UTM Parameters
UTM parameters are tags you add to the end of a link so your analytics can tell you exactly where a visitor came from.
In plain English
Add a source, a medium and a campaign tag to the end of a link and every click carries that label into your analytics.
Without them, a click from your newsletter, your video description and your LinkedIn post all blur into ‘direct’ or ‘referral’. With them, each gets its own line in the report.
Why it matters
You cannot improve what you cannot attribute. These tags are how you learn that your newsletter converts five times better than social, or that one video description drives more sales than a month of posting.
A few extra characters on a link, and guessing becomes measuring.
How it works
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The source tagWhere it came from: newsletter, youtube, linkedin.
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The medium tagThe channel type: email, social, paid.
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The campaign tagThe specific push: spring-launch, black-friday.
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Keep naming consistentTwo spellings become two separate rows. Pick lowercase and never deviate.
Never tag your internal links
Tagging a link between two of your own pages resets the original source and destroys your attribution. These tags are for links pointing in from outside.