Docs/Measurement
How to build links with UTM parameters
What UTM parameters are, the five you can use, the naming conventions that keep reports tidy, and worked examples for every placement.
Updated September 2026
A UTM parameter is a short tag added to the end of a link so that your analytics can tell where a visitor came from. Every placement in a campaign gets its own tagged link; the report then shows what came from the newsletter, what came from the podcast and what came from the sponsored feature.
The five parameters
| Parameter | Answers | Required | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
utm_source |
Where did it come from — the publisher, show or platform | Yes | porch-weekly |
utm_medium |
What kind of placement | Yes | newsletter |
utm_campaign |
Which campaign — the same value on every placement in it | Yes | local-expert-autumn-2026 |
utm_content |
Which placement or creative, to tell two apart | Recommended | sponsor-banner |
utm_term |
Keyword or audience segment | Rarely | first-time-buyers |
A finished link looks like this:
https://okaforlaw.ca/guide?utm_source=porch-weekly&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=local-expert-autumn-2026&utm_content=sponsor-banner
Conventions
Analytics tools treat Newsletter, newsletter and news-letter as three different things. Consistency is the whole game.
- Lower-case everything.
- Hyphens between words. No spaces, underscores or
%20. - Source is the publisher or platform name, in a form you will recognise in a report:
porch-weekly,the-build-podcast,linkedin. - Medium is one of a short fixed list:
newsletter,podcast,display,sponsored,social,email,referral. Do not invent new ones per campaign. - Campaign is identical across every placement in the campaign, and includes something that makes it unique over time:
local-expert-autumn-2026. - Content distinguishes placements within one source:
sponsor-bannervsfeatured-item,300x250vs728x90,mid-rollvspre-roll. - Never put personal data, prices or anything private in a URL. URLs are logged everywhere.
Examples by placement
| Placement | source | medium | campaign | content |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newsletter primary sponsor | porch-weekly |
newsletter |
local-expert-autumn-2026 |
sponsor-banner |
| Newsletter featured item | porch-weekly |
newsletter |
local-expert-autumn-2026 |
featured-item |
| Podcast (via vanity URL redirect) | the-build-podcast |
podcast |
local-expert-autumn-2026 |
mid-roll-ep86 |
| Display 300 × 250 on a news site | hamilton-review |
display |
local-expert-autumn-2026 |
300x250 |
| Sponsored feature link | hamilton-review |
sponsored |
local-expert-autumn-2026 |
feature-cta |
| LinkedIn post | linkedin |
social |
local-expert-autumn-2026 |
square-post-1 |
Podcasts and print: use a redirect
Nobody types a UTM string they heard out loud. For podcast reads, printed material and anything spoken, give people a short vanity URL — okaforlaw.ca/porch — and set it to redirect to the full tagged link. The listener gets something memorable; the report still gets the attribution. Most website platforms can create redirects; if yours cannot, we can host the redirect for the campaign.
Common mistakes
| Mistake | Effect | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Tagging internal links on your own site | Overwrites the original source; visitors look like they came from “your-site” | Only tag links that arrive from outside |
| Different campaign names per placement | The campaign is split into pieces in the report | One campaign value everywhere |
| Mixed case | Duplicated rows in reports | Lower-case, always |
| Tagged link that redirects to an untagged page | Parameters are dropped | Make the redirect preserve the query string, or tag the final page |
| No tag at all on the podcast vanity URL | Podcast traffic shows as “direct” | Redirect to a tagged link |
Checking it works
Open the tagged link in a private browser window, then look at your analytics real-time report. You should see one visitor with the source, medium and campaign you set. Do this once per placement before anything runs; it takes a minute and catches broken redirects.