What does UTM bring to an e-commerce site?
UTM is a tag that tells your analytics tool which channel and which campaign a visitor came from, so you can tell which channel brought the order. Without UTM, an Instagram story or email newsletter is often lumped into "direct" traffic in Google Analytics and the return on your effort is invisible.
The tag consists of parameters added to the end of the page address. The rule is: https://www.magazaniz.com/sayfa?utm_source=kaynak&utm_medium=ortam&utm_campaign=kampanya. If the address already has a question mark, the parameters continue with &.
What do the five UTM parameters tell you?
Source, medium and campaign are the required trio; keyword and content are used to tell apart parts of the same campaign.
| Parameter | What it describes | E-commerce example |
|---|---|---|
| utm_source | Where the visitor was sent from | instagram, newsletter, kargo-karti |
| utm_medium | The type of channel | social, email, cpc, qr |
| utm_campaign | The name of the campaign | kis-koleksiyonu, sepette-yuzde-20 |
| utm_term | The keyword in paid search | keten-kanepe |
| utm_content | A different visual or button in the same campaign | hikaye-1, bulten-ust-gorsel |
?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=kis-koleksiyonu is used for the newsletter, ?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=kis-koleksiyonu&utm_content=hikaye-1 for the Instagram story and ?utm_source=kargo-karti&utm_medium=qr&utm_campaign=kis-koleksiyonu for the QR card in the shipping box. Because the campaign name stays the same, the three channels are compared side by side in the report.How should UTM values be written?
Values should be entered in lowercase, without spaces and with the same spelling every time; otherwise the same channel is split into several rows in the report. "Instagram", "instagram" and "IG" count as three separate sources.
- Do not use Turkish letters: "kış" is encoded in the address and becomes hard to read in the report. With the "Fix values" option the tool turns it into "kis".
- Choose the usual values for the medium: GA4 looks at the medium value when sorting traffic into channel groups;
emailfor email,cpcfor paid search andsocialfor social media are common values. - Add the period to the campaign name: for discounts that repeat every year, a name like
yilbasi-2026avoids mixing up the years. - Share a list with your team: collect the source and medium values in a single table and have everyone copy from there.
Ready-made templates make this order easier: when Google Ads is selected, the source is google and the medium cpc; for Meta ads, facebook and paid_social are written; for an Instagram profile, instagram and social; for an email newsletter, newsletter and email; for WhatsApp, whatsapp and social. If your channel is not in the list, choose "Manual" and fill it in with the same logic. The checklist below the tool shows missing fields and problematic spellings; before sharing the link, all warnings there should be cleared.
Which links should not get a UTM?
Do not put UTM on links inside your own site: a UTM added to a banner on the home page or to a campaign link in the menu erases the ad or newsletter the visitor actually came from and writes its own value instead. UTM is used only on links coming from outside the site: email, social media posts, partner sites, SMS and printed QR codes.
If auto-tagging is enabled in your Google Ads account, ads already carry a click ID; adding a UTM as well is generally not necessary. For Analytics setup, you can look at the GA4 setup tutorial and the Google Analytics 4 integration in Faprika.
How do I know whether a campaign turned into sales?
In GA4, under Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition, when you select the "Session source / medium" and "Session campaign" dimensions, each UTM value appears on its own row. If e-commerce measurement is set up, purchases and revenue also appear on the same row.
To compare revenue with ad spend, you can use the ROAS calculation tool. For campaign ideas, take a look at the articles e-commerce campaign examples and campaign calendar; for printed material, turn the UTM address into a QR code.
Updated: · Calculations are for information only; consult your accountant for official transactions.