How to build a UTM link
- Paste the page people should land on, like
yoursite.com/pricing. - Fill in source, medium and campaign. These three are the ones every report groups by.
- Add content or term only when you need them: content to tell apart two links in one campaign, term for a paid search keyword.
- Copy the link and use it everywhere you share that campaign.
The builder runs in your browser and warns you about capital letters, which split one campaign into two rows in most reports.
The five UTM parameters
| Parameter | Answers | Example |
|---|---|---|
utm_source |
Where was the link shared? | newsletter, x, google |
utm_medium |
What kind of channel is it? | email, social, cpc |
utm_campaign |
Which campaign is it part of? | spring-launch |
utm_content |
Which link or ad in that campaign? | hero-button, video-ad |
utm_term |
Which paid keyword? | analytics software |
A finished link looks like this:
https://yoursite.com/pricing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring-launch
Naming rules that keep reports clean
- Lowercase everything.
Newsletterandnewslettercount as two sources in most tools. - Use hyphens, not spaces. Spaces turn into
%20and make links hard to read. - Keep a short list of sources and mediums and reuse it. Five people inventing their own names is how reports end up with
fb,facebookandFacebook-Ads. - Never put personal data in a UTM. Emails or names in a URL end up in logs and analytics.
UTM examples by channel
| Channel | Source | Medium | Campaign |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newsletter | newsletter |
email |
october-update |
| X post | x |
social |
spring-launch |
| LinkedIn post | linkedin |
social |
spring-launch |
| Partner blog | partner-name |
referral |
guest-post |
| Podcast mention | podcast-name |
audio |
sponsorship-q4 |
Ad platforms such as Google Ads and Meta add their own click IDs (gclid, fbclid) to links. Add UTMs as well if you want the campaign name in your own reports.
Where UTM links go wrong
- Links between your own pages. In most analytics tools a UTM on an internal link restarts the visit's source, so the real one, like Google or a newsletter, is lost. Use UTMs only on links you share elsewhere.
- Redirects that drop the query string. Test the final link: the tags must still be there after every redirect.
- One link for every channel. If the newsletter and the X post share a link, you can't tell them apart. Give each place its own source.
See which campaigns bring revenue
Visits are only half the answer. NoirTrack reads all five UTM tags on the first page view, with or without cookies, and ties each sale to the visit and campaign that brought it. Open the Sources card on your dashboard and pick Campaigns to compare them. The tracking parameters docs list everything the script reads.