UTM tags: working out which channel delivered
A UTM tag is an addition to a link's address that tells your analytics where the person came from. The tool is simple, but carelessness with it is the single most common reason channel statistics fall apart.
This is an addition to a link's address that tells your analytics where the person came from. Three parts are mandatory: source, traffic type and campaign — in lowercase Latin characters, spelled the same way everywhere. The main mistake is tagging internal links on your own site: it breaks up sessions and wrecks the whole statistics.
In this article9 sections
What they are for
Without tags, analytics sees the source only approximately: «a visit from a social network». With tags it sees precisely: this campaign, this ad, this banner in the newsletter.
They matter most where the source cannot be identified any other way: newsletters, messengers, QR codes, partner placements, the link in a profile bio.
What they are made of
| Parameter | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| utm_source | Where they came from | google, yandex, instagram, newsletter |
| utm_medium | Type of traffic | cpc, email, social, qr |
| utm_campaign | Which campaign | renovation-august, promo-autumn |
| utm_content | What exactly | banner-1, header-button |
| utm_term | The keyword | usually filled in automatically |
The first three are mandatory, the rest are optional. A tagged link looks long, but people almost never see it: they click a button or a piece of text.
Naming rules
This is not a formality. Careless spelling turns one channel into five separate rows in your report.
- Lowercase only. Instagram and instagram are two different sources to your analytics.
- Latin characters only. Non-Latin text in a tag turns into an unreadable string.
- No spaces. Separate words with a hyphen or an underscore, but use the same one everywhere.
- One shared vocabulary. Keep a list of allowed values and stick to it.
- Readable by a person. In six months you should still know what «promo-3» meant.
Keep a table of every tag you use. It takes ten minutes and saves you from an inconsistency that cannot be fixed retroactively.
Where tags are mandatory
- All advertising, unless the platform inserts tags itself.
- Links in newsletters — each button separately.
- The link in your social media bio.
- QR codes on printed material and on the premises.
- Links at partners and in directories.
- Links in your email signature.
Where they do not belong: internal links on your own site. That breaks the statistics — moving between pages gets counted as a new visit from an external source.
Typical mistakes
- Tags on internal links. The most common and most destructive: sessions get broken up and sources distorted.
- Spelling one source differently across campaigns.
- Tags that get lost in a redirect on the site.
- No tags where the source cannot be identified otherwise.
- Tags in links that get indexed by search engines — this creates duplicate pages.
- Tags left in place after a promotion ends: statistics keep accumulating under the old name.
How to connect them to a request
The tag itself lives in the page address. For it to reach the request, the form has to remember it and pass it along with the enquiry.
- Save the tag on arrivalUsually into a hidden form field or into browser storage.
- Pass it with the requestInto the email, the messenger, the CRM — wherever the enquiry lands.
- Store it on the client recordSo the deal can later be tied back to the source.
- Test it in practiceWalk the path yourself via a tagged link and check whether the tag reached the request.
Ready-made naming schemes
Rather than inventing something each time, it pays to fix a vocabulary of values and use only that.
| Channel | source | medium |
|---|---|---|
| Google paid search | cpc | |
| Yandex paid search | yandex | cpc |
| Social media advertising | social | |
| Newsletter | newsletter | |
| Social media profile | bio | |
| QR code in print | qr | |
| Partner placement | partner-name | referral |
Name the campaign by meaning and period: renovation-autumn, promo-march. A year later you should still know what it was.
Tags and privacy
UTM tags contain no personal data: they say where a visit came from, not who came. Even so, there are rules worth following.
- Never put names, phone numbers or email addresses in tags — they end up in logs and reports.
- Do not pass internal client identifiers through tags.
- Tagged links are visible in browser history and can be forwarded on.
How to check everything works
- Follow your own tagged link in a private window.
- Leave a test request.
- Check whether the tag reached the email or the CRM.
- Check that the visit appeared in analytics with the right source.
- Repeat after every new campaign launch.
Frequent questions
Do tags spoil how a link looks?
A long link looks worse, but people usually click a button or text. Where the link itself is visible, there are shorteners that preserve the tags.
Do tags affect SEO?
They can, if tagged addresses get indexed: you end up with duplicates. This is solved with a canonical address and by keeping parameters out of the index.
Do we need to tag paid search links by hand?
Usually not: ad platforms can insert tags automatically. But it is worth checking what gets inserted and in what form.
What do we do with old tags?
Nothing, their statistics remain. The important thing is not to reuse a name for a new campaign, or the data will blend together.
What about links in offline advertising?
Use a short tagged address or a QR code. Otherwise business cards, banners and print all merge into «direct visits» and cannot be assessed.
Should links inside one newsletter be tagged differently?
Yes, each button separately via utm_content. Then you can see which block of the email brings the clicks, not just the email as a whole.
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