UTM parameters explained

UTM parameters are tags you add to the end of a link so your analytics knows where a visit came from. They're the difference between "Direct: 1,200 visitors" and "Tuesday newsletter: 340 visitors, 7 customers".

The five parameters

• utm_source: who sends the traffic (google, newsletter, producthunt).
• utm_medium: the type of channel (cpc, email, social, affiliate).
• utm_campaign: the specific campaign (black-friday-2026, launch-week).
• utm_term: the keyword, mostly for paid search.
• utm_content: which link or creative was clicked, to A/B test ads or buttons.

A tagged link looks like this:

https://yourdomain.com/pricing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=october-update

When to use them

Tag every link you control that points to your site from somewhere else: emails, ads, social bios, sponsorships, partner pages, QR codes. Don't tag internal links between your own pages: that would overwrite the real source of the visit.

A naming convention you can copy

• Lowercase everything, use hyphens: launch-week, not Launch Week.
• Keep utm_medium to a short fixed list: email, cpc, paid_social, social, affiliate.
• Name campaigns after what you'll want to compare later, with a date if they repeat.
• Write your conventions down in a shared doc so the whole team tags the same way.

Short alternatives: ref and via

For quick links, many founders use ?ref=twitter or ?via=partner-name. DataEasy reads ref and via next to the five UTM parameters, so these work too.

How DataEasy uses them

Every parameter shows up in Source → Campaign, with visitors, revenue and conversion rate. The medium also decides the channel: cpc becomes Paid search, email or newsletter becomes Newsletter, paid_social becomes Paid social and affiliate becomes Affiliate. Because DataEasy links payments to visitors, you see which campaign made money, not just which one got clicks. Read how revenue attribution works.

Mistakes to avoid

• Inconsistent casing: Newsletter and newsletter become two sources.
• Tagging internal links, which resets the visitor's real source.
• Leaving UTMs in canonical URLs: point your canonical tags to the clean URL.