UTM Builder: Create Campaign URLs for Google Analytics 4

What each UTM parameter does

GA4 reads nine campaign parameters. Google says to always set the first three: a missing one shows as (not set) in your reports.

• utm_source: where the click comes from, such as reddit, linkedin or newsletter. Reported as Session source.
• utm_medium: the type of channel, such as social, email, referral or cpc. Reported as Session medium, and the main input to GA4's channel rules.
• utm_campaign: the launch or promotion, such as launch-week. Reported as Session campaign.
• utm_content: tells apart two links or creatives in the same campaign, such as two buttons in one email. Reported as Manual ad content.
• utm_term: the paid keyword. Reported as Manual term.
• utm_id: a campaign ID. Use the same IDs as any campaign data you upload to GA4.
• utm_source_platform: the platform that bought or manages the traffic, such as Search Ads 360. Reported as Manual source platform.
• utm_creative_format and utm_marketing_tactic: the type of creative and the targeting. Google says neither is currently reported in GA4 properties.

When you set one parameter, Google strongly recommends setting every relevant one, especially source, medium, campaign, utm_id and utm_source_platform. The full list is on Google's URL builders help page.

How GA4 decides the channel

GA4's default channel group sorts each tagged visit with fixed rules on source, medium and campaign name, and a visit goes to the first channel whose rules it matches. The rules founders run into most:

• Organic Social: the source is on Google's list of social sites (reddit, linkedin, facebook, instagram, twitter and hundreds more), or the medium is social, social-network, social-media, sm, social network or social media.
• Paid Social: a social source with a paid medium. A medium counts as paid when it contains cp (cpc, cpm), is ppc or retargeting, or starts with paid.
• Email: the source or the medium is email, e-mail, e_mail or e mail.
• Referral: the medium is referral, app or link.
• Affiliates: the medium is exactly affiliate.
• Organic Video: the source is a video site such as youtube, or the medium contains video.
• Organic Search: the source is a search engine, or the medium is exactly organic.
• Unassigned: no rule matched. Made-up mediums such as newsletter or affiliates usually end up here.

Order matters. Google lists the shopping rule, which matches campaign names containing shop or shopping, before the social one, so a campaign called shop-launch can turn a Reddit post into Organic Shopping traffic.

The rules ignore case, but your reports do not: GA4 shows Reddit and reddit as two rows. The builder applies these rules as you type and shows the expected channel. The full definitions are on Google's default channel group page.

UTM presets for Reddit, LinkedIn, X and newsletters

These are the values the presets use. They are conventions that land in the right GA4 channel, not the only valid choice. What matters most is one name per platform, used every time.

• Reddit: reddit / social (Organic Social). Reddit Ads: reddit / paid-social (Paid Social).
• LinkedIn: linkedin / social. LinkedIn Ads: linkedin / paid-social.
• X: twitter / social. Google's published list of social sources names twitter and t.co, not x, so x with a paid medium falls into Paid Other.
• Facebook and Instagram: facebook or instagram / social, or paid-social for Meta ads.
• YouTube: youtube / video (Organic Video). YouTube ads run through Google Ads, so use auto-tagging there.
• Product Hunt: producthunt / referral (Referral). Product Hunt is not on Google's social list.
• Hacker News: hackernews / social (Organic Social).
• Newsletter: newsletter or the newsletter's name / email (Email).
• Partners and affiliates: the partner's name / affiliate (Affiliates).
• Guest posts and directories: the site's name / referral (Referral).

Google's own best practices say the same thing: one unique source per platform, and lowercase values everywhere.

Common UTM mistakes and how to fix them

• Mixed case and spelling. Reddit, reddit and reddit.com are three sources in GA4. Keep Lowercase on and reuse names from your history. The builder warns when a new value differs from an earlier one only by case or separator.
• Tagging links between your own pages. In GA4, a new campaign in the middle of a session does not start a new session, but its values are used for event-based attribution, so a sign-up after an internally tagged click can be credited to your own site. Use plain internal links and track those clicks with a GA4 event.
• Adding UTMs to Google Ads. With auto-tagging on, Google Ads adds a gclid to each ad click, and when both are present GA4 uses the auto-tagged values for source and medium. Keep auto-tagging on and skip manual tags there.
• Inventing a medium. newsletter, affiliates or partner as a medium usually lands in Unassigned. Use email, affiliate or referral.
• Shop in the campaign name. A campaign name that contains shop or shopping can push the visit into a Shopping channel. Pick another word, such as store.
• Sharing an address with an old click ID. An address copied from your browser can carry gclid, fbclid or _gl from an earlier visit. The builder removes them.
• Redirects that drop the query string. If the page redirects, from http to https or from an old path, open the tagged link once and check that ?utm_ is still in the address bar.

Where to find UTM data in GA4

Open Reports, then Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition. Use the dimension menu above the table to switch to Session source / medium or Session campaign and see your tagged links side by side. utm_content and utm_term appear as Manual ad content and Manual term.

One quirk: GA4 leaves UTM parameters out of the Landing page + query string and Page path + query string dimensions. The full tagged address is in Page location.

Before you post a tagged link, check the page it opens: the Open Graph checker shows the preview card social sites will display, and the meta tag checker catches a missing title or description.