Google Analytics 4 UTM Tracking Guide

UTM Parameters in GA4 vs Universal Analytics

If you're coming from Universal Analytics (UA), GA4's approach to UTM tracking feels unfamiliar. Here's what changed:

Key Differences

Aspect	Universal Analytics	Google Analytics 4
Primary Report Location	Acquisition → Campaigns → All Campaigns	Reports → Acquisition → Traffic Acquisition
Session Attribution	Last non-direct click	Customizable (default: last click)
UTM Parameter Names	Same 5 parameters	Same 5 parameters (no change)
Dimension Names	"Source", "Medium", "Campaign"	"Session source", "Session medium", "Session campaign"
Real-Time Tracking	Real-Time → Traffic Sources	Reports → Realtime (with more detail)
Custom Reports	Customization → Custom Reports	Explore → Create custom exploration
Data Processing Time	24-48 hours for full processing	24-48 hours (no change)

What Stayed the Same

Good news: The actual UTM parameters haven't changed. You still use:

• utm_source
• utm_medium
• utm_campaign
• utm_term
• utm_content

Your existing UTM-tagged links work perfectly in GA4. You don't need to recreate them.

Where to Find UTM Data in GA4

The biggest frustration for marketers migrating to GA4 is finding their UTM data. Here's where everything lives:

1. Traffic Acquisition Report (Primary Location)

Path: Reports → Acquisition → Traffic Acquisition

This is the main report for viewing UTM campaign data in GA4. By default, it shows "Session source/medium", which combines your utm_source and utm_medium values.

What you'll see:

• google / cpc — Google Ads traffic
• facebook / cpc — Facebook Ads traffic
• newsletter / email — Email campaign traffic
• (direct) / (none) — Direct traffic (people typing your URL)
• google / organic — Organic search traffic

How to view specific UTM parameters:

1. In the Traffic Acquisition report, click the pencil icon next to "Session source/medium"
2. Choose different dimensions:
   • Session source: Shows only utm_source values
   • Session medium: Shows only utm_medium values
   • Session campaign: Shows utm_campaign values

2. User Acquisition Report (First Touch Attribution)

Path: Reports → Acquisition → User Acquisition

This report shows where users first came from, not where they came from in their most recent session.

When to use this report:

• You want to know which campaigns brought new users (not just new sessions)
• You're analyzing long-term brand awareness campaigns
• You want to credit the first touchpoint in the customer journey

Difference from Traffic Acquisition:

• User Acquisition: First source ever (credited to the first visit)
• Traffic Acquisition: Last source (credited to the most recent session)

3. Campaigns Report

Path: Reports → Acquisition → Campaigns

This report focuses specifically on utm_campaign values, making it perfect for comparing performance across different marketing initiatives.

What you can see:

• All your campaign names in one view
• Key metrics: Sessions, Engaged sessions, Conversions, Revenue
• Secondary dimensions for source, medium, or content

Pro tip: Click "+ Add comparisons" to compare two campaigns side-by-side (e.g., this quarter vs. last quarter).

4. Realtime Report (Testing UTM Links)

Path: Reports → Realtime

The Realtime report shows activity in the last 30 minutes, making it perfect for testing new UTM links before launching a campaign.

How to test UTM links:

1. Open the Realtime report in GA4
2. In a different browser (or incognito window), click your UTM-tagged link
3. Within seconds, you should see the session appear with your UTM parameters
4. Scroll down to "Traffic sources" to verify utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign were captured correctly

⚠️ Testing warning: Don't test UTM links from your primary work browser—this can overwrite your original traffic source and skew your data.

Setting Up Custom Reports in GA4

GA4's standard reports are useful, but custom explorations unlock the full power of UTM tracking. Here's how to build reports tailored to your needs.

Creating Your First UTM Campaign Report

Step 1: Open the Explore section

1. In GA4, navigate to Explore (left sidebar)
2. Click "+ Create a new exploration"
3. Choose the "Free form" template

Step 2: Add Dimensions

In the "Dimensions" panel, click the + button and search for:

• Session source
• Session medium
• Session campaign name
• Session manual term (utm_term)
• Session manual ad content (utm_content)

Step 3: Add Metrics

In the "Metrics" panel, click the + button and add:

• Sessions
• Engaged sessions
• Engagement rate
• Conversions (or specific conversion events like "purchase")
• Total revenue (if e-commerce tracking is enabled)
• Average engagement time

Step 4: Build Your Table

1. Drag "Session campaign name" from Dimensions to the ROWS section
2. Drag "Sessions", "Conversions", and "Total revenue" to the VALUES section
3. Your custom campaign performance table appears instantly

Step 5: Add Filters (Optional)

To focus on specific campaigns:

1. In the "FILTERS" section, click +
2. Select "Session medium"
3. Choose "exactly matches" → cpc
4. Now you're only seeing paid advertising campaigns

Pre-Built Custom Report Templates

Template 1: Campaign ROI Dashboard

Purpose: Calculate return on ad spend for paid campaigns

Dimensions:

• Session campaign name
• Session source

Metrics:

• Sessions
• Conversions
• Total revenue
• Conversion rate (calculated: Conversions / Sessions)

Filters:

• Session medium = cpc

Template 2: Email Campaign Performance

Purpose: Track newsletter and promotional email effectiveness

Dimensions:

• Session campaign name
• Session manual ad content (to differentiate email sections)

Metrics:

• Sessions
• Engaged sessions
• Engagement rate
• Average engagement time

Filters:

• Session medium = email

Template 3: Multi-Channel Attribution

Purpose: Compare performance across all traffic sources

Dimensions:

• Session source/medium (combined)
• Session campaign name

Metrics:

• Sessions
• Conversions
• Conversion rate
• Total revenue

Breakdown:

• Add "Device category" as a secondary dimension to see desktop vs mobile performance

Advanced Campaign Reporting in GA4

Using Segments to Isolate Campaign Traffic

Segments let you analyze subsets of your data. For example, "users who came from paid campaigns AND made a purchase."

How to create a campaign segment:

1. In any Explore report, click "+ Segment" in the Segments section
2. Choose "User segment"
3. Click "+ Add condition"
4. Select "Session medium" → "exactly matches" → cpc
5. Name your segment (e.g., "Paid Advertising Users")
6. Click Save

Powerful segment combinations:

• High-value campaign users: Session campaign = "spring_sale_2024" AND Total revenue > $100
• Multi-touch users: First user source = "facebook" AND Session source = "google"
• Engaged email subscribers: Session medium = "email" AND Engagement rate > 50%

Attribution Modeling for UTM Campaigns

GA4's attribution models help you understand which campaigns deserve credit for conversions.

Path: Advertising → Attribution → Model comparison

Available models:

• Last click: 100% credit to the final campaign before conversion
• First click: 100% credit to the first campaign that brought the user
• Linear: Equal credit to all touchpoints in the journey
• Position-based: 40% to first, 40% to last, 20% distributed between
• Data-driven: GA4's machine learning determines credit based on actual conversion patterns

Why this matters for UTM tracking:

If you only look at last-click attribution, you might undervalue awareness campaigns (like social media) that introduce users to your brand, even though they return via Google search to convert later.

Real-Time UTM Testing in GA4

The 5-Minute UTM Testing Workflow

Before launching any campaign, test your UTM links to ensure data will flow correctly into GA4.

Step 1: Create your UTM link

Use our free UTM generator to build your tracking URL.

Example:

https://example.com/landing?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=test_january_2024

Step 2: Open GA4 Realtime report

1. Log into your GA4 property
2. Navigate to Reports → Realtime
3. Leave this tab open

Step 3: Click your UTM link

1. Open a new incognito/private window (important!)
2. Paste your UTM-tagged URL
3. Press Enter and visit the page
4. Stay on the page for at least 10 seconds

Step 4: Verify in Realtime

1. Switch back to your GA4 Realtime report
2. Within 5-10 seconds, you should see:
   • Active users count increase by 1
   • Your session appear in the "By first user source" or "Event count by Event name" cards
3. Scroll to "Traffic sources" section
4. Verify your utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign appear correctly

✅ What success looks like:

• Session source = facebook
• Session medium = cpc
• Session campaign = test_january_2024

❌ Troubleshooting if data doesn't appear:

• GA4 tag not installed: Verify your GA4 measurement ID is on the landing page using Google Tag Assistant
• Ad blocker active: Disable browser extensions and test again
• Redirect strips parameters: Check if your URL redirects—some redirects remove query parameters
• Wrong property: Confirm you're looking at the correct GA4 property

Migration from Universal Analytics to GA4

What Happens to Your Historical UTM Data

The most common question we receive: "Where did all my old campaign data go?"

The reality:

• ✅ Your old UTM data still exists in Universal Analytics (accessible until July 2024)
• ❌ This historical data does not automatically transfer to GA4
• ✅ New UTM-tagged clicks are tracked in GA4 (from the date you installed GA4)

Ensuring Continuity During Migration

Best practice: Run both GA4 and UA in parallel

If you haven't fully migrated yet:

1. Keep your Universal Analytics tracking code active
2. Install GA4 tracking code alongside it (both can run simultaneously)
3. Run both for at least 3-6 months to build GA4 historical data
4. Compare reports side-by-side to understand differences
5. Once confident, fully transition to GA4

Mapping UA Reports to GA4 Reports

Universal Analytics Report	GA4 Equivalent
Acquisition → All Traffic → Source/Medium	Reports → Acquisition → Traffic Acquisition
Acquisition → Campaigns → All Campaigns	Reports → Acquisition → Campaigns
Real-Time → Traffic Sources	Reports → Realtime
Customization → Custom Reports	Explore → Create new exploration
Admin → View Settings → Bot Filtering	Admin → Data Settings → Data Filters

7 GA4-Specific UTM Tracking Tips

1. Use the DebugView for Detailed Testing

GA4's DebugView shows granular event-level data in real-time, perfect for troubleshooting UTM tracking.

How to enable:

1. Install the Google Analytics Debugger Chrome extension
2. Enable the extension
3. In GA4, go to Admin → DebugView
4. Click your UTM link—you'll see every parameter captured in real-time

2. Create Conversion Events for Campaign Goals

In UA, you had Goals. In GA4, you mark events as "conversions."

To track campaign-driven conversions:

1. Go to Admin → Events
2. Find events like purchase, sign_up, or form_submit
3. Toggle "Mark as conversion"
4. Now these appear as "Conversions" in your campaign reports

3. Set Up Campaign-Specific Audiences

Create audiences of users who came from specific UTM campaigns for remarketing.

Example audience: "Spring Sale 2024 Visitors"

1. Go to Admin → Audiences → New Audience
2. Add condition: Session campaign name = spring_sale_2024
3. Set membership duration (e.g., 30 days)
4. Link to Google Ads for remarketing

4. Use Custom Channel Groupings

GA4 automatically groups traffic into channels (Paid Search, Organic Social, etc.), but you can customize these.

To create custom channel groups:

1. Go to Admin → Data display → Channel groups
2. Click "Create new channel group"
3. Define rules based on UTM parameters

Example custom channel: "Affiliate Marketing"

• Condition: utm_medium = affiliate
• Now all affiliate traffic appears under one channel in reports

5. Exclude Internal Traffic

Don't let your team's testing clicks pollute campaign data.

How to filter out internal traffic:

1. Go to Admin → Data Streams → [Your stream] → Configure tag settings
2. Click "Show more" → "Define internal traffic"
3. Add your company's IP addresses
4. Create a Data Filter to exclude this traffic

6. Monitor Campaign Performance with Alerts

Set up custom alerts to notify you when campaigns underperform or overperform.

Example alert: "Campaign sessions drop below 100/day"

1. Go to Admin → Custom Insights
2. Create condition: Sessions < 100 AND Campaign name = your_campaign
3. Set to email you daily if triggered

7. Export Campaign Data Regularly

Unlike UA, GA4 has data retention limits (2 or 14 months depending on your settings).

Prevent data loss:

• Export key campaign reports monthly to Google Sheets
• Set up BigQuery integration for unlimited historical data storage (free tier available)

Conclusion: Mastering UTM Tracking in GA4

GA4's approach to UTM tracking is different from Universal Analytics, but it's more powerful once you understand where everything lives:

• ✅ Traffic Acquisition is your main campaign report
• ✅ Explore lets you build custom UTM dashboards
• ✅ Realtime is perfect for testing links before launch
• ✅ Attribution models help you fairly credit multi-touch journeys

The transition from UA to GA4 requires learning new navigation, but your UTM parameters work exactly the same. Focus on building clean data from day one with consistent naming conventions, and GA4 will reward you with deeper insights into campaign performance.

Related Resources

• 📊 How to Track Google Ads with UTM Parameters
• 📝 UTM Naming Convention Best Practices (2024)
• ⚡ Bulk UTM Builder — Generate hundreds of links at once
• 🏠 Free UTM Generator — Create single tracking links