# How to tag every campaign with UTM parameters

> UTM parameters for every campaign, with the five tags, a naming convention, the utm_medium value for each channel and ready tags for Google Ads, Meta and email.

URL: https://mirafive.io/learn/utm-parameters-for-every-campaign  
Updated: 2026-09-28

Short answer

Tag every link you control with utm\_source, utm\_medium and utm\_campaign, in lower case and spelled the same way everywhere. The medium decides most of the channel, so use cpc for paid search, paid\_social for paid social, email for newsletters and social for your own posts.

UTM parameters are the tags that tell your analytics where a click came from when the browser does not. Put three of them on every link you control, keep the values in lower case and spelled one way, and each visit lands in the right channel and campaign. This guide gives you a naming convention, the medium values MIRA FIVE files under each channel, and ready tags for Google Ads, Meta ads and newsletters.

## What are the five UTM parameters?

They are query-string tags added after the `?` in a link:

| Parameter     | What it says                         | Example                              |
| ------------- | ------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------ |
| utm\_source   | Who sent the visit                   | google, newsletter, instagram        |
| utm\_medium   | What kind of traffic it is           | cpc, email, social                   |
| utm\_campaign | Which campaign it belongs to         | autumn\_sale, or an ad campaign’s ID |
| utm\_content  | Which link or ad variant was clicked | header\_button, video\_a             |
| utm\_term     | Which keyword, for paid search       | merino\_sweater                      |

Source, medium and campaign are the three that matter. Content tells apart several links in one newsletter or ad, and term records the keyword.

## What naming convention keeps reports clean?

One that everyone on the team follows without thinking. Many reports treat `Newsletter` and `newsletter`as two values, and a campaign spelled two ways can split its buyers across two rows.

- **Lower case, always.** No capitals anywhere in a tag.
- **One separator.** Underscores inside values (`autumn_sale`), never spaces.
- **Source is the sender.** The site, platform or list: `google`, `meta`, `newsletter`, a partner’s name.
- **Medium comes from a short fixed list.** The next section has the values that decide the channel.
- **Campaign is stable.** For ads, the platform’s campaign ID; for everything else, a short name you keep, such as `autumn_sale`.
- **Write the values down.** A shared sheet with every source, medium and campaign in use stops drift.

Leave links between pages of your own shop untagged. Tags belong on links that bring people in.

## Which utm\_medium puts a visit in which channel?

MIRA FIVE checks nine rules in order, and the first that matches wins. For tagged links, `utm_medium`decides most of it:

| Channel in MIRA FIVE | Values that put a visit there                                                                                                              | Example                                   |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------- |
| Paid search          | utm\_medium cpc, ppc, paid, paidsearch, paid\_search or paid-search, from a source that is not social                                      | utm\_source=google&utm\_medium=cpc        |
| Paid social          | utm\_medium paid\_social, paidsocial or paid-social, or a paid medium from a social source such as facebook, instagram, linkedin or tiktok | utm\_source=meta&utm\_medium=paid\_social |
| Email                | utm\_medium email, e-mail, e\_mail or newsletter                                                                                           | utm\_source=newsletter&utm\_medium=email  |
| AI assistants        | utm\_source chatgpt, openai, perplexity, claude, gemini, copilot, mistral, deepseek or grok                                                | utm\_source=chatgpt                       |
| Organic social       | utm\_medium such as social, social-media, social\_media or sm, or a social source                                                          | utm\_source=linkedin&utm\_medium=social   |
| Campaign             | any other utm\_source or utm\_campaign                                                                                                     | utm\_source=flyer&utm\_medium=print       |

Three things follow from the order. `cpc` from Instagram counts as paid social, not paid search. A link placed in an assistant keeps its AI assistants channel only without a paid or email medium. And a link with a `utm_source` or `utm_campaign` that matches nothing else lands in Campaign, never in Referral or Direct.

The free [UTM builder](https://mirafive.io/tools/utm-builder) applies the same rules and shows the channel a link lands in before you send it.

## How do you tag Google Ads?

Keep auto-tagging on. The `gclid` it adds puts every ad click in paid search and lets MIRA FIVE join the visit to its campaign. Then add the campaign ID as a plain tag in the final URL suffix, under Admin → Account settings → Tracking:

```
utm_campaign={campaignid}
```

Google fills in `{campaignid}` on every click, and the ID stays the same when you rename the campaign. A suffix set on a campaign or ad group replaces the account’s, so check those levels too.

## How do you tag Meta ads?

Meta adds its own click id, `fbclid`, and MIRA FIVE files those visits under Paid social. Facebook and Instagram add it to links in organic posts too, so tag organic posts with `utm_medium=social`: a medium that says social or organic wins over the click id. To name the campaign of an ad, put this in the URL parameters field of each ad, under Tracking:

```
utm_source=meta&utm_medium=paid_social&utm_campaign={{campaign.id}}
```

Meta fills in `{{campaign.id}}`. The tags put each visit on its campaign’s row; the spend stays in Meta’s Ads Manager, because Meta Ads is next.

## How do you tag newsletters and everything else?

Give every link in every send `utm_medium=email` and the send’s name as the campaign:

```
https://shop.example/collections/sale?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=autumn_sale
```

Many newsletter tools can add tags to every link for you; check that they set `email` as the medium. For the rest:

- **Social bios and posts:** `utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social` and a campaign.
- **WhatsApp and Telegram broadcasts:** `utm_source=whatsapp&utm_medium=social`.
- **PDFs, flyers and QR codes:** `utm_source=flyer&utm_medium=print` and the campaign. These land in Campaign.
- **Partners and affiliates:** the partner’s name as source and `utm_medium=partner`. These land in Campaign too.

Untagged, most of these arrive as Direct. [Why traffic shows as Direct](https://mirafive.io/learn/why-traffic-shows-as-direct)explains why.

## Where do tagged visits show up in MIRA FIVE?

**Acquisition › Channels** files each visit under the channel its tags decide, and every channel row opens to its campaigns, named by `utm_campaign`, with visits, people, buyers and conversion. In the sample shop, the campaign `autumn_sale` was new in the last 30 days and brought 10 buyers. With Google Ads connected under **Data → Sources**, **Acquisition › Ads** joins spend to visits by `utm_campaign` or `gclid`. Its diagnosis for untagged campaigns points out paid visits that arrive without a campaign and gives you the suffix to paste. The guide to [Google Ads cost per buyer](https://mirafive.io/learn/google-ads-cost-per-buyer) goes through that screen.

## Questions and answers

### Which UTM parameters do I need?

Three on every link, `utm_source`, `utm_medium` and `utm_campaign`. Add `utm_content` when one send or ad has several links, and `utm_term` for a keyword.

### Do Google Ads links need UTM tags when auto-tagging is on?

The `gclid` already marks the visit as paid search. Add `utm_campaign={campaignid}` as the final URL suffix anyway, so every visit names its campaign by an ID that survives renames.

### Should I tag links between pages of my own shop?

No. Tags describe how someone arrived from outside. A tagged link inside your shop can overwrite where the visitor really came from, and your campaign reports fill with internal clicks.

### Can MIRA FIVE show Meta Ads spend next to these tags?

Meta Ads is next. Today tagged Meta visits land under Paid social with their campaign, and spend comes from Google Ads.

## Read next

### [Why so much traffic shows up as Direct](https://mirafive.io/learn/why-traffic-shows-as-direct)

Why visits land under Direct when links from apps, newsletters, PDFs and WhatsApp lose their referrer, and how UTM tags and Google Ads auto-tagging fix it.

### [How to see your Google Ads cost per buyer](https://mirafive.io/learn/google-ads-cost-per-buyer)

Google Ads cost per buyer divides spend by the people who paid, not by the conversions Google counts. How MIRA FIVE joins spend to visits and shows ROAS.

### [Which channel brings the customers who pay?](https://mirafive.io/learn/which-channel-brings-paying-customers)

Rank marketing channels by the buyers they bring instead of visits, with first or last touch, revenue per channel, campaigns and Google Ads cost per buyer.

### Related terms

- [UTM parameters](https://mirafive.io/glossary/utm-parameters)
- [Channel](https://mirafive.io/glossary/channel)
- [Click ID](https://mirafive.io/glossary/click-id)

[All guides](https://mirafive.io/learn)

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