UTM parameters explained, with examples you can copy

UTM parameters are short query strings you add to the end of a URL, after a question mark, so your analytics tool knows where a click came from. When someone visits that tagged link, the script on your page reads values like utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign instead of guessing from the browser's referrer header. That keeps clicks from email apps, PDFs, QR codes and social bios out of your "Direct / none" bucket.

What the five UTM parameters mean

Five standard UTM tags exist in web analytics. Most links only need the first three: source, medium and campaign.

You join parameters to your URL with ? before the first one and & between the rest. The order of the tags in the URL does not change how they are read.

UTM link examples you can copy

Here are four tagged URLs for common places where browser referrers get stripped or lumped together. Swap example.com/pricing for your own page path.

# Weekly email newsletter
https://example.com/pricing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=october-digest

# Social profile bio link
https://example.com/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=company-bio

# Paid search or social ad
https://example.com/signup?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=q4-signup

# Printed QR code on a booth banner
https://example.com/demo?utm_source=booth-banner&utm_medium=qr&utm_campaign=conf-2026

Some platforms add their own tags automatically. ChatGPT appends utm_source=chatgpt.com to links it shows in answers, so those clicks arrive pre-tagged even when you did nothing.

Four rules for clean UTM tags

A messy naming scheme splits one campaign across five rows in your reports. Stick to four rules from day one:

• Use lowercase only. Most analytics tools treat Email, email and EMAIL as separate values. Write every tag in lowercase so numbers stay in one row.
• Keep names consistent. Pick linkedin or linkedin.com, email or newsletter, and write it down for your team. Mixing both splits your totals.
• Use hyphens instead of spaces. Spaces turn into %20 or + in URLs and are harder to read. Write spring-launch, not spring launch.
• Never tag internal links. Do not put UTM parameters on links from one page of your own site to another. Clicking an internal UTM link credits the visit to your own tag instead of the source that brought the visitor in.

Never put UTM parameters on internal links inside your own website, or your own tags get counted as the source instead of the one that brought the visitor in.

What Clicktag reports for UTM parameters

Clicktag includes built-in UTM tracking and breaks your traffic down by three UTM dimensions: utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign. You can view each one in the dashboard or fetch it as JSON through the Stats API.

utm_term and utm_content are not report dimensions in Clicktag and are not returned by the breakdown API. Stick to source, medium and campaign when you build links for a Clicktag site, or fold the extra detail into your utm_campaign name (for example october-digest-header-cta).

For the main traffic sources report, Clicktag picks one source per pageview in this exact order:

1. Stored or query utm_source
2. The shorter source or ref query parameter (such as ?ref=producthunt)
3. The referring hostname from the browser
4. Direct / none when there is no referrer and no tag

Same-site navigation is excluded, including www and apex variants, so moving around your site does not create self-referrals.

You can combine up to 12 filters at once on the overview and breakdown reports, in the dashboard or the API. Each filter value can be up to 256 characters. To pull the top pages visited from a specific newsletter campaign over the trailing 30 days, pass f=utm_source:... and f=utm_campaign:... to the breakdown endpoint:

curl --fail-with-body --silent --show-error --max-time 20 --get \
  'https://clicktag.io/api/sites/demo.bitgate.dev/breakdown' \
  --data-urlencode 'dim=pages' \
  --data-urlencode 'f=utm_source:newsletter' \
  --data-urlencode 'f=utm_campaign:october-digest'

Free UTM tracking with Clicktag

Clicktag is free website analytics. Every feature is included with no credit card and no paid plan today. You sign in with a Google account at clicktag.app and can track up to 50 websites per account.

Setup takes one async script tag (latest.js, about 4 KB compressed) that you copy from Site settings > Installation. It sets no cookies, uses no local storage and never stores IP addresses. Visitors are counted with a daily salted SHA-256 hash whose salt is deleted once each UTC day ends.

Once your tagged links get clicks, you can:

• Check the Live tab, where hits usually show up within a second.
• Set up to 50 goals per site (page views or custom events, funnels included) and break each goal down by UTM source, medium or campaign to see which tags convert.
• Send scheduled email reports to up to 25 recipients per site at the hour you pick.
• Open the public demo to see how sources and UTM breakdowns look with sample data.

FAQ

Does Clicktag track utm_term and utm_content?

Clicktag stores them, but they are not report dimensions: the dashboard and the Stats API break traffic down by utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign only. If you need to distinguish two buttons in the same email, add that detail to utm_campaign, such as october-digest-top-link.

What happens if a link has both a referrer and a utm_source tag?

Clicktag prefers utm_source first, then the source or ref query parameter, and falls back to the referring host only when none of those are present. If a visitor clicks a link on LinkedIn tagged with utm_source=founder-post, the source is recorded as founder-post.

Can I use the shorter ?ref= or ?source= parameter instead of utm_source?

Yes. For the main sources report, Clicktag reads utm_source first and checks source or ref next before falling back to the referring hostname. Short medium and campaign parameters fill the UTM medium and campaign fields the same way. Setting data-strict-utm="true" on the script tag limits automatic collection to utm_ keys.

Does Clicktag use cookies to remember UTM parameters across days?

No. Clicktag uses no cookies and no local storage, and the daily salt used to hash visitors is deleted once each UTC day ends, so the hash cannot link visits across days.

Can I track revenue or ad spend per UTM campaign in Clicktag?

No. Clicktag does not do revenue or ecommerce tracking and does not import ad spend. You can set up to 50 goals per site on signup pages or custom events (window.tt_event) to measure conversions and conversion rate by source.