A Guide to UTMs
What They Are, How to Use Them, & Why They Matter for Digital Marketing
Recently I have found myself explaining UTMs and how they work to clients and colleagues. While they have long been a part of tracking digital campaign results, if you aren’t emersed in digital marketing, you may not understand them or realize you have the ability to implement them on your own. If you’re putting time and resources into social media, email, or digital campaigns, you need to know what’s working. That’s where UTMs come in. They are one of the simplest and most powerful tools to measure results. And you don’t need to be a tech expert to use them.
What Are UTMs?
UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module, a name that comes from the analytics platform Google acquired years ago. Basically, UTMs are short bits of text you add to the end of a URL that tell your analytics tool where traffic is coming from.
Here is an example:
Ampedup-marketing.com/blog-article?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bingonight_q425
The UTM = ?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bingonight_q425
This tagged URL will tell Google Analytics that:
Source: The traffic came from LinkedIn.
Medium: The traffic type was social.
Campaign: The post was part of your Bingo Night Q4 2025 campaign.
The UTM code encompasses the “?” and everything that comes after it tells Google Analytics where your traffic came from.
Without UTMs, all you know is that people visited your site. With UTMs, you have insights into:
Which platforms are working best (LinkedIn vs. Instagram vs. Facebook).
Which campaigns are driving results (Spring Sale vs. Giving Tuesday).
Which content performs better (video vs. carousel post vs. blog link).
UTMs provide the data to give you clear, measurable insights so you can make smarter marketing decisions.
Do You Need to Set Them Up in Google First?
No, you don’t need to set them up in Google first. UTMs work immediately. Google Analytics and most analytics platforms are built to recognize them. The only thing you need to do is add UTM tags to your links and use them consistently. AI tools like ChatGPT can create them quickly for you and alleviate some of the manual work.
Once in place, the data will automatically appear in Google Analytics under Acquisition/Traffic Acquisition in GA4, where you can then filter by Source, Medium, and Campaign.
How to Create UTMs
You can create UTMs in two ways:
Manually: Just add parameters to your URL like this: ?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bingonight_q425
With a Free Tool: Use Google’s Campaign URL Builder or Meta Business to enter your info and copy the ready-to-use URL.
Once you have created the code snippet, add it to the URL you are tracking. I like to keep a spreadsheet that tracks my campaigns and UTMs to ease analysis down the road.
What You Need to Do for UTMs to Work
Create Naming Conventions
Use lowercase consistently (linkedin, not LinkedIn).
Pick a format for campaign names (bingonight_q425, not Bingonight).
Tag All Links You Share
Social media posts
Email newsletters
Paid ads such as programmatic ad campaigns
Partner campaigns
Shorten Links if Needed: Long URLs can look messy. Use a link shortener or your own branded short domain.
Best Practices for Success
Keep UTM tags short but descriptive.
Use the campaign name to group posts by initiative (e.g., “givingtuesday_2025”).
Avoid special characters or spaces and instead use dashes or underscores.
Test your links before sharing.
Check your analytics to refine your campaigns
Final Thoughts
UTMs may look technical at first glance, though really they are just labels for your links. By adding them to your campaign ads, posts, and promotions, you’ll gain valuable insights into which platforms, content, and campaigns are worth your investment. With clearer ROI, and the data to understand what’s working, you can make more confident marketing decisions.