UTM builder — campaign URL builder for GA4

What each UTM parameter means

UTM parameters are additions after the ? in a page address that Google Analytics 4 reads to tell where a visit came from. The link still leads where it did — only your report changes. GA4 recognises nine parameters; Google's help page Collect campaign data with custom URLs lists them all. The builder covers the six GA4 reports for manual tagging:

• utm_source — the source, "where from": newsletter, facebook, google.
• utm_medium — the type of traffic: email, social, cpc. The GA4 channel depends on it, so the builder suggests values.
• utm_campaign — the campaign name, e.g. 2026-11-black-week.
• utm_term — the paid keyword.
• utm_content — the creative variant: two buttons in one e-mail, two images in a post.
• utm_id — the campaign ID, if you keep a register of campaigns and want to join it with GA4 data.

Google says you "should always use" utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign. Leaving one out shows as (not set) in reports — which is why the builder keeps a warning up until all three are filled in.

How GA4 assigns a channel

The channel — Email, Organic Social, Display and the rest — is worked out from source and medium by the fixed rules of the default channel group. Google states that channel definitions "can't be edited" (Default channel group). A medium outside the rules usually ends up as Unassigned: the link works and the visit is in GA4, just in no channel.

The dictionary is short. email, social, banner and cpc land in channels; newsletter, mail, sponsored, qr or print do not. The builder checks the medium against the same rules and shows the channel under the link. It does not settle the paid channels, because they also depend on the source: cpc with google is Paid Search, with facebook it is Paid Social.

Naming convention and common mistakes

• Lower case only. Values are case sensitive ("Parameter values are case sensitive", Google), channels are not. Email and email land in one channel but show as two rows in the Session medium dimension.
• No spaces or accented letters. In an address they turn into percent codes (%20, %C3%A9) that are hard to read and easy to retype wrongly. Use hyphens: black-week.
• Campaign with a date: yyyy-mm-topic, e.g. 2026-11-black-week — campaigns sort chronologically and do not merge across years.
• No personal data. UTM values end up in reports and in an address anyone can see, so never put a recipient's e-mail in them.
• Parameters before `#`. Anything after the # never reaches GA4. The builder puts UTM before the fragment and replaces old UTM parameters in the address instead of duplicating them.
• No UTM on internal links. A tagged link between pages of your own site credits later visits to an "internal campaign" — Google walks through an example in its article on traffic source dimensions. Measure clicks on your own banners with GA4 events.

More examples, the full table of channel rules and how to check a link before it goes out are in the article UTM parameters: what they are.

UTM, short links and QR codes

A link with a full set of parameters gets long — a problem in a text message, on a flyer or in an Instagram bio. A short link leads to the tagged address, so GA4 gets the same parameters while the shortener counts the click before the landing page loads. The two tools need not agree, and that is normal: the shortener counts clicks, GA4 counts visits. Details in the article how to shorten a link.

For print, turn such a link into a code in the QR code generator. Mind the medium: qr and print belong to no GA4 rule, so without a custom channel group flyer traffic lands in Unassigned. You will still spot print by its source, e.g. utm_source=flyer, in the source report; a separate channel for print needs a custom channel group.

Frequently asked questions