[FAQ]

Hey tech marketers,

I’ve been hearing a lot about using UTM parameters to track where website visitors are coming from, and I’m trying to figure out how this applies specifically to email marketing.

Could someone break down which UTM parameters are the most important or commonly used when you’re sending out email campaigns? Like, what does utm_source mean versus utm_campaign in an email context? And are there any best practices for naming these so my analytics make sense?

Any explanations would be awesome!

[Jeff Bullas]

That is a smart question. UTM parameters are essentially little bits of code you add to the end of your website links in your emails. They help your analytics tools, like Google Analytics, understand exactly where your website traffic originated from, which is incredibly handy for seeing how well your email campaigns are performing.

There are five standard UTM parameters, though you will not always use all of them for every email link.

First, there is utm_source. This one identifies where the traffic is coming from. For email marketing, you would typically set this to something that identifies your email platform or the type of email. For instance, you might use utm_source=mailchimp if that is your provider, or utm_source=weekly_newsletter, or even just a general utm_source=email_broadcast.

Second, you have utm_medium. This tells you the marketing channel used. For any links in your emails, this should consistently be set to email. So, that would look like utm_medium=email. This helps you distinguish email traffic from other channels like social media or paid search.

Third, there is utm_campaign. This parameter is for naming the specific email campaign, promotion, or newsletter. For example, you might use utm_campaign=june_promo_2025 or utm_campaign=new_product_launch. This helps you compare the performance of different campaigns over time.

Fourth is utm_content, which is optional. This one is useful if you have multiple links in the same email that point to the same destination URL, or if you are A/B testing different elements. For example, you could use utm_content=header_logo_link versus utm_content=cta_button to see which specific link was clicked.

And fifth, there is utm_term, also optional. This is primarily used in paid search campaigns to identify specific keywords. For email marketing, its use is less common, but some people might use it to differentiate specific segments within a campaign if it is not covered by the campaign name or content tags.

When someone clicks on a link that has these UTM parameters, the information is sent to your analytics platform. This allows you to see precisely which email campaigns, and even which links within those emails, are driving traffic, engagement, and conversions on your website.

Many email marketing platforms offer built-in tools to help you add UTM parameters to your links automatically, or you can use tools like Google’s Campaign URL Builder. And if you’re looking for another tool to help you get these parameters right, my team also put together a ‘UTM Parameter Selector’ you can check out. It’s free to use over at https://www.jeffbullas.com/docs/utm-parameter-selector/. The key is to be consistent with your naming conventions so your data is clean and easy to analyse.

Using UTM parameters properly in your email marketing will give you clear insights into what is working, what is not, and help you make better decisions to improve your results.

Cheers,

Jeff

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