GA4 field guide

A UTM naming convention your reports can survive.

Choose one vocabulary before the campaign starts. This guide gives a small, enforceable taxonomy for sources, mediums, campaigns, and creative variations.

Reviewed September 19, 20268 minute read

Use Workbench rules to turn this convention into local allowlists and aliases, then check the full campaign batch before launch.

The three fields to require

For manual campaign tagging, require utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign. Google recommends using these together so campaign traffic is identifiable in reports. Campaign ID and source platform can add useful structure; term and content should answer a specific reporting question instead of being filled by habit.

Parameter	Question it answers	Example
`utm_source`	Who sent the visitor?	`linkedin`
`utm_medium`	What type of channel was it?	`paid-social`
`utm_campaign`	Which shared initiative?	`fall-product-launch`
`utm_content`	Which creative or placement?	`video-demo-v2`
`utm_term`	Which paid keyword or audience?	`analytics-software`
`utm_id`	Which internal campaign record?	`fy26-q4-017`

Five rules that prevent reporting splits

1. Use lowercase everywhere

Analytics values are case-sensitive. Pick facebook and reject Facebook or FACEBOOK.

2. Choose one separator

Use hyphens or underscores, then keep that choice everywhere. UTM Harbor defaults to hyphens because they remain readable in copied URLs.

3. Treat source as the platform and medium as the channel type

Use linkedin as a source and paid-social as a medium. Avoid swapping them or inventing a new medium for every platform.

4. Keep campaign names stable across channels

If email, paid search, and partners promote the same launch, reuse one campaign name. Put channel differences in source and medium, and creative differences in content.

5. Maintain aliases for imported links

Legacy sheets will contain values such as fb, facebook_ads, and paid_social. Map them to approved values during an audit instead of allowing both old and new names into reports.

A practical starter taxonomy

Source	Suggested medium	Use for
`google`	`cpc`	Paid Google search
`newsletter`	`email`	Your owned email sends
`linkedin`	`paid-social` or `social`	Paid or organic LinkedIn
`youtube`	`video`	Video descriptions and placements
`partner-name`	`referral`	Named partners and co-marketing
`affiliate-name`	`affiliate`	Affiliate links

Pre-launch checklist

Every destination opens without relying on UTM values.
Source, medium, and campaign are present on every row.
Keys and values use the approved case and separator.
Existing query parameters and fragments remain intact.
No UTM parameter appears after the fragment.
The exported sheet includes both the original destination and final URL.

Download CSV template

Primary reference

Parameter definitions and Google’s current recommendations are documented in the Google Analytics URL builder documentation. UTM Harbor’s taxonomy suggestions are practical defaults, not requirements imposed by Google.