[FAQ]

Hi,

I’m fairly new to a marketing role, and I’m trying to get my head around analytics. I keep seeing these really long URLs in our reports with bits at the end like ?utm_source=… and &utm_medium=…. I gather these are UTM parameters.

I understand on a basic level that they help with tracking, but I’m a bit fuzzy on the details. How do you actually decide what to put in each parameter (source, medium, campaign)? Is there a standard system people follow?

And how does this information actually show up in Google Analytics? I want to start using them for our social media posts so we can see what’s working, but I want to make sure I’m setting them up correctly from the start.

Any guidance would be brilliant.

[Jeff Bullas]

That’s an excellent question to be asking; mastering UTMs is how you move from just seeing traffic to truly understanding it.

Short Answer: UTM parameters are short snippets of text added to the end of a URL that tell your analytics tools exactly where a visitor came from, allowing you to accurately measure the performance of your marketing content and campaigns.

Think of them as descriptive labels you attach to your links so you can sort your website visitors into organised groups inside your analytics reports.

Using them correctly involves a few key steps. First, you need to understand the main text fields: utm_source identifies where the traffic came from, like ‘facebook’ or a ‘newsletter’; utm_medium identifies the type of link, such as ‘social’ or ’email’; and utm_campaign identifies a specific promotion, like ‘spring_sale_2025’. Second, you use a tool like Google’s URL Campaign Builder to generate these links; you simply input your website address and the text for your parameters, and it creates the final, trackable URL for you. Finally, this data flows into Google Analytics, allowing you to see in your reports exactly how much traffic and how many conversions your ‘spring_sale_2025’ campaign from ‘facebook’ generated. The biggest mistake is inconsistency; always use a clear, consistent naming convention, as using ‘Facebook’ and ‘facebook’ will create two separate, messy entries in your reports.

Cheers,
Jeff

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