UTM Parameters: Tag Your Links
UTMs are little tags you add to a link so your analytics can tell you exactly where each visitor came from.
What you will learn
- Explain what UTM parameters do
- Read the five UTM tags
- Build a correctly tagged UTM link
The problem UTMs solve
You post the same offer link in three places: your Instagram bio, a WhatsApp broadcast, and an email. People click and visit. But in your analytics they all look the same — just "visits". You cannot tell which post worked. UTM parameters fix this.
A UTM is just some extra text you stick on the end of your link. It is invisible to the visitor but tells your analytics tool where the click came from. The page still opens normally.
UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module (Urchin was the company Google bought to create Google Analytics). You do not need to remember the full name — everyone just says "UTM" — but now you know where the odd word comes from.
The five UTM tags
| Tag | Means | Example value |
|---|---|---|
| utm_source | Where the link lives (the exact place) | instagram, whatsapp, newsletter |
| utm_medium | The type of channel | social, email, cpc |
| utm_campaign | Which campaign | diwali_sale |
| utm_term | Paid keyword (optional) | running_shoes |
| utm_content | Which version of the link (optional) | biolink, storylink |
The first three (source, medium, campaign) are the important ones. The last two are optional extras for more detail.
One value above needs spelling out: cpc stands for CPC = cost per click, the standard label for paid ads where you pay each time someone clicks (Google Ads, Instagram ads). So utmmedium=cpc_ simply means "this visitor came from a paid ad".
Tip: An easy way to remember source vs medium: source is the exact place (the brand or website name, like instagram or whatsapp), while medium is the category that place belongs to (social, email, cpc). Source is specific; medium is general.
Building a tagged link
The clothing store is running a Diwali sale and wants to track clicks from its Instagram bio. Building a UTM link is the same four steps every time — follow them in order:
- Start with your normal page link — the page you want the visitor to land on, for example
https://mystore.in/diwali. - Add a question mark (
?) right after it. The question mark says "the tracking tags start here". - Add each tag as
name=value— for exampleutm_source=instagram, thenutm_medium=social, thenutm_campaign=diwali_sale. - Join the tags together with the ampersand symbol (
&) between each one. (Below we write the word "and" in its place so the symbol is easy to read.)
Put those four steps together and you get the finished link:
https://mystore.in/diwali?utm_source=instagram and utm_medium=social and utm_campaign=diwali_saleNote: Everything after the question mark is the UTM tags. In a real link you join them with the ampersand symbol instead of the word "and". The visitor lands on the normal Diwali page, but your analytics now records source = instagram, medium = social, campaign = diwali_sale.
What you see afterwards
With each channel tagged differently, your analytics can finally separate them:
| Source / Medium | Clicks | Purchases | Conv. rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| instagram / social | 600 | 24 | 4.0% |
| whatsapp / social | 300 | 30 | 10.0% |
| newsletter / email | 200 | 18 | 9.0% |
Now you can see WhatsApp converted best by far: 10% (30 purchases from only 300 clicks), versus just 4% from Instagram. Without UTMs, all 1,100 clicks would have looked identical in your reports and you would have learned nothing. With them, the lesson is clear: put more effort into WhatsApp broadcasts.
Tip: Always use the same spelling, all in lowercase. Instagram, instagram and IG will show up as three different sources and split your data. Pick a style and stick to it.
Watch out: Never put UTMs on internal links between your own pages. It confuses GA4 into thinking a visitor restarted from outside. UTMs are only for links coming INTO your site from elsewhere.
Q. In the UTM tag utm_source=whatsapp, what does "whatsapp" tell your analytics?
✍️ Practice
- Write a UTM-tagged link for a gym posting a New Year offer in its Facebook page (source, medium, campaign).
- Given a link with utmsource=newsletter and utmmedium=email, say in words where that visit came from.
🏠 Homework
- Plan UTM tags for one campaign posted in 3 different channels. Write the source, medium and campaign for each so none of them clash.