.
Privacy Concerns: Custom parameters can sometimes capture more user data than intended. Ensure you're in compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR or CCPA when using custom parameters.
Given the functionality and flexibility GA4 offers, businesses with complex campaigns and diverse marketing funnels are most likely to benefit from custom parameters. It's like taking the training wheels off your analytics bike: You should do it when you're ready to capture and interpret more advanced metrics that are specific to your business objectives.
Where to Find Custom Campaign Data in Reporting
You can see Session source/medium, Session medium, Session source, and Session campaign in the Acquisition > Traffic acquisition report.