UTM tracking codes: Learn what they are and how to make one.

Apr 01, 2025

What is a UTM tracking code?

It can be confusing that these are called “codes.” A UTM tracking code is a URL.

Yep… you got it. These are those long trailing URLs that you see when you click on an ad or in a share URL… It is long because it has tracking parameters tacked onto the end of the URL.

So what is the point of a UTM tracking code anyway?

The parameters at the end of a UTM tracking code help advertisers and marketers track where website traffic is coming from. This helps marketers differentiate where web traffic is coming from. Marketers can get as granular as tracking individual campaigns or even ID numbers and keywords that are unique to your brand.

Here is some terminology related to UTM parameters and what this terminology means:

Source: Source is the social network, search engine, or specific source that drove traffic to your site. Think of this as the specific channel (e.g., facebook, newsletter, etc…)
Medium: Medium is the channel type (e.g., organic social, paid social, email) that drove the traffic to your site. Think of medium as the larger umbrella category.
Campaign name: Every campaign should have a unique name, so you can keep track of traffic. This could be the name of a campaign that matches with your campaign calendar, but can also get as granular as name of contest, sale, deal, influencer ID, or even a product name.
Term: Here marketers can include paid keywords or key phrases that warrant a UTM tag.
Content: Content differentiates ads within a campaign.
ID: ID stands for specific campaign IDs. If your marketing operations team uses numbers to track campaigns, this can be useful.

Here is an example of what a UTM tracking code might look like:

https://www.yourwebsitename.com/page?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=yourcampaignnamehere

Here are some best practices to keep in mind:

Simple, consistent, and straight-forward naming conventions

The point of UTM tracking is for Google Analytics to pick up on parameters and to group like sources, mediums, etc… together. Example: all of your facebook campaigns on organic social will be grouped together by source and medium if they all have the same source names and medium names. The same goes for any marketing channel like email or paid media. The easiest way to get this data is to use simple, consistent, and straightforward naming conventions.

UTM codes are case sensitive

UTM codes are case sensitive, so it’s important to be cognizant of capitalization. An easy way to keep everything consistent and everyone on your team on the same page is to use lowercase letters for all of your parameters. Keeping all parameters lowercase will not only help you stay consistent but is easier than implementing anything less consistent and more complicated.

It’s a link, so no spaces

Because this is a URL, there can’t be any spaces. When writing UTM codes use hyphens, plus symbols, or underscores as dividers between words. An example of this may look like:

organic+social

organic_social

The most important thing to glean from this is that you should just pick one convention and stick with it.

In the previous example, organic+social and organic_social would register as two separate channels. To avoid discrepancies like this, pick one convention, stick with it, and make sure all of your vendors, agency partners, and team members are aware of what your chosen naming convention and all the rules that go with it. That way all of your traffic will show up in the same place in GA4. This will allow your team to toggle between what they need with ease when pulling data for reports.

Create a Source of Truth document to keep everyone on the same page.

Important information to cover in your source of truth document are:

Always remember to include your naming rules in a source of truth document.

This should include information about capitalization, what type of dividers will be used between words (hyphens, underscores, etc…), format for campaign names (starts with YYMM, etc…).

Remember to include what types of campaigns your team should remember to track.

This can be as simple as outlining which channels will use UTM parameters, such as email campaigns, influencer campaigns, PR, QR code scans on print materials and OOH.

And most importantly, what each of your parameters mean.

This should include the most important source and medium, but also campaign, content, term, and ID, if your department plans on using more granular data.

Create a spreadsheet for keeping track of UTM tracking codes that your entire team can access.

This will help to keep your whole team on the same page when pulling links for the same campaign; and to pull examples of UTM codes in addition to your source of truth document.