Priya Rajan
Marketing Lead
Everything you need to know about UTM tracking — what each parameter does, how to structure campaigns, common mistakes to avoid, and how to read the data in analytics.
UTM parameters are small text snippets you add to any URL to tell your analytics platform exactly where a click came from. They're the backbone of campaign attribution — and they're surprisingly easy to get wrong.
The Five UTM Parameters
- utm_source — WHO sent the traffic. Examples: google, facebook, newsletter, partner-site
- utm_medium — HOW they were sent. Examples: cpc, email, social, banner, qr
- utm_campaign — WHICH campaign. Examples: black-friday-2025, product-launch, weekly-digest
- utm_content — WHICH variation (optional). Examples: hero-cta, sidebar-link, blue-button
- utm_term — WHICH keyword triggered the ad (optional, mostly for paid search)
The Most Common UTM Mistakes
1. Inconsistent casing
Google Analytics treats utm_source=Facebook and utm_source=facebook as two different sources. Always use lowercase and hyphens — no spaces, no underscores, no mixed case. Define a naming convention once and document it.
2. Tagging internal links
UTM parameters reset the session in GA4. If you tag internal links, every click looks like a new acquisition from that source. Only tag external traffic sources — never your own site.
3. Not tagging QR codes
QR code scans often show up as "(direct)" in analytics because phones don't pass referrer headers. Always use utm_medium=qr on any URL that goes into a QR code. ShortLink lets you set this as a workspace default so you never forget.
“If you're not tagging your QR codes, you're flying blind on offline-to-online attribution.”
A Practical Naming Convention
Here's a convention we use internally at ShortLink that scales well:
- utm_source: the platform or partner (google, instagram, mailchimp)
- utm_medium: the channel type (cpc, social, email, qr, display)
- utm_campaign: [year]-[quarter]-[campaign-name] — e.g. 2025-q4-black-friday
- utm_content: [placement]-[variant] — e.g. hero-primary, footer-secondary
Use ShortLink's workspace UTM defaults to auto-apply your naming convention to every link — so your team doesn't have to remember.
Reading Your UTM Data
In GA4, go to Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition to see breakdown by session source/medium. Filter by campaign to compare individual campaign performance. In ShortLink, your UTM data appears per-link in the analytics dashboard alongside geo and device data.
About the author
Priya Rajan
Marketing Lead at ShortLink
Writing about growth, product, and the future of link intelligence at ShortLink.