UTM Parameters Explained — Free UTM Builder + Tracking in GA4
UTM parameters are how marketers know exactly which link brought every visitor. This video shows the whole loop: what utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign actually mean, how to build a tagged link without typos in Linkly's free UTM builder, how to hide the mess behind one short link that still delivers every tag to Google Analytics, and where the click shows up — instantly in Linkly, and filed under source / medium / campaign in GA4.
Transcript
The full spoken transcript, split by chapter.
- 0:00What UTM tags do
- Ever clicked a link full of question marks and equals signs, with UTM buried in the middle? That's campaign tracking it's how marketers know exactly which link brought every visitor. In the next two minutes: what those tags actually mean, how to build them without typos, and how to keep your links clean while Google Analytics still sees everything. The last part is where Linkly comes in.
- 0:22The three tags that matter
- A UTM is just extra text on the end of a normal link the page loads exactly the same. Three tags do the heavy lifting. Source where the click came from: newsletter, Instagram, a partner site. Medium the type of traffic: email, social, paid. Campaign which push it belongs to. On every click they ride along, and your analytics files the visit under them. There are two more term and content but these three do ninety percent of the job.
- 0:48Build a tagged link (free tool)
- You could type them by hand, but one typo a capital letter, a stray space and your report splits in two. Easier to use a builder. This one is free on Linkly's site: paste the page you're promoting, fill in source, medium and campaign, and it assembles the link as you type. Copy it and you're done.
- 1:07Why tagged links get ugly
- One problem: look at it. Nobody clicks a link that looks like this and in a printed QR code or an Instagram bio, it's a liability.
- 1:15Shorten it with Linkly
- So we wrap it. Paste the whole tagged link into Linkly, give it a name, and pick your domain you get one short link: go.linklyhq.com/ spring-sale. When someone clicks it, Linkly forwards them with every UTM tag intact. Google Analytics never knows the difference it just sees a cleaner world.
- 1:36Watch a click land in Linkly
- Click it once to test. The visitor lands on the page the tags ride along without changing what they see and back in Linkly, the click is already on the board: when it happened, and a full breakdown by country, city, platform and referrer. That's your instant per-link view, no setup at all.
- 1:52See it in Google Analytics
- And over in Google Analytics there's the same visit, filed exactly where it should be: source newsletter, medium email, campaign spring-sale. Linkly tells you about the click. GA4 tells you what happened after. Use both and nothing falls through the gap.
- 2:07Get started free
- So that's UTM tracking: tag the destination, shorten the mess with Linkly, and read the results at both ends. The UTM builder and Linkly's click tracking are completely free everything you need is just below this video.
