UTM Parameter Best Practices (+21 Tips For Campaign Tracking)

When you follow the best practices of UTM parameters, you can feel assured you have a reliable way of tracking campaigns.

With UTM codes, you can even track your website traffic to conversions as they remain unaffected by third-party cookie changes and integrate well into various analytic platforms.

No, you need not rely on only your gut or dig through data to make optimizing decisions; it all starts with the UTM Generator microapp.

What Are UTM Codes For Analytic Tech

UMT codes are a string of text added to your URLs to help track clicks leading to a specific link.

Here is a sample of our website link: microapp.io

Here, we have the exact link with the UTM code added to it:

https://www.microapp.io/?utm_source=LinkedIn&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Campaign&utm_content=Content

For those who are not marketers, it may just look like a jumble of letters and symbols. However, it represents the five essential UTM parameters for those at the forefront of marketing.

UTM stands for Urchin Traffic Monitor codes, and the added text informs analytic tools for categorizing incoming traffic data. These tags are:

• The source is what search engine, social network, or other source drives traffic to your website.
• The medium tag is the type of channel, for example, paid social, email, or organic social, that drives the traffic to your website.
• The terms are the key phrases or paid keywords that help to warrant the UTM tag.
• With the content, you can differentiate different ads for your campaign.
• Your last tag is your campaign name to keep track of your traffic. It can be a deal, sale, contest, product name, or an influencer ID.

Check out our detailed guide to learn more about each UTM code section.

What Makes UTMs Essential For Tracking Campaigns?

UTMs are essential if you have a lengthy list of traffic references. They provide important click-through data, allowing you to create campaign variations for each source.

When someone clicks on another website, the URL of the referring website is sent to the analytics tool you use to record it as a click source. In your report, the URL is stipulated as the referrer and displayed as a source of that session.

You can find many scenarios in which your referring URL is not able to pass, including:

• Clicks in emails, especially when opened on desktop apps
• Scanned QR codes
• Clicks from a PDF or an offline spreadsheet

Even when you use that referring URL as a session source, you might overlook important details necessary for evaluating its performance, which is crucial for making informed decisions to enhance your ROI. Without UTMs, you miss out on key variations, such as:

• What campaign brought in the most valuable clicks?
• What ad or post in your campaign helped prompt the sessions, resulting in a higher value of generated leads?
• What CTA or button was overlooked?
• Which of your email lists resulted in a higher click rate?
• What subject line resulted in increased website engagement?

You can still discover detailed differences within your advertising platforms. For instance, Facebook Ads offers data, but it can be challenging to determine which option to select.

Conversely, email services offer insights that allow you to track your email performance independently of your website. However, utilizing Google Ads is more advantageous, as it integrates seamlessly with Google Analytics, enabling you to link your advertising efforts with site interactions.

Still, having UTM codes takes it further, allowing you to formalize your campaign reporting and the ROI across platforms.

Best Practices of UTMs And Mistakes

Now that you understand why UTMs work so well, we can avoid common mistakes and follow some excellent practices.

First Part: The Best Way to Use Your Custom and Standard Parameters

1. Use utm_campaign For Your Campaign Names

The campaign code lets you see what guests look for on your website. You can then reference a related sale, product, contest, or partnership, making the message readable, concise, and specific.

For instance, a multinational e-commerce company partakes in a substantial 6-month sale in London at the beginning of the year. You can use the following campaign parameter:

utm_campaign=uk_winter_sale_2023

So, the easy reference is the country (UK), the year 2023, and the campaign is a winter sale. The fantastic thing is that this UTM code can be used across numerous platforms.

Hence, accompanying campaigns can be kept separate. You will glimpse which links, such as ads, social media, or email, perform well within your campaign.

You can choose a campaign code that aligns with your marketing strategy. For instance, a campaign focused on subscriptions can be effectively executed across various platforms.

utm_campaign=leadgen-newmembers

It's essential to be specific because broad labels can hinder your ability to organize your information effectively.

While, for instance, an anniversary sale works nicely in your business's first year, you will celebrate more, and the information will pile up, creating chaos later on.

2. Use utm_source For Your Platform or Website Name

The UTM source designation identifies the website or platform that generates traffic to your site. This traffic may come from different channels, including email campaigns, search engines, advertisements, or social media platforms.

Use all lowercase letters when writing your brand name or website (without the .com).

utm_source=linkedin and ‘utm_source=mailchimp

Conventions and consistency are essential because if you use Facebook for your summer campaign and another person on your team uses Instagram or Facebook; the data will be splintered, making it challenging to analyze.

3. Use utm_medium For Your Channel Type

The medium code refers to the channel you use to drive traffic to your campaign. It covers native, display, email marketing, and CPC. If you use a social media platform, the phrase "social" is enough.

For example, Facebook CPC displays as follows: utm_medium=social-cpc, and here are more options:

• utm_medium=paid-pr
• utm_medium=email
• utm_medium=paid-pr

Still, do not confuse yourself with the medium UTM with your source tag when you complete the field on our UTM generator.

Configuring emails is a straightforward instance, yet email remains your primary channel. You can designate the source tag to represent your newsletter distribution list or the specific platform used for sending.

4. Use utm_content For Your Link Placements

The content URL parameter allows you to identify the link types or placements driving clicks. This is handy if you have two different types of ads or CTAs in an email or ad that link to the identical URL.

Take Facebook as an example. When you hover over the feed, it reveals your ads, but you can find ads on your sidebar when you access your website. To help create a distinction between your two ads, you can style each of the content parameters differently:

utm_content=sidebar

utm_content=main-feed

utm_content=headline

utm_content=caption

utm_content=first-blog-banner-v2

Please do not make the same mistake as most other marketers by not including the code, as it is optional. Also, please do not create multiple names for your campaigns, as it becomes difficult to track a single campaign.

5. Use utm_term For Your Copy Versions

This term code comes from Google Ads, which tracks a customer's search keywords to reach your site. With this parameter, you can see what phrases convince your visitor to take action.

For instance, if you have a paid campaign using the target keyword women's black boots or black boots for sale. You can use it to track which keywords drove the most traffic to your site and contributed to the revenue.

utm_term=womens_black_boots

utm_term=black_boots_for_sale

You can also use it for emails, and it helps you conduct A/B testing to see what subject line or CTA resonates well with users.

For example, you could consider using two different subject lines in an email campaign for a Valentine's Day giveaway.

The first can be: Spoil your loved one with a trip or Win a free trip for you and a loved one.

utm_term=spoil_your_loved_one_with_a_trip

utm_term=win_a_free_trip_for_you_and_a_loved_one

With the content, you can differentiate between your ads, such as ad headlines. Similarly, you can add different headline visions to that term parameter with your email subject line.

6. Use Custom Parameters For Regular Reporting on Special Attributes

The above parameters cover the basics, but custom parameters will help refine the UTM tracking, providing more accurate and targeted results while maintaining data integrity.

You will only use them if your campaigns frequently and repeatedly have characteristics that distinguish them in the reporting and do not easily fit into the provided parameters.

Differentiating your links between two agencies you want to run a trial with can be helpful. You can also use it between long-term collaborators, two popular sub-brands, and more.

All of this is made possible when you add custom parameters to your UTM codes:

&geo=orlando

&nfluencer=brian-poarch

&affiliate=alissa-joe&agency=micro

&brand=fresh

It will allow you to differentiate your campaigns without overloading your basic parameters. It will also help make ROI data filtering and sorting simpler when using your analytics tool.

Check out our detailed article on how to use UTM to track your website traffic.

Second Part: Systems For Actionable Reporting

A thorough UTM tagging system will enable consistent campaign names. It will also make it easier to create unified reporting, allowing you to see all your campaign data in one place. Thus, you will get a complete picture of your marketing, which helps level up attribution and enables you to make excellent budget allocation decisions.

7. Establish Your Naming Convention

These are naming rules you must establish and are the best approach for you to create UTMs. For instance, you provide clients with tailored quotes for a service using organic social, paid ads, sponsored posts, and newsletters.

Then your convection for your campaign should be:

• Campaign parameter: Request quote for all channels
• Medium parameter: always use the social-cps for your paid add and paid-pr for sponsored posts.
• Source parameter: Use your platform's full name, for example, facebook and mailchimp.

Clear instructions ensure your team can use it correctly and strengthen the UTM reporting. We recommend using a tool like UTM io to define your rules and set up permissions to help maintain tagging. Thus, the naming conventions will be built into the team workflow as a default.

8. Make Your UTMs Close To A GA Default Channel Grouping

One of the best practices for UTMs is not to reinvent the wheel but to follow your default channels. 

When you use UTMs matching your GA-defined channel groups, you can compare campaign data from your controlled platforms with organic channel data from your uncontrolled platforms.

Free websites, organic Google, and email correspondence linking to you are channels that you cannot control.

9. Always Make a Record of Whom and When a Person Built the Link

You must document your UTM creation from the start using the name of the manager who built the link. If there are questions, you can refer them back to the person to get answers.

Both your UTM builder tool and spreadsheet allow you to record the names of link creators. However, sheets are not viable because you can easily ignore information.

10. Use UTM Tools For Workflow Consistency

Creating UMS takes a lot of time if you are running different campaigns and need to make multiple tags.

You may use a spreadsheet, but it can become messy and cause headaches over time. A UTM Builder can simplify things and save you time.

Our tagging tool will help you create UTM codes for your campaigns even when different members make them.

Third Part: When And When Not to Use UTMs

Best practices for UTM parameters include when to use them and avoid them.

11. Always Tag Your Social and Email Campaigns

Your social and email campaigns can easily be miscategorized as other or referral. The best thing is to tag your two channels but go beyond having a random tag associated with them.

Create your tags instead of using automatic tagging from email platforms. Auto-generated UTMs never align with your taxonomy and are not always compliant with UTM parameter best practices.

The same applies to auto-tagging on social platforms, and we recommend using UTM naming instead.

12. Never Use UTMs on Natural Referrers

UTMs are not made for organic search; links are organically shared in your messaging apps, emails sent by users or social posts. These channels provide you with little control. You can find some people trying to tag some organic traffic, but the data is not complete and unverifiable.

13. Avoid Using UTMs on The Referrers You Control

You find these referrers in local directories where you place your website link. Two of the most critical business leads are Yelp and Google My Business. So, the links in these listings are controlled by that business. So, it becomes difficult to differentiate these local directories from referrers.

14. Never Use UTMs on Your Internal Links

When you place UTMs on your internal links, you start a new visitor session, which can cause problems with your bounce rate data in campaign reports. You may also send the wrong conversion data, losing the user's origin point.

15. Use UTMs On Google Ads When Hybrid Tagging With UTM and GCLID Tags

Google Ads work well with your GA as the performance data in the Adwords account is automatically available in your analytics account.

Still, GA allows you to use GCLID and UTMs mixed manually and with auto-tagging. However, you must override your automatic tagging with manual tagging for accurate data.

16. Use a UTM Cleaner Script

A UTM cleaner script will help remove UTM parameters once your website loads. The best part is that your analytics tool will still register your UTM codes.

With clean links, you will get a higher click-through to sharing rate, better campaign tracking, and user experience with fewer incorrect attributions.

Fourth Part: Formatting

Inconsistent UTM codes alter the data and affect your ability to monitor marketing performance.

17. Avoid Using Spaces and Use Dashes 

When you use spaces, they auto-convert to 20%, causing inconsistencies and complications in your campaign results. Instead, you can use underscores to replace your spaces.

We recommend using underscores when you want to keep two words together. For example, utm_campaign=best_practice-distribution means you are distributing best practice content.

Also, please refrain from using plus signs as they will over-complicate things.

18. Use Lowercase

UTM codes are case-sensitive, and when using different cases, you must have an excellent memory to know which you capitalized.

Also, using uppercase letters will make your link look clunky, and if another person does not use the identical lowercase, the data will splinter.

19. Avoid Redundancy

You should not have similar UTM parameters, so if your source mentions Facebook, do not repeat it in the medium or campaign sections.

20. Keep Things Simple

For the best performance using UTMs, keep your naming conventions short. Try to develop a one-line summary to ensure it is clear and readable.

bcc.com/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=giveaway-valentines-day-2024&utm_content=win-a-free-trip-for-two

When you read this aloud, it sounds like a Facebook user clicked on your Valentine's Day giveaway campaign last year using the "Win a free trip for two" CTA button.

21. Keep Your Links Short

Always clean up your links to make them look better. Users avoid using long links because they can be mistaken for malware, even if a reliable antivirus exists. Still, do not compromise your UTM codes; it is not an option. So, use link shorteners to provide a clear yet recognizable link without stripping your UTM tags' value.

Fifth Part: Put Your Campaign Data to Use

Now, it is time to use your UTM parameter best practices. How can you track the variances of where the click and ROI came from?

For instance, you work in a bioenergy business organizing an annual trade show that will be held on Feb 28, 2025. Then head to our UTM build to create your UTM links to look as follows:

Organic LinkedIn vs. Paid LinkedIn

Compare your organic and paid links on LinkedIn. They will differ on your utm_medium:

PAID

https://bioenergybusiness.com/utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social-cpc&utm_campaign=annual-tradeshow-20250228

ORGANIC

http://bioenergycompany.com/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign= annual_tradeshow_20250225

ORGANIC X (TWITTER)

Leverage the content parameter to get granular with your X formats. Use videos or quotes to determine which works best for your users.

QUOTE X

http://bioenergycompany.com/?utm_source=x&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=annual-tradeshow-20250228&utm_content=quote-x-format

VIDEO X

http://bioenergycompany.com/?utm_source=x&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=annual-tradeshow-20250228&utm_content=video-x-format

EMAIL AND AFFILIATE PARTNER

At the same time, you are collaborating with a bioenergy expert book author, Alison Jung, who is a tenured professor. To help you monitor the email performance, you can set up parameters for two separate UTM links. You can place your banner inside her email with the other one using a CTA button at the bottom.

http://bioenergycompany.com/?utm_source=activecampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign =annual-tradeshow-20250228&utm_content=banner&utm_affiliate=alison-jung

http://bioenergycompany.com/?utm_source=activecampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign =annual-tradeshow-20250228&utm_content=cta-button&utm_affiliate=alison-jung

When using the above UTM tags, you will be able to report the following where the link click took place:

• Originating platform or website
• The medium type, like a social network, paid vs. organic, and more
• Information from email platforms used 
• The campaign name spans a variety of marketing efforts
• Your link placement in your message design
• Formats of social posts and the affiliate partner name

The more complex and active your campaign marketing becomes, the more consistent you will use UTM tagging. In turn, you can report more nuances, and acting on your reporting will help you with your A/B test to optimize and grow revenue.

Wrap-Up: Now It's Your Turn

Follow the proper UTM tagging and building practices to track and organize your marketing campaigns. While mastering the technique takes time, using our microapp to help you build UTM codes will make it easier, and with time, it will pay off.