Guide
UTM Source vs Medium vs Campaign
Understand the role of source, medium, and campaign so your tagged links are easier to analyze.
Many UTM errors come from mixing source, medium, and campaign. Once each field has one job, reports become much easier to read.
What utm_source should represent
Source identifies where traffic comes from, such as newsletter, linkedin, or google.
Keep source focused on origin only.
- Good: newsletter, instagram, partner-site
- Avoid: paid-social, launch-campaign
What utm_medium should represent
Medium describes the channel type, like email, cpc, social, or referral.
Use a controlled list so reports group correctly.
What utm_campaign should represent
Campaign names the specific initiative you are measuring, like spring_launch or black_friday_sale.
This should describe the effort, not the platform.
Quick mapping examples
A LinkedIn ad might be source=linkedin, medium=paid-social, campaign=q2_demo_offer.
An email newsletter could be source=newsletter, medium=email, campaign=april_product_update.
Useful when
- Setting up new tracking conventions.
- Cleaning messy channel reports.
- Training teammates on UTM basics.
One field, one purpose
Treat each parameter as a separate label and avoid overlap. Clean structure gives cleaner reporting.