UTM naming convention

Why this matters

Every marketer on your team types UTMs differently. Newsletter vs newsletter vs news_letter creates three separate rows in GA4. Six months later, your channel attribution is split across dozens of near-duplicate source/medium combos and no one can tell you what drove pipeline last quarter. A naming convention costs 30 minutes to set up. The cleanup it prevents costs weeks.

This is an opinionated default. Pick the parts that fit your team, enforce them with UTM Rules, and update the vocab list quarterly. A convention that gets followed beats a perfect one that doesn’t.

The format

utm_source   = {channel}
utm_medium   = {traffic-type}
utm_campaign = {quarter}-{theme}
utm_content  = {creative-variant}
utm_term     = {paid-keyword}          ← paid search only

Rules that apply everywhere:

Lowercase only: google not Google
Hyphens between words: q2-launch not q2_launch not Q2 Launch
No spaces, no slashes, no special characters
No dates inside utm_campaign (the date is in your analytics tool, not your UTM)
No PII: no email addresses, user IDs, or names

Parameter guide

utm_source: where the traffic came from

Use the platform name, lowercase, hyphen-separated. Lock this to a fixed vocab list.

Value	Use for
`google`	Google Ads, Google Shopping
`meta`	Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads
`linkedin`	LinkedIn Ads
`tiktok`	TikTok Ads
`x`	X (Twitter) Ads
`newsletter`	Your own email sends
`youtube`	YouTube Ads or organic video
`podcast`	Podcast sponsorships
`affiliate`	Affiliate/referral partners
`partner-{name}`	Named partnerships, e.g. `partner-hubspot`
`direct`	QR codes, offline, vanity URLs
`organic-social`	Non-paid social posts (Instagram, LinkedIn, X)

Don’t use email as a source. It’s ambiguous. Is it your newsletter, a cold outreach sequence, or a transactional send? Use newsletter, outbound, or transactional instead.

Enforce it: Add an allowed_values rule on utm_source in UTM Rules. Anyone using an off-list value gets a rejection on save, not a messy row in GA4 three weeks later.

utm_medium: what kind of traffic

Medium = the marketing mechanism, not the platform.

Value	Use for
`cpc`	Cost-per-click paid search (Google, Bing)
`paid-social`	Any paid social placement
`email`	All email: newsletter, nurture, outbound
`display`	Banner/programmatic display
`video`	Pre-roll, connected TV, YouTube TrueView
`affiliate`	Revenue-share or performance partner links
`organic-social`	Non-paid social posts
`podcast`	Audio sponsorship read
`qr`	QR codes (physical → digital)
`referral`	Inbound from other sites (unpaid)

GA4 uses medium to populate the Default channel grouping report. Stick to these values and your channels will auto-group correctly. Invent your own and they fall into “Unassigned.”

utm_campaign: what campaign this link belongs to

Pattern: {quarter}-{theme}

q1-brand-search
q2-pricing-relaunch
q3-enterprise-outbound
q4-black-friday
evergreen-free-trial

Rules:

Always start with the quarter (q1 / q2 / q3 / q4) or evergreen for always-on
Theme is 1-3 words, hyphen-separated, describing the campaign’s purpose
No year in the value; your analytics date filter handles that
Same campaign name across all channels that belong to one campaign

If your Google Ads and your newsletter and your LinkedIn post are all promoting the same Q2 pricing page, they should all share utm_campaign=q2-pricing-relaunch. That’s how you see cross-channel campaign performance in one row.

utm_content: which creative or placement

Use utm_content to tell variants apart within a campaign + channel combo. Common patterns:

Pattern	Example	Use for
`{creative-name}`	`hero-cta-blue`	A/B ad creative variants
`{placement}`	`sidebar` `footer` `inline`	Placement within a page/email
`{subject-line-variant}`	`subject-a` `subject-b`	Email subject line tests
`{cta-copy}`	`start-free-trial` `see-pricing`	CTA copy variants
`{format}`	`video` `static` `carousel`	Ad format

Leave utm_content blank in templates; fill it per link. If you bake it into a template, every link inherits the same content value and the variant data is useless.

utm_term: paid search keywords only

utm_term = the keyword that triggered the ad. Used almost exclusively for paid search.

utm_term=utm+tracking+tool
utm_term=link+shortener+for+marketing
utm_term=bitly+alternative

If you’re not running paid search: leave it empty. Don’t repurpose utm_term for audience segments or targeting notes; that data belongs in your ad platform, not your UTM.

Channel cheatsheet

Copy-paste starting points per channel. Fill utm_campaign and utm_content per link.

utm_source=google
utm_medium=cpc
utm_campaign=q2-brand-search
utm_content=headline-a
utm_term={keyword}

Use {keyword} as a literal ValueTrack parameter in Google Ads; it auto-populates the triggering keyword.

utm_source=meta
utm_medium=paid-social
utm_campaign=q2-retargeting
utm_content=carousel-pricing

Meta auto-populates utm_content if you use {{ad.name}} in the URL parameter field, but stick to your own naming pattern for consistency across platforms.

utm_source=linkedin
utm_medium=paid-social
utm_campaign=q2-enterprise-demand
utm_content=cta-book-demo

LinkedIn’s {{CAMPAIGN_NAME}} macro inserts the campaign name. Override it with your standard pattern instead of letting LinkedIn name it.

utm_source=newsletter
utm_medium=email
utm_campaign=q2-product-update
utm_content=hero-cta

Every link in a single email send should share the same utm_campaign. Use utm_content to tell the hero CTA from the footer link from the inline text link apart.

utm_source=organic-social
utm_medium=organic-social
utm_campaign=evergreen-product-awareness
utm_content=linkedin-post-may-19

Source and medium are the same here; that’s intentional and how GA4 groups organic social correctly. Use utm_content to identify the specific post.

utm_source=partner-hubspot
utm_medium=affiliate
utm_campaign=evergreen-integration-promo
utm_content=blog-inline

Name the partner in utm_source using the partner-{name} pattern. That way you can filter GA4 by source to see partner-by-partner performance without needing a separate dimension.

utm_source=direct
utm_medium=qr
utm_campaign=q2-event-booth
utm_content=conference-badge

QR codes generated in linkutm carry the short link + these UTMs. Attendees scanning the badge → source=direct / medium=qr in GA4.

Bad to good examples

Before	Problem	After
`utm_source=Email`	Caps → splits from `email` in GA4	`utm_source=newsletter`
`utm_source=email`	Ambiguous. Which email type?	`utm_source=newsletter`
`utm_medium=Social Media`	Spaces + caps	`utm_medium=paid-social`
`utm_campaign=Q2 2025 Campaign`	Spaces, caps, year	`utm_campaign=q2-brand-awareness`
`utm_campaign=newsletter_may_19_2025`	Date baked in, will duplicate each week	`utm_campaign=q2-weekly-digest`
`utm_content=` (empty)	No way to tell creative variants apart	`utm_content=hero-cta`
`utm_term=linkedin`	Term field used for channel	Delete; that’s what source/medium is for
`utm_source=FB`	Abbreviation, won’t match `meta` filter	`utm_source=meta`
`utm_campaign=test`	Will pollute prod data, no meaning	Block with UTM Rules prohibited values

Enforce it with UTM Rules

Setting this convention once doesn’t help if someone ignores it two weeks later. Pair this playbook with UTM Rules to make the convention self-enforcing. Minimum ruleset to configure:

Force lowercase + hyphen

Enable forceLowercase: true and set spaceCharacter: "-". This catches 80% of drift automatically.

Lock utm_source to your vocab

Add a Required Field rule: validationType=allowed_values on utm_source. Paste in your approved source list. Anyone using FB, Email, or Insta gets rejected on save.

Lock utm_medium to your vocab

Same rule on utm_medium. Your allowed list: cpc, paid-social, email, display, video, affiliate, organic-social, podcast, qr, referral.

Require utm_campaign

Required Field rule: validationType=not_empty on campaign. No campaign name, no link saved.

Block test / draft values

Add prohibitedValues: ["test", "draft", "tbd", "todo", "xxx"]. Prevents test links from leaking into production data.

Auto-fill medium from source (optional)

Add Conditional Logic rules for common pairs:

if source=google → set medium=cpc
if source=newsletter → set medium=email
if source=meta → set medium=paid-social

Reduces manual entry errors on high-volume link creation.

Governance

A naming convention rots if no one owns it. Assign these before you ship.

Role	Responsibility	Cadence
Convention owner (usually MOPs lead)	Approves new source/medium values, updates UTM Rules allowed lists, resolves disputes	On-demand + quarterly review
All link creators	Use linkutm templates for every new link; never hand-type UTMs	Per link
Analytics owner	Flags new GA4 “Unassigned” rows as signal that convention has drifted	Weekly

Adding a new source or medium:

Convention owner approves the new value
Add it to the allowed_values list in UTM Rules
Create a new template for the channel (see Create a template)
Update this playbook

Don’t let individuals add new values ad hoc. One rogue utm_source=IG takes one week to create and six months to clean up.

Quick-start checklist

Copy the allowed source and medium lists above

Edit them to match your actual channels. Delete any you don’t use.

Configure UTM Rules

Minimum: forceLowercase, source allowed_values, medium allowed_values, campaign not_empty.

Create templates for your top 5 channels

Newsletter, Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn, and your highest-volume partner. See Create a template.

Run your existing links through the audit

Filter GA4 → Source/Medium report → look for rows with caps, spaces, or off-list values. Those are your cleanup targets.

Share this page with the team

Bookmark it. Link to it in your team wiki. This is the source of truth, not a Notion doc only you can find.

Documentation Index

​Why this matters

​The format

​Parameter guide

​utm_source: where the traffic came from

​utm_medium: what kind of traffic

​utm_campaign: what campaign this link belongs to

​utm_content: which creative or placement

​utm_term: paid search keywords only

​Channel cheatsheet

​Bad to good examples

​Enforce it with UTM Rules

​Governance

​Quick-start checklist

Why this matters

The format

Parameter guide

utm_source: where the traffic came from

utm_medium: what kind of traffic

utm_campaign: what campaign this link belongs to

utm_content: which creative or placement

utm_term: paid search keywords only

Channel cheatsheet

Bad to good examples

Enforce it with UTM Rules

Governance

Quick-start checklist