UTM Parameters Explained: A Simple Tracking Guide for Small Businesses

When someone clicks a link in your newsletter, an Instagram bio or a printed flyer, your analytics often can’t tell where they came from. UTM parameters fix that. They’re short tags added to the end of a URL that tell Google Analytics the source, medium and campaign of each visit.

What a tagged link looks like

https://example.com/spring-sale/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring_sale

Everything after the ? is tracking. Visitors land on the same page; your reports now show that this visit came from the newsletter, by email, for the spring sale.

The parameters Google Analytics 4 uses

Google’s help page says you should always use these three:

Parameter	What it identifies	Examples
utm_source	Where the traffic comes from (the referrer)	newsletter, facebook, google
utm_medium	The marketing medium	email, social, cpc, qr
utm_campaign	The product, promotion or campaign	spring_sale, product_launch

Google also strongly recommends utm_id (a campaign ID) and utm_source_platform. Two more are optional and useful:

• utm_content — tells apart two links in the same message, such as a header button and a footer link.
• utm_term — the paid keyword, mostly for search ads.

A naming convention that keeps reports clean

UTM values are case sensitive: utm_source=Facebook and utm_source=facebook show up as two different sources. Google recommends using lowercase as a standard. A few rules make the biggest difference:

1. Lowercase everything.
2. Use underscores instead of spaces (black_friday, not Black Friday).
3. Pick one name per source and stick to it (facebook, never fb one week and facebook the next).
4. Keep a shared list of allowed sources, mediums and campaign names in a spreadsheet.

Consistent naming also affects how GA4 groups traffic into channels, so inconsistent values can put visits in the wrong channel.

Ready-made examples

Where the link goes	utm_source	utm_medium	utm_campaign	utm_content
Weekly newsletter button	newsletter	email	weekly_2026_10_22	header_button
Instagram bio link	instagram	social	bio_link
Facebook paid ad	facebook	paid_social	autumn_sale	video_ad_1
QR code on a flyer	flyer	qr	store_opening
Partner’s blog post	partner_name	referral	guest_post

Build these in seconds with our free UTM Builder, which checks the format as you type.

Where to find the results in GA4

Look at the traffic acquisition reports and choose session source / medium or session campaign as the dimension. Google notes that UTM parameters don’t appear in the landing page + query string dimension; the full tagged URL is in page location.

Common mistakes

• Tagging internal links (links from one page of your site to another). This overwrites the original source of the visit. Only tag links that bring people to your site.
• Mixing cases and spellings, which splits one source into several rows.
• Forgetting utm_campaign, which leaves you with traffic you can’t connect to a promotion.
• Sharing long tagged links where they look untidy. For print and social bios, a short link or QR code that points to the tagged URL looks cleaner.

Planning an email campaign? Our Email Subject Line Builder helps with the other half of the click.