What UTM naming convention should I use?

Lowercase everything, a fixed word list for source and medium (line, facebook, email; cpc, social, referral), campaign names with dates or codes, and a shared link-builder sheet that enforces it. The convention matters less than everyone using exactly one.

Should I use UTM parameters on internal links?

Never: tagging internal links restarts sessions and rewrites the visitor's true origin, corrupting attribution sitewide. UTMs belong only on inbound links from external placements, emails, broadcasts and paid channels.

Analytics

UTM Parameters

UTM parameters are tags appended to a URL that tell analytics tools where a click came from, including source, medium, and campaign.

They let you attribute traffic and conversions to specific campaigns, emails, or posts with precision. For example, tagging a newsletter link lets you see exactly how much traffic and revenue it drove. Consistent naming across a team keeps the data clean and comparable.

UTM discipline is a naming problem, not a technical one: the parameters do whatever you type, so newsletter, Newsletter and email fragment one channel into three analytics rows. A shared naming sheet, lowercase everything, fixed vocabularies for source and medium, campaign names with dates, is the entire fix, plus a link builder that enforces it. Two boundaries keep data clean: never tag internal links, tagging resets sessions and corrupts attribution, and remember UTMs are visible in the address bar, so they leak campaign strategy to anyone who looks.

Example

A month's newsletter link tagged utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=march_promo shows in GA4: 1,840 sessions, 31 purchases, 96,000 baht: the email's revenue, provable. The untagged LINE broadcast the same week shows as "direct": revenue invisible, budget argument lost. One team member writing Newsletter while another writes newsletter splits the data into two rows until a naming sheet ends it.

Frequently asked questions

What UTM naming convention should I use?: Lowercase everything, a fixed word list for source and medium (line, facebook, email; cpc, social, referral), campaign names with dates or codes, and a shared link-builder sheet that enforces it. The convention matters less than everyone using exactly one.
Should I use UTM parameters on internal links?: Never: tagging internal links restarts sessions and rewrites the visitor's true origin, corrupting attribution sitewide. UTMs belong only on inbound links from external placements, emails, broadcasts and paid channels.

Related terms

Session Attribution Model Conversion

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