A kitchen-appliance retailer shares a rice-cooker care guide by email and on social media. Both links lead to the same page. UTM parameters label those incoming links so the team can compare their visits in Google Analytics 4 (GA4).
What Are UTM Parameters?
UTM parameters are values added after a page URL. They describe how someone reached the page through a campaign link. The visitor normally lands on the same page; if the site collects the visit in GA4, Analytics can use the values to classify its source, medium and campaign.
They do not show whether the visitor bought an appliance or booked a repair. Those actions need separate, tested event tracking. UTM labels identify the link that brought the visit.
Which UTM Fields Should You Use?
For a manually tagged campaign, give the core fields consistent values. Google recommends using utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign together.
| Parameter | What it identifies | Email example |
|---|---|---|
utm_source | The sender or platform referring the visitor. | newsletter |
utm_medium | The type of channel. | email |
utm_campaign | The named promotion or content effort. | rice_cooker_care |
utm_content | Optional: which link or creative within the same campaign. | hero_button |
utm_term can identify a paid-search keyword, and utm_id can hold a stable campaign ID. Add them when they serve a real reporting need; do not invent values merely to fill every field. Avoid names, email addresses or phone numbers in campaign labels because URLs can be shared and logged.
How Do You Build a UTM Link?
Start with the actual destination. Add ? before the first parameter and & between the rest:
https://example.com/rice-cooker-care/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rice_cooker_care&utm_content=hero_buttonThis is an illustrative URL, not a live campaign. If the same email also links from its footer, keep the first three values and change utm_content to footer_link. That gives each placement a distinct label. If the destination already has a query string, append the UTM fields with & rather than a second ?.
Agree on names before distributing links. Use lowercase values, underscores for multiword names and one spelling per channel. GA4 treats Email and email as different medium values. Encode special characters in URLs, and test the final link after redirects.
Where Should You Use UTM Links?
Use them on links that bring people to your site from a campaign you control: an email, an organic social post, a partner placement or a QR code. Each source and medium should describe the actual placement. Do not call an email link organic simply because you did not pay for the send.
Do not add UTM labels to your own website's menu, cards or internal buttons. They are meant to describe an incoming campaign link, not the visitor's next click within the site. For internal actions, use tested GA4 events instead. If an advertising platform supplies automatic tagging, check its integration first: when manual and automatic tagging are both present, GA4 uses auto-tagged values for source and medium.
How Do You Check UTM Data in GA4?
- Open the exact link you plan to share and confirm it reaches the intended page with the parameters still present in the final URL. A redirect that drops them can make the campaign data incomplete.
- After data is collected, look at GA4's Traffic acquisition report for Session source / medium or Session campaign. The Manual report shows session-level manual campaign dimensions if it is included in your report collection.
- Compare like with like. A newsletter visit and a social visit can be compared as traffic sources; neither label proves that a sale or enquiry happened. Check a separately verified key event before drawing that conclusion.
Do not confuse a session-level source with First user source, which describes a person's first acquisition. If campaign rows do not appear, inspect the link, redirects, date range, property and collection settings before concluding there was no traffic. Our GA4 organic traffic guide covers search visits; the events and key events guide covers actions after arrival.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is an Example of a UTM Link?
A social link to the same guide could use utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_campaign=rice_cooker_care. The source and medium change; the campaign stays consistent so its placements can be compared.
What Is the Difference Between a URL and a UTM Parameter?
The URL identifies the destination. A UTM parameter is one type of query parameter appended to that URL to describe the link's campaign source. Other query parameters can serve different purposes.
What Are the Five Common UTM Parameters?
They are utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content and utm_term. The first three are the core campaign labels; use the other two when they add useful detail. Google also supports fields such as utm_id.