Tagged link builder

UTM parameters are simple to write by hand, which is exactly why they go wrong. Everyone on the team writes them their own way, and a quarter later the same campaign shows up split across four spellings.

This builder does nothing clever: it normalises. Lowercase, no accents, hyphens instead of spaces, every time.

The four parameters and what they are for

• utm_source: where it came from. The network, always under the same name.
• utm_medium: how it came. Separating organic from paid is what lets you say what each is worth.
• utm_campaign: the campaign. One name per campaign, written once and reused.
• utm_content: the variant. For comparing two versions of the same ad or two pieces of the same campaign.

Two rules that prevent most of the trouble

A sheet with the agreed names. Decide the possible values before tagging anything. Then only use those. That is why this tool offers the common sources and mediums rather than free text.

Never tag internal links. A UTM on a link between pages of your own site restarts the session in most analytics tools and reassigns an existing visit to an external source. UTMs are for traffic arriving from outside.

Where this changes the report

Once links are tagged consistently, you stop having to argue that social brought traffic. It is in the client's own analytics, under the campaign name. More convincing than any screenshot of reach.