Rebeka Meszaros

In digital marketing, the precision of tracking can make or break your campaigns’ effectiveness. This is where Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and UTM codes come into play. Using these codes enhances the accuracy of your web analytics and helps you get a clearer picture of where your traffic comes from and how it interacts with your site. 

This guide will walk you through setting up and using GA4 UTM codes to optimize your digital marketing tactic. Let’s dive in and make every click count!


Understanding UTM Tracking

UTM tracking, otherwise known as Urchin Tracking Module tracking, lets you gather precise data on where your website traffic comes from using UTM parameters. Creating a UTM tagging system allows you to optimize your budget allocation to marketing activities to get the maximum value from your investment. In other words, it’s a marketing tracking tool that levels up your tracking and analysis game.

What Is a UTM Parameter?

First, what are these parameters? Simply put, a UTM parameter is a UTM tag that you append to a URL to monitor vital marketing data. Employing these tags will help you understand the efficacy of your marketing tactics. 

Let’s take a look at what the primary UTM parameters are, and what they are used for:

  • UTM source: Identifies the traffic or campaign source, such as a search engine or social media platform, clarifying user acquisition paths.
  • UTM medium: Specifies the medium, like email or CPC, highlighting the conduit through which visitors reach your site.
  • UTM campaign: Names the specific campaign name or promotion, aiding in assessing the impact of specific marketing initiatives.
  • UTM term: Tracks keywords in paid search campaigns, which is essential for refining both SEO and PPC strategies.
  • UTM content: Differentiates between links in the same campaign, which is valuable for A/B testing various calls to action.

Beyond the usual UTM parameters, you can now track four additional parameters to gather more comprehensive data:

  • UTM source platform: Identifies the platform that directs the traffic to your site.
  • UTM creative format: This parameter specifies the ad format, like video or display.
  • UTM marketing tactic: Describes the ad’s targeting approach, including strategies like prospecting, remarketing and more.
  • UTM ID: This is the campaign’s unique ID, which is essential for importing data into GA4.

At the core, these parameters are the building blocks of your UTM tracking code that give you a nuanced view of how your campaign elements drive success.

What Is a UTM Code?

Essentially, a UTM code is information added to the end of a URL string. To create UTM-tagged URLs, you’ll append the UTM code (parameters like utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, and utm_content) to a base URL. 

These URLs then work in tandem with analytics tools like GA4 and, previously, Universal Analytics to deliver actionable insights into campaign performance. Down the line, you can leverage this information for better GA4 conversion rates.

Using UTM Parameters to Track Traffic in GA4

Integrating UTM parameters with GA4 really ramps up your tracking abilities, and lets you dig deep into where users are coming from and how they’re interacting with your site. When you review the acquisition reports in GA4, you get a solid look at how effective your efforts are at pulling in traffic. This sort of analysis is key for pinpointing which tactics are actually worth your time and budget.

As you study how users behave based on your UTM parameters, you’ll start to see patterns — like whether users coming from paid search stick around longer than those from organic social posts. This kind of insight is gold when you’re trying to figure out where to best invest your marketing dollars.

All this rich data empowers you to make smarter decisions. You can shift focus and funds to the strategies and channels that are performing well, ensuring you’re not just throwing money at tactics that don’t pan out. This approach gives you a better focus, continually optimizing and improving, helping you get the most out of your marketing efforts.

How To Build UTM URLs (and Use Them Effectively)

Now let’s take a look at how to create these UTM-tagged URLs and how to track them:

Step 1: Identify the page to track

First things first: decide where you want your visitors to land. This could be anywhere from a new landing page you’re testing out, to a product page or even a blog post. Choosing the right target page is crucial as it determines the data you’ll collect.

Step 2: Decide which parameters to use

Next up, choose the UTM parameters that best suit your tracking needs. Consider what exactly you want to track. Are you monitoring the effectiveness of a Google ad or a Facebook ad? Or maybe you’re curious about traffic from your latest email campaign. Pick parameters that will give you a clear picture of your campaign’s reach and impact. 

Step 3: Use a UTM builder

Now, to make sure you’re getting those URLs right, use a tool like Google’s Campaign URL Builder. This tool also helps you format your UTM parameters correctly, ensuring that you don’t miss out on any crucial data due to formatting errors or typos.

Step 4: Enter the parameters

Input the details for each parameter. This is where you specify the campaign ID, session source or session campaign. You want to be as precise as possible here to avoid any confusion later when you’re analyzing the data. Clear, consistent naming conventions are your best friend. Consistency from one campaign link to the next helps to avoid fractured data in GA4.

Step 5: Test the URL

Before you go live with your campaign, test the URL. Click on it yourself, or have a team member do it to ensure it leads exactly where it should and that GA4 is tracking every click correctly. Nothing’s worse than finding out your tracking was off after you’ve already launched.

When setting up your UTM codes, be sure to follow best practices to maintain clarity and consistency across all your campaigns. First and foremost, use a standard naming convention and document everything. This will simplify your analysis and preserve historical data, which is invaluable for comparing campaign performance over time and ensuring continuity in your tracking efforts.

Make sure to always use lowercase letters in your UTMs; capitalization can change how data is interpreted, making ‘Facebook’, ‘facebook’, and ‘FaceBook’ appear as three distinct traffic sources. To avoid confusion, stick with lowercase. When spaces are necessary, opt for a dash or an underscore instead.

Be precise yet concise with your descriptions. Instead of a generic ‘summer-sale’, use more descriptive tags like ‘summer_discount_2023’ or ‘autumn_launch_2024’. This clarity will make it much easier to identify specific campaigns while keeping the tags straightforward.

Lastly, remember never to use UTM tags for internal links. UTMs should only be applied to external links that direct traffic back to your website. This ensures accurate tracking and prevents data contamination from internal navigation.

Tracking UTM Parameters in GA4

Once you’ve set up your UTM-tagged URLs, this is how you track them effectively:

Step 1: Set up your GA4 property

First, make sure your GA4 setup is correct. Consider integrating with Google Tag Manager; it can enhance your ability to control and manage tracking.

Step 2: Configure data streams

Set up data streams for all platforms you’re using, like your main website and any apps. This step ensures that you’re collecting data from all user interactions across platforms and don’t miss anything.

Step 3: View UTM parameter data

Next, look at the GA4 reports to review how traffic from different sources — defined by your UTM parameters — interacts with your site. This is where you identify the most effective traffic sources.

Step 4: Customize reports

Then, you can create custom GA4 reports to better understand specific marketing efforts. For instance, you can create a report to compare traffic and conversions from different campaigns like ‘summer_social_blitz’ and ‘fall_video_launch’ by focusing on utm_campaign and utm_source. Direct comparisons will help you identify which strategies are most effective. 

Step 5: Implement advanced tracking

For more granular insights, set up advanced tracking features in GA4, such as custom events that go beyond basic UTM parameters. This can help you better understand campaign effectiveness and user engagement.

Step 6: Review and adjust regularly

Evaluate the data from your UTM tracking regularly to optimize and refine your strategies. Reviewing them frequently ensures that you’re adapting to changes and continuously improving campaign results.

Leveraging UTM URLs Across Your Marketing Channels

Implementing UTM parameters effectively across different marketing channels enables you to harness detailed insights into each campaign’s performance.

For email marketing, appending UTM tags to links within your newsletters can help you track which messages drive the most traffic and conversions. For instance, using parameters like utm_source=email and utm_campaign=monthly_newsletter can differentiate traffic from various email campaigns.

In social media marketing, UTM parameters like utm_source=facebook or utm_source=instagram coupled with utm_medium=social can reveal which platform contributes more to your goals. Adding a campaign-specific tag, such as utm_campaign=spring_sale, allows you to measure the effectiveness of seasonal promotions across multiple platforms.

For content marketing, UTMs can help identify which articles or videos attract more viewers and participants. Tagging each piece of content with parameters like utm_content=blog_post_title or utm_content=video_series can show you precisely what content resonates with your audience.

In affiliate marketing, UTMs like utm_medium=affiliate and utm_source=partner_name track the performance of links shared by your partners. This can help you evaluate which partnerships are worth investing more in.

Lastly, even offline marketing campaigns can benefit from UTM codes. For example, you can embed QR codes used in print ads with UTM parameters that, once scanned, track engagement from physical to digital realms, such as utm_medium=print and utm_campaign=product_launch.

Concluding Thoughts

Now that you know how to set up and use your GA4 UTM codes, you are better equipped to measure your marketing efforts more accurately and, more importantly, how to use the data to drive your digital decision-making. Because when you have clear and precise data insights into your marketing campaigns, you can keep improving them. 

Are you looking to really take your digital marketing campaign to the next level with GA4? Let’s explore further and ensure that every campaign you run is based on reliable data.