UTM parameters are a specific set of URL parameters used for tracking the origin of website visitors. These parameters have been adopted by many marketing tools over decades and are essentially standardized.
The UTM parameters are as follows:
utm_source
utm_medium
utm_campaign
utm_term
utm_content
An example URL using UTM parameters might look like this:
https://website.com/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Advertising&utm_campaign=Buy+Our+ProductWhen creating campaign links, you’ll notice that the fields have names like “Source,” but the link parameters look like “utm_source.”
You may be wondering, what’s with the “utm” part?
Back in 2005, Google acquired an analytics company called Urchin and rebranded their platform as Google Analytics. Urchin had a campaign tracking feature called “Urchin Tracking Module,” which is where UTM is derived from.
Google Analytics retained this naming convention because it was already widely used. Fast forward 17 years, and we’re doing the same thing.
We know that many of our users already make use of UTM parameters, and we want their transition to Independent Analytics Pro to be as smooth as possible, so we’ve stuck with the same parameter names.
Furthermore, these parameters have been adopted by many other marketing tools and ad platforms, making their use essential for seamless tracking & integration.