The five tags
A UTM link is an ordinary address with a query string. The name comes from Urchin Tracking Module, the product Google bought and turned into its first analytics.
| Tag | Answers | Example |
|---|---|---|
utm_source | Where is the link placed? | newsletter, producthunt, x |
utm_medium | What kind of place is it? | email, social, cpc |
utm_campaign | Which push is it part of? | launch-week |
utm_term | Which paid keyword? | web analytics |
utm_content | Which link, if two are alike? | header-button |
Source, medium and campaign are the working set. Term and content are optional.
A full link looks like this:
https://example.com/pricing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=launch-weekWhat they are for
Without tags, analytics guesses from the referrer, and a click from a newsletter or a messaging app often has none, so it lands in Direct. A tag states the source outright, so the visit is counted where you meant it. Tags also let you tell apart two campaigns that share one source, such as two emails to the same list.
Naming rules
The report is only as tidy as your names. Four habits keep it that way.
- Lowercase everything.
Emailandemailare two values to most tools. - Pick words and stay with them. Decide that email is
email, notmailore-mail, and write it down. - Use hyphens, not spaces.
launch-weeksurvives copy and paste wherelaunch%20weeklooks broken. - Name the campaign for the purpose and the date, such as
spring-sale-2026, so a report next year still makes sense.
What not to do
Never put UTM tags on links that stay inside your own site. In some tools they start a new session, and in all of them they overwrite the real source with your own page. Do not put personal data, such as an email address, in a tag: the whole address is visible in the browser and ends up in logs and shared links. And do not tag a link you cannot control; tags are for links you place.
How trckable reads them
All five tags are recorded and shown on the Campaigns tab. Tags also feed the channel rules: a utm_medium of email counts as Email, and paid mediums such as cpc count as Paid. Everything else in a query string is dropped before it is stored, so a session id or an address in a URL never reaches the database. The details are in the docs on channels.
Try it in trckable
Build a tagged link in your browser, keep the ones you made, and read the results campaign by campaign on the Campaigns tab. Open the UTM builder
Related terms
Read more
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