Recommended UTM parameters

Attributer is designed to support the use of a number of different UTM parameter convention (see the article on How Attributer categorises visits and Understanding the Drilldown fields to understand whether your existing UTM structure would result in data being captured the way you want).

However, if you’re just starting using UTM parameters or are open to changing the way you currently do it, this is the UTM structure we recommend using as it will both work with Attributer rules and be the easiest to manage.

UTM Parameter Usage

PARAMETER	USAGE DESCRIPTION	EXAMPLE VALUES	USAGE NOTES
UTM_Medium	The highest level of information, use to see the top-level channel this traffic & leads are coming from, like Organic Search, Paid Advertising, Social Media, etc. Similar to Channel Grouping in Google Analytics.	paidsearch, paidsocial, display, email	If it’s a Paid Search campaign (I.e. Google Ads, Bing Ads), then use “paidsearch”. If it’s a Paid Social campaign (I.e. Facebook), then use “paidsocial”. If it’s a wider Display campaign (I.e. Google Display Network or a bespoke display ad buy), then you use “display” If it’s a top of funnel email campaign, (I.e. You pay for a dedicated email send to designernews.com’s audience), then use “email”
UTM_Source	The second level of information. Usually used to see what site, network, etc the traffic and leads are coming from.	google, facebook, linkedin, twitter, instagram, etc.	Make sure it’s always in lower case, as the reporting tools you will use to analyse this data are often case sensitive. So use ‘facebook’ as opposed to ‘Facebook’
UTM_Campaign	The third level of information, usually giving some sort of name to the particular campaign to determine different ones apart from each other.	high-intent, problem, competitor, etc.	Again, everything should be in lower case. Consistency is key here so that if you want to see similar campaigns together, you can.
UTM_Term	The 4th level of information, often used to show the keyword grouping that attracted the user to the site.	Proposify, PandaDoc, etc.	Likely used for differentiating Ad Groups. Again, everything should be lowercase here.
UTM_Content	The 5th and lowest level of information, often used to capture the particular ad they clicked or the keyword that triggered it.	free trial ad, 30% off ad, etc.	Likely used for differentiating individual ads. Again, everything should be lowercase here.

Examples

If the above table is a bit confusing for you, then the below examples should help. These examples show what UTM parameters you should use for the most common advertising channels and the data you can expect to receive as a result.

Google Ads

UTM Parameters to use

• UTM_Medium=paidsearch
• UTM_Source=google
• UTM_Campaign=[Name of your campaign]
• UTM_Term=[Name of your ad group]
• UTM_Content=[Name of ad]

What data would get captured

• Channel = Paid search
• Channel Drilldown 1 = google
• Channel Drilldown 2 = [Name of your campaign]
• Channel Drilldown 3 = [Name of your ad group]
• Channel Drilldown 4 = [Name of ad]

Facebook Ads

UTM Parameters to use

• UTM_Medium=paidsocial
• UTM_Source=facebook
• UTM_Campaign=[Name of your campaign]
• UTM_Term=[Name of your ad set]
• UTM_Content=[Name of ad]

What data would get captured

• Channel = Paid social
• Channel Drilldown 1 = facebook
• Channel Drilldown 2 = [Name of your campaign]
• Channel Drilldown 3 = [Name of your ad set]
• Channel Drilldown 4 = [Name of ad]

LinkedIn Ads

UTM Parameters to use

• UTM_Medium=paidsocial
• UTM_Source=linkedin
• UTM_Campaign=[Name of your campaign]
• UTM_Term=[Name of your ad group]
• UTM_Content=[Name of ad]

What data would get captured

• Channel = Paid social
• Channel Drilldown 1 = linkedin
• Channel Drilldown 2 = [Name of your campaign]
• Channel Drilldown 3 = [Name of your ad group]
• Channel Drilldown 4 = [Name of ad]

Twitter Ads

UTM Parameters to use

• UTM_Medium=paidsocial
• UTM_Source=twitter
• UTM_Campaign=[Name of your campaign]
• UTM_Term=[Name of your ad set]
• UTM_Content=[Name of ad]

What data would get captured

• Channel = Paid social
• Channel Drilldown 1 = facebook
• Channel Drilldown 2 = [Name of your campaign]
• Channel Drilldown 3 = [Name of your ad set]
• Channel Drilldown 4 = [Name of ad]

Email Marketing Campaigns

UTM Parameters to use

• UTM_Medium=email
• UTM_Source=[Name of email creator, so if it’s your own email campaign you might use something like ‘mailchimp’ or ‘internal’, or if you are sponsoring a 3rd-party newsletter you might put the name of that]
• UTM_Campaign=[Name of your campaign]
• UTM_Term=[Name of the offer you made, like ‘30% off’ or ‘free ebook download’]
• UTM_Content=[Name of link clicked, which is useful if you have multiple banners in the email campaign or are using both a button and a text link]

What data would get captured

• Channel = Email marketing
• Channel Drilldown 1 = [Name of email creator]
• Channel Drilldown 2 = [Name of your campaign]
• Channel Drilldown 3 = [Name of offer
• Channel Drilldown 4 = [Name of link clicked]

Organic Social Media Posts

UTM Parameters to use

• UTM_Medium=social
• UTM_Source=[Name of social network, like facebook, linkedIn, twitter, etc]
• UTM_Campaign=[Name of your campaign]
• UTM_Term=[Name of the offer you made, like ‘30% off’ or ‘free ebook download’]

What data would get captured

• Channel = Organic social
• Channel Drilldown 1 = [Name of social network]
• Channel Drilldown 2 = [Name of your campaign]
• Channel Drilldown 3 = [Name of offer]
• Channel Drilldown 4 = No Content (This is because the UTM_Content parameter was not used)