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UTM tags: why ad reports mislead without them

Without properly tagged links, a large share of visits and sales shows up as “direct” or “unknown”, and budget decisions rest on incomplete data.

UTM tags are a few simple parameters at the end of a link that tell your analytics which source, medium and campaign a visitor came from.

  • utm_source: the source, such as instagram or newsletter
  • utm_medium: the channel type, such as social or email
  • utm_campaign: the campaign name, such as autumn-sale

What happens without them?

Links shared in stories, messengers or emails often carry no clear referrer. They are reported as direct visits and that channel's real contribution stays hidden.

A simple naming convention

Consistency matters most. “Instagram” and “instagram” are counted as two different sources.

  • Write everything in lower case.
  • Keep a fixed list of sources and mediums.
  • Keep campaign names short and readable.

From visit to request

UTM tags are not only for counting visits. If the entry source is stored with each request, you can see which channel brought real requests, not just clicks.

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