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Getting started
Planning
Links
Guides
- UTM naming conventions for teams and agencies
- UTM parameters explained
- Campaign launch without broken links
- Planning QR codes for print
- Switch agencies without losing data
- Google Campaign URL Builder or a UTM builder for teams
- UTM links for agencies: running client campaigns cleanly
- UTM management: what it is and when a team needs it
UTM parameters explained
UTM parameters are additions to a web address that tell your analytics where a visit comes from. Without them, a click from a newsletter or an ad often ends up as "Direct" or as an ordinary search engine visit. With them you can see which activity brought which visit.
How a campaign link is built
After the target page comes a question mark, followed by pairs of name and value, separated by &:
https://www.lindenholz.example/autumn?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=autumn-sale-2026
The page itself does not change. Only your analytics and some advertising tools read the parameters.
The five fields
| Parameter | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
utm_source |
The specific platform or source | newsletter |
utm_medium |
The type of channel | email |
utm_campaign |
The specific activity | autumn-sale-2026 |
utm_content |
Variant or position, optional | top-button |
utm_term |
Search keyword for paid search, optional | fitted-kitchen |
Feinwerk Campaigns also appends utm_id. This is the link's code, which lets results be assigned to exactly one link.
Source, medium and campaign belong in every link. A rule of thumb: the source is always specific ("which platform?"), the medium always a category ("which type of channel?"). utm_source=social&utm_medium=facebook is exactly the wrong way round.
Five common mistakes
- Inconsistent spelling:
Facebook,facebookandfbare three sources. Decide how values are written, ideally in a shared naming convention. - Spaces and special characters: they get rewritten in the address and make values hard to read. Use lower case and hyphens.
- Two question marks: if the target page already has parameters, add more with
&, not with a second?. - Missing campaign: without a campaign name, many reports cannot assign a visit to an activity.
- UTM on internal links: use the parameters only for links from outside to your site. On your own website, a link with campaign parameters starts a new visit in Matomo by default, and other tools overwrite the visit's original source.
UTM or custom parameters
UTM is the standard that almost every advertising and analytics tool understands. Some analytics tools have their own parameters as well. Matomo, for example, uses mtm_campaign, mtm_source, mtm_medium, mtm_content and more, but understands the utm_ parameters just as well. Because UTM is the better known term, we speak of UTM here. What matters is that you stick to one style within a link. For Matomo, which knows both, the article Campaign tracking in Matomo on feinwerk.io explains how the fields map to each other and which style we recommend.
Check every link before it goes out
- Open the link in a private browser window.
- Check that the right page loads in the right language and that the address keeps its parameters.
- Look in your analytics to see whether the visit arrives with the values you expect.
- Mark the link as tested in your documentation.
The test matters most for redirects and link shorteners, because some drop the parameters on the way.
Which tool to build the links with, from the free Campaign URL Builder to a UTM builder for teams, is compared in the guide Google Campaign URL Builder or a UTM builder for teams. What a team needs beyond that to keep the values consistent over the years is explained in the guide UTM management: what it is and when a team needs it.
Feinwerk Campaigns
In Feinwerk Campaigns you do not type the values by hand: the link builder assembles the address from the naming convention, and the platform checks the landing page before the link goes live. Try it in the pilot; the pilot page shows how to take part.