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Utm Parameters

UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters help you track the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. This guide explains how to use them with Short Links.

UTM parameters are the tags on the end of a URL that tell Google Analytics where a visitor came from. Short Links can carry them in two different ways, and which one you pick decides whether you need a separate link per channel or one link that serves them all.

What UTM parameters are

They are ordinary query parameters with agreed names, read by analytics tools rather than by your store. Five are standard:

  • utm_source - Where the traffic came from, such as instagram, newsletter or google

  • utm_medium - The kind of channel, such as social, email, cpc or banner

  • utm_campaign - The campaign name, such as winter_sale or product_launch

  • utm_content - Which piece of creative, useful when two links point at the same place, such as hero_banner or sidebar_ad

  • utm_term - Paid search keywords, such as running+shoes

Putting UTMs in the destination

The simplest approach: build the tagged URL first, then shorten it.

  1. Start with the plain address, for example https://yourstore.com/collections/sale

  2. Add ? to begin the parameters

  3. Add each one as name=value

  4. Join further parameters with &

https://yourstore.com/collections/sale?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=bio&utm_campaign=winter_sale_2026

Shorten that and anyone following your short link arrives at the full tagged URL, with the tracking intact. This works on every plan, and it is the right approach when a link only ever lives in one place.

Letting the short link carry them instead

The alternative is UTM passthrough: leave the destination plain and put the parameters on the short URL at the moment you share it.

  1. You share yourstore.com/sale?utm_source=facebook

  2. The destination is plain yourstore.com/collections/sale

  3. The visitor lands on yourstore.com/collections/sale?utm_source=facebook

Six parameters are forwarded: utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content and utm_id. Anything else on the short URL is dropped, and a parameter already present in the destination is never overwritten.

This means one short link can serve every channel with different tags, which is why it suits an evergreen link like the one in a bio or on packaging. It is a paid-plan feature and is switched on by default — see UTM Passthrough for the setting and more examples.

Which approach to use

  • Tag the destination when the link is for one specific placement, when you want the tags fixed to the link forever, or when you are on the free plan

  • Use passthrough when the same short link goes out across several channels, when it is printed and cannot be changed, or when whoever shares it decides the tagging

Mixing them is fine. Passthrough only fills in parameters the destination does not already carry, so a destination tagged with a default utm_source keeps it.

How the data reaches Google Analytics

  1. The visitor follows the short link and is redirected to your store with the UTM parameters attached

  2. Google Analytics reads them on the landing page

  3. The session is attributed to that source, medium and campaign

In GA4, look under Reports > Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition and break down by session source/medium, or build a campaign report in Explore.

Bear in mind these are two separate counts: Short Links counts the click as it passes through the redirect, and Google Analytics counts the session that follows. They will not match exactly — bots, abandoned loads and ad-blockers all land on one side of that gap and not the other.

Naming conventions that hold up

  • Stay lowercase - instagram and Instagram are two different sources to Google Analytics

  • Pick one word separator and keep it - winter_sale or winter-sale, never both

  • Always set source and medium - They do the most work; campaign groups them, content and term refine them

  • Be descriptive - winter_sale_jan_2026_email tells you something in six months; campaign1 does not

  • Write your conventions down - Anyone else tagging links needs to match them, or your reports fragment

  • Keep a record of your links - Short URL, destination with tags, where it was used, and the dates it ran

Common examples

Email newsletter:

?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly_digest

Instagram bio:

?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bio_link

Facebook paid ad:

?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=winter_sale&utm_content=carousel_ad

Printed flyer with a QR code:

?utm_source=flyer&utm_medium=print&utm_campaign=store_opening

That last one is worth calling out: a QR code encodes the short URL exactly as it is, so tag the destination before you generate the code, or use passthrough and print a tagged short URL. Once the code is printed you cannot change either.

Next Steps

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