UTM by channel: email, social media, Google Ads and Meta

The same link tagged the same way for your newsletter and for your Google ad: that's the mistake that mixes everything together.

Each channel has its own codes. Here are the right values to use, channel by channel.

Email

For an email campaign, the clearest convention:

• utm_source: the name of your tool or your list. newsletter, brevo, mailchimp
• utm_medium: always email
• utm_campaign: the name of the send. relance-panier, promo-juin

Watch out: remember to tag all the links in your email, not just the main button. Otherwise clicks on the other links end up as "direct".

Social media (organic)

For your non-sponsored posts:

• utm_source: the network. instagram, linkedin, tiktok
• utm_medium: social
• utm_campaign: your campaign or the theme. lancement, temoignage-client

Small pitfall: on Instagram and LinkedIn, plenty of clicks get lost anyway (the app doesn't always pass the origin along). UTMs limit the damage, but they don't work miracles on these channels.

Google Ads

Here, two schools of thought, and you have to choose:

• Auto-tagging (the gclid that Google adds on its own): it's the most reliable way to tie your clicks to your conversions in Google Analytics. Recommended by default.
• Manual UTMs: useful if you want readable campaign names in tools other than GA.

The golden rule: don't mix the two on the same campaign unless you know what you're doing, otherwise you risk duplicating or overriding your data. If you're just starting out, leave auto-tagging enabled and don't add UTMs on top.

Meta (Facebook & Instagram Ads)

Meta lets you use dynamic parameters that fill themselves in:

• utm_source: facebook or instagram
• utm_medium: cpc (or paid-social)
• utm_campaign: {{campaign.name}} (Meta replaces it with the real name)
• utm_content: {{ad.name}} to know which creative performed

These curly braces {{...}} aren't something to make up: they're Meta's official variables. They save you from tagging everything by hand, creative by creative.

The table to remember

Set these conventions once, apply them everywhere, and your reports will stay clean no matter the channel.