Free UTM builder for Google Analytics (GA4)

How the builder works

It joins your URL and your values into one link. Source, medium and campaign are always added, and campaign ID, term and content only when you fill them in. Each one becomes a utm_ tag after a ?, or after an & if the link already has a query string.

For the example button, a link to https://yoursite.com/pricing with source newsletter, medium email and campaign spring-sale comes out as:

https://yoursite.com/pricing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring-sale

Along the way it does the fiddly bits for you:

• Lowercase. Most analytics tools treat Email and email as different values, so one campaign ends up in two rows. Lowercase is on by default. Untick it if you really do need capitals.
• Spaces. A space in a link is a mess, so they become hyphens (or underscores, or %20, your choice).
• Special characters. &, =, # and ? would break the link, so they're encoded.
• Existing tags. If your URL already has utm_ tags for source, medium, campaign, ID, term or content, they're replaced rather than doubled up. Other query parameters and any #section are kept, and the #section stays at the end where it belongs.
• No https://? It adds one and tells you.

The link is built in your browser. What you type isn't sent anywhere or saved.

What each UTM parameter is for

Source, medium and campaign are the ones to fill in every time. Reach for term and content only when you have something to tell apart.

How Google Analytics 4 reads your UTM tags

Google's GA4 documentation documents nine parameters: utm_id, utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content, utm_source_platform, utm_creative_format and utm_marketing_tactic. It also says utm_creative_format and utm_marketing_tactic aren't currently reported in Google Analytics properties, so there is little reason to add them. This builder covers six of the nine, which is what most links need. To add utm_source_platform by hand, put it before any #fragment with &, for example https://example.com/page?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring-sale&utm_source_platform=mailer#pricing.

• Always set utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign on each link. Google says to always use these three, and that leaving relevant parameters out is how (not set) ends up in reports.
• Values are case sensitive. utm_source=google and utm_source=Google are different values. That is why this builder lowercases by default.
• The tags only work on the link people click. Check the tagged link in your browser, then open GA4's Realtime report to confirm the visit is collected. Realtime can't confirm campaign attribution, because its acquisition cards leave out new users who haven't been processed yet. Check session source / medium in Traffic acquisition once the data has processed.

Once the visits arrive, the Traffic acquisition report can group them by session source / medium or session campaign. Visits with no tags at all are sorted by what GA4 can see, which is why untagged links often land in direct traffic or referral traffic.

UTM naming conventions that keep reports clean

The builder cleans up spelling. It can't pick your names, so agree a short list once and reuse it. This is a convention we suggest, not a rule from Google:

The campaign stays the same across channels, so one push reads as one row. The source and medium change with the channel. Lowercase words joined with hyphens, no spaces, no dates unless the date is the point.

Six mistakes that make UTM data useless

1. Mixed case. Facebook, facebook and FB become three sources. Pick one spelling and write it down.
2. Tagging your own internal links. A tagged link from one of your pages to another can replace the source the visitor arrived with. Tag links that bring people in.
3. Different names for the same thing. email in one campaign and newsletter as a medium in the next. Keep a short list of mediums and reuse them.
4. Putting the campaign name in the source. Source is the sender, campaign is the push. Mixing them makes reports hard to read.
5. Dates and one-offs in every name. spring-sale is easy to compare year on year. spring-sale-final-v3-oct isn't.
6. Forgetting to test the link. Click it, check it lands on the right page and check the visit shows up under the source you expect.

The builder lowercases for you, warns you about odd characters and reminds you about internal links. Naming and testing are still up to you.

Once the links are out, see what they bring in

Tags only help if you read them back. Stickybeak is live analytics for every site you own, and it breaks revenue down by channel, campaign and ?ref= code. Each order also keeps its trail: the entry page, the referrer, every UTM tag, and the pages read before buying.

So a link you tag here can end up as a line in the trail behind a sale, and a campaign can be judged on what it earned as well as on clicks. Stickybeak is in early access and doesn't have a public price yet.