URL builders: Collect campaign data with custom URLs

Discover how to use Google Analytics’s URL builder to add utm parameters in order to identify the campaigns that refer traffic.

By adding utm campaign parameters to the destination URLs you use in referral links and ad campaigns, you can view which campaigns refer traffic. When a user clicks a referral link, the URL parameters are sent to Analytics, and the parameter values are visible in the Traffic acquisition report.

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Add utm parameters to URL
UTM best practices
URL builders
View custom-campaign data

Add utm parameters to URL

You can add the following parameters to your destination URLs:

utm_id : Campaign ID. Used to identify a specific campaign or promotion. Use the same IDs that you use when uploading campaign data .
utm_source : Referrer, for example: google, newsletter4, billboard
utm_medium : Marketing medium, for example: cpc, banner, email
utm_campaign : Product, slogan, promo code, for example: spring_sale
utm_source_platform : The platform responsible for directing traffic to a given Analytics property (such as a buying platform that sets budgets and targeting criteria or a platform that manages organic traffic data). For example: Search Ads 360 or Display & Video 360.
utm_term : Paid keyword
utm_content : Use to differentiate creatives. For example, if you have two call-to-action links within the same email message, you can use utm_content and set different values for each so you can tell which version is more effective.
utm_creative_format : Type of creative, for example: display, native, video, search
- Note: utm_creative_format isn't currently reported in Google Analytics properties.
utm_marketing_tactic : Targeting criteria applied to a campaign, for example: remarketing, prospecting
- Note: utm_marketing_tactic isn't currently reported in Google Analytics properties.

For example, you might use the following parameter-value pairs for your Summer Sale campaign:

utm_source = summer-mailer to identify traffic that results from your Summer Sale email campaign
utm_medium = email to identify traffic from the email campaign vs. the in-app campaign
utm_campaign = summer-sale to identify the overall campaign

If you used these parameters, your custom campaign URL would be:

https://www.example.com/?utm_source=summer-mailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=summer-sale

When you add parameters to a URL, you should always use utm_source , utm_medium , and utm_campaign .

Learn more about URL builders: Collect campaign data with custom URLs .

Note: UTM parameters are omitted in the following dimensions:

Landing page + query string
Page path + query string

This means UTM information isn't captured in these dimensions and is instead populated in the Page location dimension.

UTM best practices

To establish a high-standard data foundation in Google Analytics, implement a standardized UTM strategy across all marketing efforts. This ensures that user behavior is accurately attributed without data fragmentation. It also directly impacts reporting accuracy within Default Channel Groups (DCGs) and Custom Channel Groups (CCGs) which prevents traffic from being categorized incorrectly.

Strategy component	Best practice recommendation
Source (utm_source)	Use only one uniqueutm_source for each distinct platform such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. Assign a distinct source value to each individual sub-platform. For example, use fb for Facebook and insta for Instagram to maintain granular reporting.
Medium (utm_medium)	Use only one uniqueutm_medium for each distinct channel. For example, paid_social and organic_search.
Campaign (utm_campaign)	Use only one uniquename that matches the exact campaign name. For example, utm_campaign={{campaign.name}}. This prevents a single marketing effort from splitting into multiple rows.
Content (utm_content)	Ensure content values are unique to the specific creative or formatthat is displayed and clicked. Content can appear across different ads, but the naming must remain consistentto accurately track performance across variations.
Term (utm_term)	Use this for keyword-level identification. Keywords should be unique and follow a strict, consistent format. For example, use all lowercase and identical spelling. This ensures they are grouped correctly in reports.
Dynamic parameters	Utilize dynamic UTMsin platforms that support them to automate tagging and eliminate manual entry errors. For example, {{site_source_name}}. Dynamic parameters vary by advertising platform. Use parameters that follow a consistent pattern used in the source and medium best practices.
Naming and field consistency	Maintain a strict, case-sensitive naming convention for all fieldssuch as source, medium, and campaign. Keywords with different capitalization, such as Meta and meta, are treated as different values. Use lowercase as a standard practice. Ensure these match your internal platform names so Google Analytics doesn’t fragment reporting. For example, SpringSale and Spring_Sale are considered distinct.

URL builders

Important:If you are advertising an Android app, use the Play Campaign URL Builder . Otherwise, you should use the Campaign URL Builder .

You can add parameters and values to your URLs manually, or you can use one of the following platform-specific URL-builder tools to create your URLs and append the parameters:

Links to websites: Use the Campaign URL Builder .
Android-app ads: Use the Play Campaign URL Builder .

You must use Google Analytics for Firebase SDK, but you don't need to make changes in the SDK for this feature to work.

Manual set up

If you want to set up your custom campaigns manually, make sure you separate the parameters from the URL with a question mark. List the parameters and values as pairs separated by an equal sign. Separate each parameter-value pair with an ampersand. For example:

https://www.example.com/ ?utm_source=email_campaign &utm_medium=email &utm_campaign=summer-sale

You can add parameters to a URL in any order. Parameter values are case sensitive, e.g. utm_source=google is different from utm_source=Google .

Note: If you’re setting one UTM parameter, we strongly recommend that you set all relevant UTM parameters, especially utm_source , utm_medium , utm_campaign , utm_id , and utm_source_platform . Missing UTM parameters will result in (not set) values being present in reporting.

Learn more about How traffic source dimensions are updated .

Example URLs

http://www.example.com/?utm_source=exampleblog&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=summer-sale
http://www.example.com/?utm_source=newsletter1&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=summer-sale
http://www.example.com/?utm_source=newsletter1&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=summer-sale&utm_content=toplink

View custom campaign data

You can view Session source/medium , Session medium , Session source , and Session campaign in the Acquisition > Traffic acquisition report.

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