What is a UTM builder?

A tool that adds UTM parameters such as utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign to a link, so analytics tools like Google Analytics can tell which campaign brought each visitor.

Which UTM parameters are required?

Google recommends always using utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign. Any you leave out show as (not set), and without a medium the visit may land in the Unassigned channel.

What should utm_medium be for Facebook or Instagram ads?

A paid medium such as paid_social or cpc with a social source like facebook or instagram, so GA4 counts it as Paid Social. Plain social is for unpaid posts.

Are UTM parameters case sensitive?

Yes. GA4 reports Facebook and facebook as separate sources, so keep every value lowercase.

Do I need UTMs for Google Ads?

Usually not. Google Ads auto-tagging already sends campaign data to GA4, and GA4 uses it ahead of manual UTMs. Add UTMs only if you also report in other analytics tools.

Do UTM parameters affect SEO?

No. Google ignores them for ranking, and the tagged URL should point to a page with a canonical tag for the clean URL.

UTM Builder – Free Campaign URL Builder for GA4, Meta & Google Ads

What are UTM parameters?

UTM parameters are tags you add to the end of a link so Google Analytics and other analytics tools know where a visitor came from. When someone clicks example.com/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring_sale, the visit is credited to your spring sale newsletter instead of showing up as direct traffic. UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module, after the analytics company Google bought to create Google Analytics.

Parameter	What it answers	Example	Shows in GA4 as
utm_source	Which site, app or list sent the visit	google, newsletter, facebook	Session source, Session manual source
utm_medium	What kind of channel it was	cpc, email, social, affiliate	Session medium, Session manual medium
utm_campaign	Which campaign or promotion	spring_sale	Session campaign, Session manual campaign name
utm_term	The paid keyword	running shoes	Session manual term
utm_content	Which ad, link or button, to tell versions apart	blue_banner	Session manual ad content
utm_id	A campaign ID, used to join imported cost data	abc.123	Session manual campaign ID

Google recommends always using utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign; any you leave out show as (not set). GA4 also accepts utm_source_platform, utm_creative_format and utm_marketing_tactic under GA4 extra parameters above, though Google says the last two are not currently shown in reports.

How to build a UTM link

Paste the page address into Website URL. Existing query strings and #anchors are kept.
Fill in source, medium and campaign. Pick a preset for Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, email or organic social to fill them in.
Check the GA4 channel. If it says Unassigned, change the medium to one GA4 recognizes.
Copy the link and use it in your ad, email or post. Your last 10 links stay in Recent links on this device.

UTM examples

Where the link goes	Source	Medium	GA4 channel
Newsletter link	newsletter	email	Email
`https://example.com/spring-sale?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring_sale&utm_content=hero_button`
Instagram bio link	instagram	social	Organic Social
`https://example.com/?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bio_link`
Facebook ad	facebook	paid_social	Paid Social
`https://example.com/shoes?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid_social&utm_campaign=fall_shoes&utm_content=carousel_a`
LinkedIn post	linkedin	social	Organic Social
`https://example.com/webinar?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=webinar_oct`
Partner site	partnerblog	affiliate	Affiliates
`https://example.com/?utm_source=partnerblog&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=q4_partners`
QR code on a flyer	flyer	qr	Unassigned
`https://example.com/menu?utm_source=flyer&utm_medium=qr&utm_campaign=store_opening`

GA4 has no channel for print or QR codes, so a QR code tagged medium=qr lands in Unassigned. That is fine if you report on the source and campaign; to give it its own row in channel reports, create a custom channel group in GA4 with a rule for that medium.

How GA4 assigns a channel to your UTMs

GA4 sorts every session into a default channel group by checking the source, medium and campaign name against a fixed list of rules. The rules ignore upper and lower case. The ones that matter most for tagged links:

Paid Search, Paid Social, Paid Video, Paid Shopping: the source is a known search, social, video or shopping site and the medium matches ^(.*cp.*|ppc|retargeting|paid.*)$, for example cpc, ppc or paid_social.
Display: medium is display, banner, expandable, interstitial or cpm.
Paid Other: a paid medium with a source that is not a known site, such as source=partner and medium=cpc.
Organic Social: a known social source, or medium social, social-network, social-media, sm, social network or social media.
Email: source or medium is email, e-mail, e_mail or e mail.
Referral: medium referral, app or link. Affiliates: medium affiliate. Audio: medium audio. SMS: source or medium sms. AI Assistant: medium ai-assistant.
Unassigned: anything that matches no rule, such as medium=newsletter or medium=qr.

That is why utm_medium=email beats utm_medium=newsletter: the first lands in the Email channel, the second in Unassigned. Known sites come from Google's source category list, which has entries such as facebook, fb, ig, linkedin, tiktok, google, bing, youtube and amazon. Some popular names, including x and threads, are not on it yet, so a paid link with source=x counts as Paid Other.

UTM parameters for Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn and TikTok

Ad platforms can fill in campaign and ad names for you with dynamic parameters, so one link template works for every ad. The presets above use these.

Platform	Where to paste	Dynamic values
Google Ads	Final URL suffix (account, campaign or ad group)	`{campaignid}` `{adgroupid}` `{keyword}` `{creative}` `{matchtype}` `{network}` `{device}`
Meta Ads	Ad level, Tracking, URL parameters	`{{campaign.name}}` `{{adset.name}}` `{{ad.name}}` `{{campaign.id}}` `{{adset.id}}` `{{ad.id}}` `{{site_source_name}}` `{{placement}}`
LinkedIn Ads	Account or campaign URL parameters	`{{CAMPAIGN_NAME}}` `{{AD_SET_NAME}}` `{{AD_NAME}}` `{{AD_ID}}` (older accounts: `{{CAMPAIGN_GROUP_NAME}}` `{{CREATIVE_ID}}`)
TikTok Ads	Ad details, Build URL parameters	`__CAMPAIGN_NAME__` `__AID_NAME__` `__CID_NAME__` `__CAMPAIGN_ID__` `__PLACEMENT__`

Google Ads has no ValueTrack value for the campaign name, so the preset uses {campaignid}; for names, set a custom parameter such as {_campaign} on each campaign. Google Ads also tags every click automatically with gclid. When a click carries both, GA4 uses the auto-tagged values for source, medium and campaign and only takes utm_term and utm_content from your tags, and unlike the old Universal Analytics there is no setting to let manual tags win.

Meta fills in {{site_source_name}} with fb, ig, msg, an or th, and name parameters keep the name the ad had when it was first published. Meta and TikTok can also add their own source and medium automatically, so check the ad's tracking section before adding a second set. LinkedIn only accepts letters, numbers, _ + and - in fixed values.

UTM best practices

Use lowercase. UTM values are case sensitive, so Facebook, facebook and FACEBOOK become three rows in your reports.
Pick one separator. Use - or _ instead of spaces, and stick to it.
Never tag internal links. A UTM on a banner or link between your own pages makes GA4 credit later key events to that link instead of the campaign that brought the visitor. Track internal promotions with promotion events instead.
Keep personal data out. Do not put email addresses, names or phone numbers in UTM values; Google Analytics does not allow personally identifiable information.
Write your naming rules down and keep every link you create in one sheet. The Bulk tab exports a CSV you can paste into Google Sheets or Excel.

Building UTM links in bulk

Switch to Bulk, paste one page per line and the sources you post to, one per line or separated by commas. Every page gets a link for every source with the same medium and campaign, up to 1,000 links. Copy them all at once or download a CSV with the original URL, each UTM value, the tagged URL and its GA4 channel.

UTM Builder