Tracking Parameters Guide

A reference for the parameters UTM Manager captures and how to use them well.

The six standard UTM parameters

Parameter	Question it answers	Example values
utm_source	Where did they come from?	google, facebook, newsletter, partner-site
utm_medium	Through what channel?	cpc, email, social, banner, affiliate
utm_campaign	As part of which push?	black-friday-sale, spring-launch, weekly-digest
utm_term	Triggered by which keyword?	running+shoes, crm+software
utm_content	Via which variant?	header-cta, sidebar-banner, variant-b
utm_id	Under which campaign ID?	123456 (ads-platform campaign identifier)

Every parameter is optional and independently toggleable under UTM Manager → Settings.

Building tagged URLs

Append parameters to any URL on your site after a ?, joined with &:

https://your-site.com/pricing/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=feature-launch

Naming conventions that keep your data clean

1. Lowercase everything. Google, google, and GOOGLE are counted as three different sources.
2. No spaces. Use dashes: black-friday-sale. Spaces become %20 and look broken in reports.
3. Consistent vocabulary. Decide once: is email traffic email or newsletter? Is paid search cpc or ppc? Write the convention down and share it with your team.
4. Source = site, medium = channel. utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social for organic posts; utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc for paid ads.
5. Don’t tag internal links. Linking from one of your own pages to another with UTM parameters overwrites the visitor’s genuine last-touch attribution.

Common recipes

Google Ads (manual tagging):

?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=brand-search&utm_term={keyword}&utm_content={creative}

Email newsletter:

?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2026-07-digest&utm_content=hero-button

Social post vs. paid social:

?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=case-study
?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=case-study

Partner / affiliate:

?utm_source=partnername&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=q3-promo

Custom parameters (Pro / developers)

Beyond the standard six, additional keys — gclid, fbclid, ref, partner_id, anything your campaigns use — can be captured too. UTM Manager Pro provides a UI for this at Settings → Custom Parameters, and gives each key its own breakdown in Reports and its own CSV column; see Custom Parameters. Developers can register keys directly with the utmm_custom_param_keys filter instead (see Developer Hooks). Either way, custom values are stored alongside standard UTMs with no database changes.

How captured values are handled

• Values are sanitized server-side before storage.
• A visit carrying any tracked parameter updates the lead’s last-touch attribution; parameters absent from that URL are recorded as empty for that touch.
• Visits with no tracked parameters never erase existing attribution — they just extend the journey.