How to Create a Tracking URL in Google Analytics

If you're spending time or money on marketing campaigns, you need to know what's actually working. A perfectly written email newsletter, a clever social media ad, or a guest post on a popular blog are all great, but they are pointless if you can't tell which ones are driving traffic, leads, and sales. This article will show you exactly how to create and use tracking URLs so you can see the precise impact of every single marketing effort directly within Google Analytics.

What is a Tracking URL? (And Why You Need One)

A tracking URL is simply a standard web address with a few extra pieces of information tacked onto the end. This extra information, called UTM parameters, tells Google Analytics the exact source of your website traffic. Think of it as adding a detailed return address label to every visitor who clicks your link.

Instead of just seeing a visit from "facebook.com" in your reports, a tracking URL can tell you that the visit came from your summer-sale campaign, specifically from the blue-ad-variant you ran in your paid-social medium. This level of detail isn't just nice to have, it's essential for smart marketing.

These little tags, officially called "Urchin Tracking Module" (UTM) parameters, are the key to unlocking true campaign ROI. When you use them consistently, you can finally prove which emails, ads, influencers, and content are a genuine source of revenue, and which ones are just wasting your budget.

The Anatomy of a Tracking URL: Understanding the 5 UTM Parameters

A tracking URL is built from your base URL (e.g., https://www.yourstore.com/products/summer-dress) plus a series of utm_ tags. There are five main parameters you can use, but only three are required for basic tracking.

1. Campaign Source (utm_source) - REQUIRED

This is the most important tag. It tells you where the traffic came from. Think of it as the specific platform, website, or reference that sent the visitor to you.

• What it answers: Which website or platform sent me this traffic?
• Examples: google, facebook, active-campaign, influencer-name, bobs-cool-blog

2. Campaign Medium (utm_medium) - REQUIRED

The medium tells you the type of traffic or marketing channel. It's the general category of the source.

• What it answers: What kind of channel did this visitor come from?
• Examples: cpc (for paid ads), social, email, affiliate, organic

3. Campaign Name (utm_campaign) - REQUIRED

This tag lets you group all the different parts of a specific marketing initiative together. Give your campaign a clear, recognizable name.

• What it answers: Which specific marketing campaign is this link a part of?
• Examples: summer-sale-2024, q4-promo, new-product-launch, weekly-newsletter

4. Campaign Term (utm_term) - OPTIONAL

This is typically used in paid search campaigns to identify the specific keywords you're bidding on. If you're running Google Ads and have auto-tagging enabled, this parameter is often filled in for you automatically.

• What it answers: Which keyword prompted this visit?
• Examples: blue-suede-shoes, data-analytics-software

5. Campaign Content (utm_content) - OPTIONAL

This parameter is perfect for A/B testing. It helps you differentiate between multiple links within the same ad or email that point to the same URL. For instance, you could use it to track whether a visitor clicked the image link or the text link in your newsletter.

• What it answers: Which specific ad, button, or link was clicked?
• Examples: blue-dress-image, buy-now-button-1, header-link, footer-link

How to Create a Tracking URL: Step-by-Step with Google's Campaign URL Builder

Manually typing out these URLs can lead to errors. The easiest and safest way to create them is with Google’s free Campaign URL Builder. Here's exactly how to use it.

Step 1: Get the Website URL

Start with the final URL you want to send people to. This is the landing page of your campaign. For this example, let's use:

https://www.yourstore.com/summer-sale

Step 2: Fill in the Required Campaign Parameters

Now, let's fill in the builder with details for a hypothetical Facebook ad campaign.

• Website URL: https://www.yourstore.com/summer-sale
• Campaign Source: facebook
• Campaign Medium: cpc (Cost-per-click, a common way to label paid ads)
• Campaign Name: summer-sale-2024

Step 3: Add Optional Parameters for More Granularity (If Needed)

Let's say we're testing two different ad images to see which performs better. We can use utm_content to track this.

• Campaign Content: beach-lifestyle-photo

You can leave Campaign Term blank for this example since it's not a keyword-based search ad.

Step 4: Generate and Copy Your Tracking URL

As you fill out the fields, the builder will generate the full tracking URL for you automatically at the bottom of the page. It will look something like this:

https://www.yourstore.com/summer-sale?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=summer-sale-2024&utm_content=beach-lifestyle-photo

That long, tagged URL is what you'll use as the destination link in your Facebook ad. Every time someone clicks it, all that juicy data will be sent straight to your Google Analytics account.

Best Practices for Flawless Campaign Tracking

Creating tracking URLs is simple, but keeping your data clean requires a bit of discipline. Messy data is useless data, so follow these rules to avoid common pitfalls.

Be Consistent and Standardize Your Naming

Google Analytics is case-sensitive. This means Facebook, facebook, and FB are all treated as three separate sources. This can splinter your reports and make analysis a nightmare. Establish a clear naming convention and stick to it.

• Always use lowercase. It's just easier.
• Use dashes (-) instead of spaces or underscores (_). This improves readability.
• Create a shared spreadsheet. Have a Google Sheet where you and your team log the campaign names, sources, and mediums you use. This master document prevents people from inventing new naming schemes on the fly.

Keep It Simple and Readable

Avoid using obscure internal jargon in your UTM parameters. q3-newuser-acq-promo-v2 might make sense to you today, but in six months, nobody will remember what it means. Your campaign name should be easily understood by anyone looking at the report, like q3-customer-acquisition-promo.

Never, Ever Use UTMs for Internal Links

You should only use tracking URLs for traffic coming from outside your website. Tagging a link on your homepage that goes to your contact page is a huge mistake. Doing so will overwrite the original source data for that user. For example, if someone arrives from a Google organic search and then clicks an internally-tagged "special offer" banner on your site, Google Analytics will end their original session and start a new one, attributing that user to your "special-offer" campaign instead of "google / organic." This completely breaks your ability to track the true user journey.

Use a URL Shortener for a Cleaner Look

The final tracked URL is long and can look a little clunky or spammy, especially in social media posts. After you generate your URL, use a service like Bitly to shorten it. The short link will still contain all the UTM parameters, but it's much more user-friendly for your audience.

Where to Find Your Campaign Data in Google Analytics 4

Once you've started getting clicks on your new tracking URLs, you can find the data inside GA4.

1. Navigate to Reports on the left-hand menu.
2. Under the "Life cycle" section, click on Acquisition, then select the Traffic acquisition report.
3. By default, the report table groups traffic by "Session default channel group." Click the small dropdown arrow and change the primary dimension to Session campaign.

That's it! You will now see a list of all your campaigns, along with metrics like Users, Sessions, Engaged sessions, and Conversions. You can also add a secondary dimension by clicking the "+" button next to the primary dimension dropdown to view your campaign data by Session source or by Session medium to drill down even further.

Final Thoughts

Mastering campaign tracking is the difference between guessing what works and knowing for a fact. By systematically using UTM parameters for all your marketing efforts, you get a crystal-clear picture of your performance, empowering you to eliminate waste and double down on the channels that truly drive growth.

Creating tracking links is a great first step, but the work doesn't stop there. Combining your Google Analytics campaign data with performance insights from your ad platforms, sales data from platforms like Shopify or Salesforce, and email stats from Klaviyo is still often a manual reporting nightmare. We built Graphed to remove that exact friction. You can connect all your data sources in seconds and simply ask questions in plain English - like "Show me a dashboard comparing Facebook Ads spend vs. traffic from GA for the summer-sale-2024 campaign" - and get real-time dashboards and answers instantly, without ever touching a spreadsheet again.