Without tagged links, analytics shows only part of the picture: visits from messengers, emails and apps are counted as direct traffic in most cases. UTM tags pass the source explicitly. The difficulty is not in the parameters but in naming discipline - that is what turns reports into a mess six months later.
Five parameters and what goes in them
- utm_source - the platform: google, instagram, facebook, whatsapp, newsletter
- utm_medium - the traffic type: cpc for paid clicks, social for posts, email for newsletters, banner for display, referral for partner links
- utm_campaign - the campaign name: what is promoted and when, for example repair-oct26
- utm_content - the ad, banner or button variant; needed when one campaign runs several creatives
- utm_term - the keyword; used mainly in paid search
Naming rules that save your reports
Parameters are case sensitive: Instagram and instagram become two different sources in the same report. Use lower case only and one spelling per platform. Replace spaces with a hyphen or underscore, and avoid non-Latin characters and brackets.
Keep a short dictionary of values next to the media plan. Six months later it is impossible to recall how campaign=spring differed from campaign=spring2. A good campaign name carries the subject and the period: cleaning-nov26 still reads a year later, promo1 does not.
Where tags matter most
- Google Ads: auto-tagging is usually enabled and does not need duplicating by hand - check the setting before adding parameters
- Instagram: the profile link and story links; one tagged profile link is convenient to update when the campaign changes
- WhatsApp: links sales staff send in chats - without a tag those count as direct traffic
- Email: every link in a campaign, otherwise the effect of the mailing cannot be separated from other traffic
- QR codes on printed material and signage
- Partner placements and directory listings
What not to do
Do not tag internal site links. Moving from one of your own pages to another with UTM parameters starts a new session and loses the original source - reports then show traffic the site brought to itself.
Do not place tagged links where a crawler will find them: a URL with parameters can enter the index as a separate page. A canonical link to the clean URL solves that.
And do not reuse somebody else tags: copying a tagged link from an ad and sending it to a customer in a messenger credits the enquiry to a campaign that had nothing to do with it.
Frequently asked questions
Do Google Ads links need tagging by hand?
Usually not: the account has auto-tagging that passes campaign data into analytics. Manual parameters are added when the tagging has to be visible in other systems, or when analytics and the ads account are not linked. Enabling both without need is a bad idea - the data starts to diverge.
How can enquiries from WhatsApp be tracked?
Tag the link people follow to the site before getting in touch. Analytics cannot see the conversation itself, but it sees the visit and the actions on the site. It also helps to note the source in the message text or to log enquiries in a CRM, otherwise the chain breaks.
Can tags be changed on a running campaign?
They can, but the data splits into before and after: old and new values count as different sources. If a change is necessary, make it at a period boundary and record the date so figures can be compared correctly later.
Let us set up analytics and advertising
If links are tagged but the reports do not match real enquiries, write to us - we will review the goal and source setup.
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