UTM Builder - Campaign URL Builder & QR Code

What are UTM parameters?

UTM parameters are five optional query-string additions to a URL that your analytics platform uses to identify the source, channel, and campaign behind a visit. When a user clicks a UTM-tagged link, those values appear in your reports so you can measure exactly which marketing effort drove the traffic.

The five UTM parameters

• utm_source - Who sent the traffic? Examples: google, newsletter, facebook.
• utm_medium - What channel? Examples: cpc, email, social, referral.
• utm_campaign - Which campaign? Examples: spring-sale-2024, brand-awareness-q1.
• utm_term - (Paid search) Which keyword triggered the ad?
• utm_content - Which ad or link variant? Useful for A/B testing.

Best practices

• Always lowercase. Analytics platforms are case-sensitive; "Email" and "email" appear as two separate rows.
• Use hyphens, not spaces. Spaces are percent-encoded and make URLs harder to read.
• Be consistent. Agree on a naming convention within your team (e.g., always use email never e-mail or Email).
• Don't use UTMs on internal links. Internal UTMs override the original source in session-based analytics, hiding where visitors really came from.

GA4 vs. Universal Analytics differences

In Google Analytics 4, UTM parameters map to dimensions differently than in Universal Analytics. The key change: utm_campaign maps to the Campaign dimension in GA4 reports. GA4 also introduces utm_id as a new optional parameter for linking to campaign IDs in external systems. GA4 treats UTM parameters more flexibly - unrecognized custom UTM parameters can be forwarded to event parameters via the gtag config.

Auto-tagging vs. manual UTM

Google Ads uses auto-tagging - the gclid parameter appended automatically to destination URLs - to pass richer data to GA4 than UTM parameters can carry (bid strategy, match type, keyword quality score, etc.). Using both UTMs and auto-tagging on the same Google Ads link can cause double-counting in GA4. Best practice: use auto-tagging for Google Ads traffic, and reserve UTM parameters for all other channels (email, social, display, affiliate).

UTM naming convention

Inconsistent naming is the most common UTM problem in team environments. Recommend establishing a shared convention before your first campaign:

• Always lowercase all values - analytics treats “Email” and “email” as different sources.
• Use hyphens as separators: spring-sale-2025 not spring_sale_2025.
• Structure utm_campaign as {channel}/{name}/{YYYY-QQ}, e.g. email/spring-sale/2025-Q2.
• Maintain a central UTM registry spreadsheet shared across the marketing team to prevent duplicate or inconsistent campaign names.