UTM tracking parameters (also known as UTM codes) are small snippets of text added to the end of a webpage URL. When applied properly, they give marketers clear insights into where visitors originate and how different audience segments engage with a site. By leveraging this data, marketing teams can pinpoint the platforms and content that drive the strongest results, helping refine strategy and achieve marketing objectives.
Once you understand what UTM codes are and what to put into them, the next step is making implementation both easy and consistent. Below are some ways you and your team can streamline building, applying, and managing UTM tags in day-to-day marketing work.
Build a UTM Generator Spreadsheet
One of the simplest ways to ensure consistency and accuracy is to use a shared Google Sheet or Microsoft Excel file that automatically generates the long, complex campaign URLs that you’ll need. To do this, set up columns for:
- Base URL
- Source
- Medium
- Campaign
- Content (optional)
- Term (optional)
Use a CONCAT formula to combine them into a full tracking link:
=A2 & "?utm_source=" & B2 & "&utm_medium=" & C2 & "&utm_campaign=" & D2 & IF(E2<>"", "&utm_content=" & E2, "") & IF(F2<>"", "&utm_term=" & F2, "")
Anyone on your team can drop in their individual field values, and the sheet will generate a ready-to-use, consistently formatted and structured URL. An additional benefit of a generator Google Sheet is that it doubles as a tracking database showing the various UTM campaigns you have set up over time.
If you don’t need to track the history of your UTM campaigns or if you aren’t comfortable with creating the necessary CONCAT formula, there are also free online URL builders available, including Google’s Campaign URL Builder. These free tools might suggest extra UTM fields that aren’t necessarily needed.
Create Reusable Templates
For recurring campaigns (e.g., newsletters, social posts, paid ads), you can create “starter templates” for each channel:
- Email campaigns: ?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=
- Paid search: ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=
- Organic social: ?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=
That way, team members only need to adjust the campaign name and/or add optional fields. This can help maintain consistency within your team without the need for a complex spreadsheet.
Standardize Naming Conventions
When setting up your tracking, a shared set of rules helps with consistency and avoids messy reporting later on. Common tips for standardization includes:
- Source = the platform as a single word (google, facebook, linkedin)
- Medium = the type of traffic, hyphenated if needed (email, cpc, social, referral, paid-social, paid-audio)
- Campaign = high-level initiative, tying your data together (COE, SYP, MTU+Ads)
- Content = differentiator, possibly as granular as a specific ad (Campus+Flyer, footerlink, versionA, versionB)
In addition to these common standards, agree as a team on things such as Title Case for campaigns and content, lowercase for any other fields, using pluses instead of spaces, and avoiding using special characters or emojis within any fields.
Leverage Shorteners After Tagging
UTM-tagged URLs can get very long and intimidating to click on—especially in channels where space is limited or where a cleaner link improves trust and click-through rates. Plus, long URLs look suspicious or spammy in emails, SMS, or social posts. A short, branded link looks polished and professional. That’s where link shorteners come in. If you shorten before adding UTMs, the analytics tools won’t see the codes. Always build the full UTM URL first, then shorten it.
If you plan on tracking URLs within QR codes, there is some risk of your QR code becoming too complex with a long trackable URL. Using a URL shortener helps to make QR codes cleaner and easier to scan.
Check Your Work in Google Analytics 4
After you launch a campaign, go into Michigan Tech’s web analytics dashboard to confirm that your UTMs are working. Look at Traffic → Acquisition → UTM Tracking Codes. Verify that your source/medium/campaign tags appear as expected. If something looks off (e.g., “newsletter” shows up as “email_news”), you can quickly fix it before the next round.
Once your UTM data is flowing in nicely, you are armed with the necessary data to make informed decisions about your digital marketing initiatives. Have questions? Contact the Digital Strategy and Services team at webmaster@mtu.edu and we’ll schedule a meeting to chat.