UTM Parameters Explained

What Are UTM Parameters?

UTM parameters (Urchin Tracking Modules) are query tags appended to destination URLs to provide campaign information to analytics platforms. Google Analytics 4 can use these values in campaign dimensions and channel classification, subject to the information collected and GA4 processing. They help with reporting but do not guarantee attribution to a particular campaign, channel, or creative.

A fully tagged URL looks like this:

https://example.com/landing?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=spring_launch_2025&utm_id=cmp_98472&utm_content=search_ad_v1&utm_term=utm+builder+tool

GA4 supports 9 manual campaign parameters: six commonly used/core parameters plus three additional GA4 parameters. Some newer parameters currently have reporting limitations.

Google documents the traditional manual parameters plus utm_source_platform, utm_creative_format, and utm_marketing_tactic; Google also separately documents and recommends utm_id. Google notes that utm_creative_format and utm_marketing_tactic are not currently reported in GA4 properties.

Complete UTM Parameter Reference Table

GA4 supports 9 manual campaign parameters: six commonly used/core parameters plus three additional GA4 parameters. Some newer parameters currently have reporting limitations. Google documents the traditional manual parameters plus utm_source_platform, utm_creative_format, and utm_marketing_tactic; Google also separately documents and recommends utm_id. Google notes that utm_creative_format and utm_marketing_tactic are not currently reported in GA4 properties.

utm_source - Campaign Source Parameter

Definition: Identifies the specific referrer, publisher, platform, or origin that sent traffic to your website. It answers the question: "Where did this visitor come from?"

GA4 Dimension: Session source and First user source

Recommended utm_source Values by Channel

utm_medium - Campaign Medium Parameter

Definition: Identifies the broad marketing channel or advertising method. It answers: "What type of marketing activity drove this traffic?" This is the most critical parameter for GA4 Default Channel Grouping - it is evaluated against regular expressions to classify sessions.

GA4 Dimension: Session medium and First user medium

GA4 Default Channel Grouping - Accepted Medium Values

Core Parameters: utm_campaign, utm_id, utm_term & utm_content

utm_campaign - Campaign Name

Names the specific marketing initiative. Use descriptive, structured values: product_launch_q4_2025, summer_sale_us, brand_awareness_emea.

GA4 Dimension: Session campaign & First user campaign

Best Practices: Never use spaces. Use underscores or hyphens as word separators. Include quarter and year for temporal filtering: campaign_name_q4_2025.

utm_id - Campaign Identifier

A unique alphanumeric ID that matches the campaign record in your ad platform, CRM, or data warehouse. Separately documented and recommended by Google for GA4 Cost Data Import to tie advertising spend to conversion outcomes in GA4 Advertising reports.

GA4 Dimension: Campaign ID / Manual campaign ID

Example: utm_id=meta_c00298171 - where the value matches your Meta Ads campaign ID.

utm_term - Keyword or Audience Targeting

Primarily used for paid search to capture the keyword that triggered the ad. In Google Ads, use the {keyword} ValueTrack macro to auto-populate. In display or social, use it to identify the audience segment or targeting criterion.

GA4 Dimension: Session manual ad term

utm_content - Creative Variant or CTA Label

Differentiates between multiple creatives, ad copy versions, or calls-to-action within the same campaign. Ideal for A/B creative testing: hero_image_blue vs hero_image_green.

GA4 Dimension: Session manual ad content

Additional GA4 Parameters: utm_source_platform, utm_creative_format & utm_marketing_tactic

In addition to the six commonly used core parameters, Google Analytics 4 introduces three newer manual campaign parameters. However, marketers must be aware of their current reporting limitations:

utm_source_platform - Campaign Source Platform

Identifies the marketing platform that directed traffic to the website or app. While utm_source identifies the publisher or vendor (e.g. google), utm_source_platform identifies the sending platform interface (e.g. Google Ads, Search Ads 360, Display & Video 360, or Manual).

GA4 Dimension: Manual source platform

Example: utm_source_platform=Search+Ads+360

utm_creative_format - Campaign Creative Format

Identifies the creative asset material type used in the campaign, such as display banner, carousel, responsive search ad, or short-form video.

GA4 Dimension: Manual creative format

Example: utm_creative_format=video_vertical_9x16 or utm_creative_format=carousel

utm_marketing_tactic - Campaign Marketing Tactic

Identifies the high-level targeting strategy or marketing stage applied to the campaign, such as prospecting, brand awareness, onboarding, or dynamic remarketing.

GA4 Dimension: Manual marketing tactic

Example: utm_marketing_tactic=retargeting_cart_abandoners or utm_marketing_tactic=prospecting

9 UTM Parameter Mistakes That Destroy Analytics

1. Uppercase characters: Google and google create two different rows in GA4 reports.
2. Spaces in parameter values: Spaces must be replaced with hyphens or underscores to avoid URL encoding issues.
3. Tagging internal links: Avoid campaign UTMs between pages on your own domain. GA4 does not start a new session, but mid-session campaign values can distort event-scoped attribution. Use internal-promotion events instead.
4. Missing or unexpected utm_medium: This can limit channel classification. GA4 uses available traffic-source information and assigns Unassigned when no applicable default channel definition matches.
5. Inventing custom mediums: A value like promo, pdf, or blog_post may not match a default channel definition by itself. Check Google's current rules and the other traffic-source information before drawing a conclusion about classification.
6. Using #hash anchors before UTM tags: Query parameters placed after a # hash fragment are never sent to the web server or analytics.
7. Double-tagging redirected URLs: Adding UTMs to a URL that already has UTMs (e.g. via a redirect) creates duplicate or malformed parameter strings.
8. URL-encoding the & delimiter: Some tools double-encode & resulting in broken parameter strings.
9. Inconsistent capitalization across the team: Differently capitalized manual source and campaign values can appear separately in reports. A shared naming convention makes those values easier to compare; GA4 default channel definitions are not case-sensitive.

Frequently Asked Questions About UTM Parameters