UTM parameters in Google Ads, Meta and LinkedIn

Ad platforms count clicks and costs themselves. In your web analytics, though, a visit from an ad only lands on the right campaign when the link carries campaign parameters. We speak of UTM parameters here because almost every platform knows them. Matomo has its own parameters such as mtm_campaign and mtm_source and understands the utm_ parameters just as well.

What is special about ads: the platforms can insert values themselves on the click. That saves work, but it can also break a clean report apart.

Fixed values and placeholders

A placeholder is a piece of text in curly braces that the platform replaces on the click, for example with the ID of the ad. This split has proven itself:

• Source, medium and campaign stay fixed and come from your naming convention: utm_source=google, utm_medium=cpc, utm_campaign=2027_ridge_jacke. That way each campaign appears in the report exactly once, however many ads it has.
• Content and term may carry placeholders, for example for the ad or the keyword. They tell variants within a campaign apart, and many values are fine there.

If the platform inserts the campaign name instead, the report shows whatever someone typed into the ad account. If someone then renames a campaign, it appears in the report under two names.

Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising

Google Ads splits the address into two fields: the final URL is the landing page without parameters, and the final URL suffix holds the parameters, without a question mark. Google joins both on the click. Microsoft Advertising works with the same two fields.

Google calls its placeholders ValueTrack parameters. The most useful ones for UTM links are:

• {keyword}: the keyword from your account that matches the search query. For campaigns without keywords, such as Performance Max, the value stays empty.
• {creative}: a unique ID of the ad.
• {campaignid}: the ID of the campaign.

Google has no placeholder for the campaign name. That is one more reason why the campaign name belongs in the link as a fixed value. A typical suffix looks like this: utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=2027_ridge_jacke&utm_content={creative}&utm_term={keyword}

Meta (Facebook and Instagram)

In Ads Manager the landing page goes into the Website URL field, and the parameters go into the URL parameters field. Meta has its own placeholders with double curly braces, for example {{ad.name}} for the name of the ad. This makes utm_content readable, but only as good as your ad names, so name ads by a rule as well. Which other placeholders Meta offers is described in Meta's help.

LinkedIn

In Campaign Manager you can switch on dynamic UTM parameters at account or campaign level. The values are written in capital letters between double curly braces, for example {{CAMPAIGN_NAME}} or {{CAMPAIGN_ID}}. LinkedIn does not replace parameters that are already in the destination address; it adds to them. So decide for each parameter who sets it: your link or LinkedIn. If both do, the same parameter arrives twice, and the report no longer shows clearly which value counts.

Placeholders do not work behind short links

A platform only replaces placeholders in the address it sees itself. If the link sits behind a short link or a QR code, the platform sees only the short address, and the placeholders arrive in your web analytics as plain text. Links with placeholders therefore always go into the ad as the full address.

Checklist before the launch

1. Source, medium and campaign come from your convention, without placeholders.
2. Placeholders appear only in content and term and match the platform.
3. The landing page and the parameters each sit in the right field of the ad.
4. A test click from the preview opens the landing page, and the parameters arrive with it.
5. The day after the launch, the expected values appear in the campaign report of your web analytics.

Feinwerk Campaigns

In the link builder you choose the ad network, and one click fills in source, medium and the network's placeholders, for Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok and eight more networks. The link page then shows what goes into which field of the ad, and admins set the defaults per network in the naming convention. How that works is described in the docs under Links for ad networks. The basics of the parameters are explained in the guide UTM parameters explained. If you would like to try this with your team and your agencies, get in touch on the pilot page.