UTM source, medium and campaign: what each means, with examples by channel

The UTM source (utm_source) names where a click came from, such as google, weekly-digest or linkedin. It is 1 of 5 standard tags added to a link's query string, and UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module.

utm_medium adds the channel type (email, cpc, social) and utm_campaign names the promotion.

Google Analytics 4 also uses source and medium to file each session under a default channel such as Paid Search or Email, so one mislabeled value moves conversions to the wrong row. The free UTM builder assembles the URL.

What UTM means in marketing

Urchin Software Corp. of San Diego built the tagging scheme, and Google agreed to buy the company in March 2005. The tags carried over into Google Analytics, and Adobe Analytics and other tools now parse the 5 original parameters too.

A UTM link is a normal URL plus a query string of name=value pairs joined by &, in any order. Google's URL builder page says to always include utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign.

https://example.com/pricing?utm_source=weekly-digest&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pricing-update-2026-10&utm_content=top-button

What each UTM parameter answers

Google's Analytics Help lists 9 parameters, and 6 do the daily work. The other 3 are utm_source_platform, for the buying platform (Search Ads 360, Display & Video 360 or Campaign Manager 360), plus utm_creative_format and utm_marketing_tactic.

Google says neither of the last 2 is currently reported in Google Analytics properties.

UTM source: where the click came from

Give utm_source the specific sender. Google's examples are google, newsletter4, billboard and summer-mailer, and its table asks for 1 unique value per platform. It also suggests insta for Instagram, but Google's published source list has no insta, so write instagram.

UTM medium: the kind of channel

utm_medium sorts sources into channel types, and 17 of the 19 manual-traffic rules in Google Analytics 4's default channel group read it. Google asks for 1 unique medium per channel, such as paid_social or organic_search.

A TikTok video you posted and a TikTok ad you bought share the source tiktok; the post gets social and the ad gets paid_social.

My working list has 8 values: cpc, paid_social, social, email, affiliate, referral, audio and sms, each matching a rule by name.

UTM campaign: the promotion a link belongs to

Google describes utm_campaign as the product, slogan or promo code, and wants 1 name that exactly matches the ad platform's campaign name, for example through {{campaign.name}}.

Put the year and month in the name. summer-sale reused in 2027 merges 2 seasons into 1 row, and summer-sale-2026-06 keeps them apart. A pattern I would use is goal, audience or offer, then the date: trial-retargeting-2026-10.

utm_term, utm_content and utm_id

utm_term is the paid keyword. With Google Ads auto-tagging, Google records keyword data itself. utm_content separates links inside 1 campaign: Google's example is 2 call-to-action links in a single email, each with its own value such as top-button or footer-link.

utm_id matters once you upload ad spend. In Google's campaign data import, source, medium and date are required, and campaign ID and name are optional but highly recommended.

Imported values must match what visitors logged exactly: Google's own example is that Facebook and facebook do not match. In the row below, $1,200.00 over 3,400 clicks works out to $0.35 a click.

UTM examples by channel

Ten places a link might live and the default channel Google Analytics 4 gives each. The flyer row shows where defaults stop: offline matches no rule.

https://example.com/pricing?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=founder-launch-2026-10&utm_content=post-link
https://example.com/signup?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid_social&utm_campaign=trial-retargeting-2026-10&utm_content=video-a&utm_id=cmp-2026-017
https://example.com/docs?utm_source=devtools-weekly&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=sponsor-2026-11

How Google Analytics 4 turns source and medium into channels

Google's channel definitions compare the source with lists of known search, social, video and shopping sites, and the medium with fixed words and regular expressions.

Traps that follow from those rules

• The paid channels read the medium. Google's pattern is ^(.*cp.*|ppc|retargeting|paid.*)$, so cpc, cpm, ppc, retargeting and paid_social count as paid. A Facebook ad tagged facebook / ads matches none of it, and because facebook is on the social list the session is Organic Social.
• Email, affiliate, audio and sms need exact words in the medium, and Email and SMS also accept the same word as the source. A medium of newsletter, partner or podcast matches nothing, so with an unlisted source the session is Unassigned. Referral takes referral, app or link. Display takes display, banner, expandable, interstitial or cpm, and a paid medium with a source on no list becomes Paid Other.
• Campaign names are read too. Google's Paid Shopping and Organic Shopping rules match a campaign name with shopping anywhere in it, or with shop at the start or after a hyphen, so shop-launch-2026-10 can be filed under a shopping channel.
• Direct is the empty case. Google's (direct) / (none) page lists untagged links, typed URLs, PDF links, ad blockers and redirects that strip UTMs, shorteners such as bit.ly included.
• Auto-tagging wins when both are present. Google Ads adds a GCLID and Campaign Manager 360 a DCLID, and with either one Google Analytics uses the auto-tagged source and medium while still reading utm_content and utm_term, per its traffic-source documentation.

The source lists live in a sources-and-categories file linked from the channel group page, and the copy downloaded in October 2026 has 819 entries.

When the defaults do not fit

Print, and any medium outside Google's list, needs a custom channel group. Google's custom channel group page allows 2 per standard property and 5 per 360 property, with up to 50 channels each.

Groups apply to past data, and traffic goes to the first matching channel in the group's order, so place yours above any they collide with.

Naming conventions that hold up

Google treats Meta and meta as different values. With made-up numbers, 1 Facebook campaign tagged 3 ways at $79 per purchase shows what that does to a report.

Split this way, one campaign shows conversion rates of 3.4% and 1.3%. Its real rate is 2.6%: 47 purchases from 1,800 sessions.

Common UTM mistakes

• Setting only some tags. Google recommends source, medium, campaign, utm_id and utm_source_platform together, and warns that gaps appear as (not set).
• Tagging links between your own pages. UTM tags belong on links into your site, and internal clicks are better recorded as events.
• Putting personal data in a tag. Google's PII guidance names all 5 standard parameters, and a mail-merge field that drops a subscriber's address into utm_content is the usual leak.
• Letting a redirect eat the tags. Click the final link in a fresh browser and check the address bar. The post on why UTM parameters get stripped lists the usual causes.
• Expecting tags to carry revenue. When sessions show but no money by channel, Google Analytics 4 not showing revenue by channel covers the fixes.

How TrackRev handles UTM tags

The UTM builder is free with no signup. It takes a destination URL plus 5 fields, builds the link in your browser and stores nothing. It leaves values as typed, so lowercase them yourself, and it has no utm_id field.

Inside TrackRev, each short link is created with a channel whose default tags are added to the destination on click, skipping any UTM already there: LinkedIn is linkedin / social, a newsletter is newsletter / email, YouTube is youtube / video.

The channel analytics view groups clicks by the source, medium and campaign it reads.

The Free plan covers 50 links and 1,000 tracked events a month with revenue hidden, and paid plans sync revenue from Stripe, Polar, Lemon Squeezy and Paddle: Starter is $39 a month, Growth $99 and Scale $199, with 9 months billed for 12 on annual plans (pricing).

If you only need sessions and conversions in Google Analytics, the builder and a naming sheet are enough.

To see which campaign produced paying customers, UTM parameters and Stripe attribution shows the join, and the complete UTM parameters guide covers tag types.