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# How do I use UTMs without breaking my reports?
- URL: https://conversion.club/playbook/utm-naming-convention-reliable-reports/
- Published: 2026-10-29T09:14:23.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-29T09:50:03.000Z
- Description: Use a shared UTM convention for incoming campaign links. Control medium values, audit tool defaults and measure internal promotions with events.
- Author: Jeremie Werner
- Tags: Measure performance, #playbook, Analytics, GA4, Acquisition

Reserve UTM parameters for incoming external campaign links, use lowercase and choose a medium GA4 can classify. A shared naming convention prevents fragmented campaigns and Unassigned traffic. For movement inside the store, measure interactions with events instead of adding acquisition tags.

## The benchmark

UTMs are URL labels describing where a visit came from. Google documents more parameters than most teams need daily; start with these five and consistently include source, medium and campaign.

| Parameter     | Purpose                      | Example                            |
| ------------- | ---------------------------- | ---------------------------------- |
| utm\_source   | Referring platform or sender | newsletter, facebook, partner-name |
| utm\_medium   | Channel type                 | email, cpc, affiliate              |
| utm\_campaign | Campaign                     | 2026-11-black-friday               |
| utm\_term     | Paid-search keyword          | Used for keyword identification    |
| utm\_content  | Link or creative variant     | hero-button, video-15s             |

Values are case-sensitive: `Facebook` and `facebook` can become different sources. Missing parameters can produce `(not set)` values.

GA4 default channels use rules involving source, medium and other context, not a medium label alone. The following is a practical summary of the source's October 2026 snapshot; check Google's complete rules for your combination.

| Medium                                                     | Typical classification or condition                          |
| ---------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| email, e-mail, e\_mail                                     | Email                                                        |
| sms                                                        | SMS                                                          |
| social, social-media, social-network, sm                   | Organic Social                                               |
| Paid pattern such as cpc/ppc/retargeting or beginning paid | Paid Social when source and other rules match social traffic |
| display, banner, cpm                                       | Display                                                      |
| affiliate                                                  | Affiliates                                                   |
| referral, link, app                                        | Referral                                                     |
| Ending in push                                             | Mobile Push Notifications, subject to full rules             |
| No matching rule                                           | Unassigned                                                   |

Shopify also reads UTMs. Its marketing-performance documentation associates visits containing `utm_campaign` with marketing and constructs channel reporting from campaign data. Identical tags do not make Shopify and GA4 attribution identical.

## The rule

Keep one shared spreadsheet and generate outgoing campaign URLs from it. Use lowercase, hyphens instead of spaces and no accents; start campaign names with dates for sorting. Restrict medium through a controlled list. For a QR campaign, define an appropriate custom channel instead of assuming `qr` is a recognized default medium. See the [custom-channel method](https://conversion.club/playbook/how-to-measure-ai-driven-revenue-in-ga4/).

| Channel             | Source                | Medium    | Campaign             | Content      |
| ------------------- | --------------------- | --------- | -------------------- | ------------ |
| Newsletter          | newsletter            | email     | 2026-11-black-friday | hero-button  |
| Meta ad             | facebook or instagram | cpc       | 2026-11-black-friday | video-15s    |
| Unpaid creator post | instagram             | social    | 2026-11-serum-launch | creator-01   |
| Affiliate           | partner-name          | affiliate | 2026-q4-partners     | article-link |
| SMS                 | sms                   | sms       | 2026-11-private-sale | link-1       |

Inspect tools' automatic values too. The source cites Klaviyo changing default medium settings from `campaign` or `flow` to message type on June 2, 2025, while preserving some saved account settings. At one apparel brand, much email traffic consequently appeared as Unassigned; the estimated fix took 30–60 minutes. Verify the account rather than assuming a new default fixed old settings.

## The steps

1. **Inventory 90 days.** Export source/medium pairs from GA4\. Find case variants such as Facebook/facebook/fb and unrecognized mediums.
2. **Write the convention.** Use a column per parameter and data validation for medium. Define the campaign owner and naming vocabulary.
3. **Generate links.** With URL in A, source in B, medium in C, campaign in D and content in E, the source's Google Sheets formula adapted to comma-separated locales is `=A2&IF(REGEXMATCH(A2,"\?"),"&","?")&"utm_source="&LOWER(B2)&"&utm_medium="&LOWER(C2)&"&utm_campaign="&LOWER(D2)&IF(E2="","","&utm_content="&LOWER(E2))`. Use it only with validated simple values and URLs without fragments or existing UTM duplicates; it is not a general URL encoder. Some spreadsheet locales require semicolons.
4. **Audit tools and migrations.** Review email and advertising configurations. One outdoor brand observed by the authors spent roughly three weeks without campaign UTMs after changing email tools.
5. **Clean internal navigation.** Crawl your domain for `utm_` in links between your own pages and remove those acquisition labels. A link from a transactional email into the store is external, despite the source grouping it with internal links; tag and classify that incoming email deliberately.
6. **Monitor monthly.** Track Unassigned and `(not set)`, investigate increases and record corrections in the [operating log](https://conversion.club/playbook/how-do-i-keep-track-of-what-moved-my-numbers/). They are diagnostic signals, not proof that every missing value came from naming.

## The pitfall

Tagging a homepage banner with UTMs pollutes campaign interpretation. Its apparent sales may have been acquired by ads, email or search. Attribution behavior depends on report scope; do not assume an internal click always starts a new GA4 session. A different [attribution model](https://conversion.club/playbook/multichannel-marketing-attribution-model/) cannot repair misleading source data.

For internal promotions, use `view_promotion` and `select_promotion`, including promotion name and `creative_slot`. Free-text naming causes another failure: `Black-Friday`, `blackfriday` and `bf26` split one campaign into separate rows and distort [channel conversion comparisons](https://conversion.club/playbook/how-should-i-break-down-my-conversion-rate-so-it-informs-decisions/).

## What to tell your team

> “Last quarter, 14% of sessions were Unassigned and Black Friday had four spellings. From Monday, incoming campaign links come from the shared sheet, and internal navigation uses events.” These figures are fictional.

## Sources

- [Google: campaign URL parameters](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10917952?hl=en&ref=conversion.club).
- [default channel groups](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9756891?hl=en&ref=conversion.club).
- [traffic-source dimensions and tagging](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/11242870?hl=en&ref=conversion.club).
- [Shopify: marketing performance](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/promoting-marketing/analyze-marketing/marketing-performance?ref=conversion.club).
- [Klaviyo: UTM tracking](https://help.klaviyo.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005247808?ref=conversion.club).
- [Google: recommended events](https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/ga4/reference/events?hl=en&ref=conversion.club).