UTM Parameter for Business: How to Track What Makes Your Money

When I started using a Facebook page to share articles from my blog, I encountered a problem in GA4.

In the traffic acquisition report, I couldn’t see exactly where my visitors came from — whether it was Facebook, Instagram, or organic search.

In GA4, I only saw „direct“ or „facebook/referral“ — nothing more specific.

I was posting every day, but I couldn’t tell which article was performing the best.

And once I started running ads on Instagram and Facebook, I completely lost track of which article was actually successful.

I needed more details — which article got the most clicks, and from which platform? I had no clear overview.

Like everyone, I wanted more — more information.

So I did some research and discovered UTM parameters.

Table of contents

• Discovering the Campaign URL Builder
• What is a UTM parameter?
• What happened when I started using UTM parameters?
• How I Regularly Track UTM Data in GA4
• A Tip for You

Discovering the Campaign URL Builder

That’s when I found the Campaign URL Builder (UTM parameters generator)— a simple tool that helps you create links with UTM tags for better tracking in GA4.

I found out that I can create a special link that includes details such as:

• Source (utm_source)
• Medium (utm_medium)
• Campaign name (utm_campaign)

Example of what an address with utm parameters looks like:

https://wavket.com/what-is-a-customer-persona-in-marketing-template/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=click_on_article_fb&utm_term=customer%2Bpersona%2Btemplate

What is a UTM parameter?

A UTM parameter is a small piece of text added to the end of a URL that helps you track where your website traffic is coming from.

When someone clicks a link with UTM parameters, analytics tools like Google Analytics can see exactly which campaign, platform, or source brought the visitor to your site.

The most common UTM parameters are:

• utm_source — identifies the source of traffic (e.g., facebook, newsletter)
• utm_medium — tells the type of marketing medium (e.g., social, email, cpc)
• utm_campaign — names the specific campaign or promotion (e.g., summer_sale)
• utm_term — used to track paid search keywords (optional)
• utm_content — differentiates similar content or links within the same campaign (optional)

What happened when I started using UTM parameters?

Everything changed.

Once I started adding UTM parameters to my links, I finally began to see clearly in GA4.

I could tell exactly:

• which article got the most clicks,
• from which platform (Facebook, Instagram, etc.),
• and even whether the clicks came from a paid ad or an organic post.

For the first time, I had a complete overview — and I could make better decisions based on real data.

How I Regularly Track UTM Data in GA4

To keep an eye on these details, I regularly create reports in GA4 by doing the following:

1. I go to Explore.
2. I create a new Free Form report.
3. I add dimensions like:
   • Session source
   • Session medium
   • Session campaign
   • Session manual ad content (for utm_content)
4. I include metrics such as:
   • Sessions
   • Conversions (if I have conversions set up)

A Tip for You

Create a simple table in an Excel document and start writing down all your URLs with UTM parameters.

Trust me, you’ll lose track very quickly if you don’t keep everything organized.

To help you stay organized, I’m sharing my sample Excel table with all the URLs and UTM parameters I use.

My excel document free to download it and customize it for your own needs!

Thanks for reading!

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