Easy UTM Tag Generator

Creating UTM tags doesn't have to be so complicated! This simple UTM link builder will help guide you through generating effective campaign URLs (even if you don't know anything about them).

Enter values below and the campaign URL will generate automatically. Click the links for a description of the field and examples.

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    The URL of the page where traffic is being sent. Don't forget to include the http:// or https:// protocol!

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    Used for identifying a specific promotion or campaign. This is found in Google Analytics with the dimension Campaign.

    Tip: Think about what you would call this effort if describing it to an acquaintance.

    Examples: clearance sale, promo code, slogan

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    The "delivery method" of the campaign such as email, television, print, cost-per-click, etc. This is found in Google Analytics with the dimensions Medium and Source/Medium.

    Note: This parameter is how Google Analytics differentiates Paid vs. Non-Paid traffic. Using something like "banner" will show up as Non-Paid! Unless the banner placement is free, it is recommended to use one of the following: cpc, ppc, cpa, cpm, cpv, or cpp. These are the only mediums that Google Analytics detects as paid.

    Examples: cpc, email, retargeting, display, tv

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    The source of the campaign such as a search engine, newsletter name, or referrer. This is found in Google Analytics with the dimension Source and Source/Medium.

    Tip: Think about this like who gets credit for a good job? If you wanted to do it again this vendor is who you'd call.

    Examples: google, facebook, newsletter 4, coupon, cbs

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    Used for differentiating ads/links that point to the same URL. This is found in Google Analytics with the dimension Ad Content under Advertising.

    Examples: buffalo, ottawa, syracuse, logo link, text link, evening news, morning news, 300x250, 728x90

  • Advanced Options
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      Used for paid search. Enter the associated paid keyword(s) with this ad. This is found in Google Analytics with the dimension Keyword under AdWords.

      Tip: If you're unsure whether to use this parameter, you probably don't need it.

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      New parameter in GA4. Used for keyword analysis to identify a specific product promotion or strategic campaign. This is a required key for GA4 data import. Not to be confused with utm_campaign or utm_id!

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      New parameter in GA4. Identify the platform where the marketing activity was undertaken.

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      New parameter in GA4. Identify the creative used (e.g. skyscraper).

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      New parameter in GA4. Identify the tactic used (e.g. onboarding vs retention).

Options

Consistency is essential especially when working with a team. These options will help prevent inconsistencies across your campaign data.

Output

Enter data for the UTM link builder to generate results.

UTM Tags Explained

Below are frequently asked questions about UTM tags, campaign URLs, and query strings in general.

UTM Tag Quick Reference Infographic

Campaign URL Infographic

UTM tags allow you to determine how much traffic is arriving to your website from you campaigns. They appear in the URL bar of your browser as "query parameters" like "utm_source" or "utm_campaign. UTM tags are sometimes referred to as "Campaign URLs".

When a webpage is loaded that uses both Google Analytics and the URL contains UTM parameters, Google Analytics will parse and transmit the data to its analytics database which then correlates that "acquisition" data to all of the usage data of that web session.

Tagging URLs will correctly appropriate the traffic to the "(Other)" channel as well as appear within the Campaigns report where it can be further analyzed.

Without UTM tags, the traffic would typically appear in the "Direct" channel which is impossible to decipher the true origin. The overall volume of traffic would be correct, but analysts would have a blind-spot as to where specifically it came from. In other words, you would not be able to give credit to a successful campaign– especially if multiple sources were used.

UTM stands for "Urchin Tracking Module". Urchin was purchased by Google in 2005 and re-branded to "Google Analytics".

There are always exceptions, but the medium is generally the delivery method of the campaign and the source is typically the vendor used.

The only required parameter is "source"- the rest are optional. However, it is often beneficial to use Campaign, Medium, and Source whenever possible.

The "?" in a URL indicates the start of a query string. So it will appear before the very first query parameter (which may or may not be a UTM parameter). After the "?" (which can only appear once in the entire URL), each parameter is separated by the "&" symbol. Query parameters do not need to be in any particular order.

UTM tags correspond to the campaign/ad placement, not the destination page, so you'll need as many UTM tags as you have placements/variations of your campaign. For example, if you were buying billboard placements: one tagged URL would tell you how well the campaign worked, but different tags for each individual placement would tell you which billboards specifically worked better than others within the same campaign.

For print material, people cannot click a link and must type it in manually which means UTM tags are much too long. Instead, you could create a shortened URL that redirects to the UTM tagged URL. A vanity domain is a .com that redirects and a vanity URL uses an existing domain whose subdirectory or subdomain does the redirect. For example, GearsidePromo.com (vanity domain) could redirect to a generated UTM URL, or likewise Gearside.com/promo (vanity url) could do the same thing. Both are much easier to type in for the end-user.

Other tags that perform a similar action include "gclid" which is how Google Ads automatically tags traffic.

Auto tagging is used by Google Ads which bypasses the need to generate and manage UTM tags. These also tag target keywords. This is helpful due to the sheer amount of ad placements and keywords involved.

Because of how much they were used, UTM tags became the industry standard and other analytics platforms have begun to recognize them. Adobe Analytics, for example, does track UTM tags in a similar way to Google Analytics.

Google Analytics will categorize UTM tagged mediums of "email" in the Default Channel Groupings which is reported in Acquisition reports. However, it will not recognize things like "e-blast" or "e-mail" in the same way.

Google Analytics differentiates paid vs. non-paid traffic based on very specific mediums (cpc, ppc, cpa, cpm, cpv, cpp). A paid banner placement that is tagged as "banner" will not get appropriately categorized with other paid mediums.

Special characters must be converted to be processed correctly in the URL. This is called "encoding". You will often see this when spaces are encoded as %20. Google Analytics will decode these strings, so in that example, the data will appear with a space. Google Analytics will also convert + symbols to spaces which is also much easier to read when managing UTM tagged URLs.