What is a UTM parameter?
A UTM parameter is extra text added to the end of a link that tells your analytics tool where the click came from.
Without it, your analytics can see that someone arrived, and often which site they arrived from, but not which of your efforts sent them. Three different newsletters, a paid ad and an organic post all pointing at the same page look like one undifferentiated pile of traffic.
The problem it solves
Say you run a campaign across four channels in the same week. Traffic goes up. Which channel caused it? Without tags, you are guessing. With tags, the report tells you — and next quarter you put the budget where it worked.
What one looks like
An ordinary link:
https://example.com/spring-offerThe same link, tagged:
https://example.com/spring-offer?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email
&utm_campaign=spring-sale-2026Same destination, same page, same experience for the visitor. The only difference is that your analytics now knows this click came from the email campaign.
Where the name comes from
UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module. Urchin was the analytics company Google acquired in 2005, which became Google Analytics. The name stuck; the convention is now read by essentially every analytics tool, not just Google's.
When you need them
Any time you put a link somewhere you control the placement: emails, social posts, ads, partner sites, QR codes, sponsorships. Anywhere you might later ask "did that work?"
When you do not
Links between pages of your own site — tagging those overwrites the original source and actively damages your data. And Google Ads links, where auto-tagging already does a better job.
The next step is knowing what goes in each field: the five parameters explained.
Last reviewed 2026-08-13