Give every campaign link a little context.

What a UTM parameter does

A campaign link has two jobs: get someone to the right page, and help you understand where that visit came from. UTM parameters add labels to a normal URL so a compatible analytics tool can group the resulting visits.

The labels do not install analytics, identify a person, or count conversions by themselves. Your destination website needs an analytics setup that reads them. Think of the URL as a labeled envelope; the analytics system still has to open and process it.

To prepare a campaign URL with WebAct, see how to use Chat and Task. Ask it to preserve existing non-UTM query parameters and encode values, then test the result before sharing.

Start with three consistent fields

• Source: where you placed the link, such as newsletter or linkedin.
• Medium: the kind of channel, such as email or social.
• Campaign: the initiative the link belongs to, such as autumn_launch.

For a product announcement in a newsletter, those choices might produce:

https://example.com/product?utm_source=newsletter
&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=autumn_launch

The example is wrapped for readability; the actual URL stays on one line. Optional utm_content can distinguish two placements, such as a header button and a text link. utm_term can label a keyword when that is relevant to the campaign.

Make the names boring and predictable

Pick one naming convention before your first campaign. Lowercase words joined by underscores are easy to read and reproduce. The specific convention matters less than using it consistently.

Keep a shared list of accepted source and medium values. Otherwise, email, Email, and e-mail can make the same channel harder to report on. Use campaign names that will still make sense months later.

Do not add email addresses, customer names, access tokens, or other personal or secret information. URLs can appear in browser history, logs, screenshots, and shared messages. Campaign labels should describe the campaign, not the visitor.

Check the handoff before you publish

1. Open the generated link and confirm it reaches the right destination.
2. Check whether redirects retain the parameters.
3. Confirm your analytics records the expected source, medium, and campaign in a test visit.
4. Measure an outcome, such as a signup or a first completed task, alongside the visit.

Use UTMs on external campaign links. For links between your own pages, prefer your analytics system’s event tracking so internal navigation does not muddy the original acquisition source.

Traffic is only the first part of the story. A link that brings fewer visitors who complete a useful action can be more valuable than a link that brings many visits and little follow-through.

For the analytics-side behavior, see Google’s campaign URL documentation. The destination’s analytics configuration determines how a campaign URL is reported.