UTM Tracking in Umami Analytics: How to Set Up and Measure Marketing Campaigns

Updated: October 2026

Understanding where your website traffic comes from is essential for measuring the success of your marketing efforts. Whether you promote your website through social media, email newsletters, paid advertising, or search campaigns, you need a reliable way to identify which channels bring visitors to your site.

Umami Analytics makes this easier with its UTM insight feature, which breaks down website views by five standard UTM parameters. This allows you to analyze campaign performance, compare traffic sources, and better understand which marketing activities attract visitors.

In this guide, you’ll learn what UTM tracking is, how each parameter works, and how to use the UTM insight in Umami Analytics step by step.

What Is UTM Tracking?

UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module. UTM parameters are tags added to the end of a URL to identify where website traffic originates and which marketing campaign brought visitors to a page.

For example, suppose you are promoting a new product through a Google advertisement. By adding UTM parameters to the destination URL, you can identify traffic from that advertisement separately from traffic arriving through other channels.

A URL with UTM tracking might look like this:

https://example.com/pricing?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=spring_sale

In this example:

  • utm_source=google identifies Google as the traffic source.
  • utm_medium=cpc identifies the marketing channel as cost-per-click advertising.
  • utm_campaign=spring_sale identifies the specific campaign.

When someone visits your website through this tagged URL, Umami Analytics can use the UTM parameters to categorize the resulting views.

UTM tracking is particularly useful when you want to compare campaigns, understand which platforms generate traffic, and evaluate the effectiveness of different promotional activities.

What Is the UTM Insight in Umami Analytics?

Umami Analytics includes a dedicated UTM insight that displays website views broken down by the five standard UTM parameters.

The UTM insight is available starting with Umami v2.11.0.

Instead of manually inspecting campaign URLs or relying on separate tracking spreadsheets, you can use this insight to review UTM data directly in Umami Analytics.

The insight helps you understand:

  • Which sources send traffic to your website.
  • Which marketing mediums generate the most views.
  • How individual campaigns perform.
  • Which paid search terms are associated with incoming traffic.
  • How different links or content variations perform within a campaign.

The report measures views, making it useful for comparing traffic volume across marketing sources and campaign parameters.

Understanding the Five UTM Parameters

Before using the UTM insight, it is helpful to understand what each parameter represents and when to use it.

1. utm_source: Identify the Traffic Source

The utm_source parameter identifies the website, platform, or publisher that sends traffic to your site.

Common examples include:

  • google
  • newsletter
  • twitter

Use this parameter to distinguish where visitors are coming from.

For example, if you share a link on a social media platform and include utm_source=twitter, Umami can associate views from that tagged link with the specified source.

Best practice: Choose a consistent naming convention for each source. Avoid switching between variations such as Twitter, twitter, and twitter.com unless you intentionally want to distinguish them.

2. utm_medium: Identify the Marketing Channel

The utm_medium parameter describes the type of marketing channel used to distribute the link.

Common examples include:

  • cpc for cost-per-click advertising.
  • email for email marketing.
  • social for social media marketing.

For example, you might use utm_medium=email for a newsletter link and utm_medium=cpc for a paid advertising campaign.

This parameter helps you compare broader marketing channels rather than individual platforms.

Best practice: Establish a standard set of medium names and use them consistently across your campaigns.

3. utm_campaign: Identify the Campaign

The utm_campaign parameter identifies the particular promotion, launch, or marketing initiative associated with a link.

Examples include:

  • spring_sale
  • product_launch

Suppose you are promoting a product launch through email and social media. Using the same campaign name for both channels allows you to compare their traffic while retaining separate source and medium values.

For example:

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

Best practice: Give each campaign a recognizable, consistent name. This makes it easier to locate and compare campaign data in Umami.

4. utm_term: Identify Paid Search Keywords

The utm_term parameter identifies paid search keywords associated with a campaign.

Examples include:

  • running+shoes
  • analytics+tool

This parameter can help distinguish traffic associated with different keyword targets when the information is included in the tagged URL.

Best practice: Use meaningful keyword values and apply them consistently when tracking paid search campaigns.

5. utm_content: Differentiate Links and Content Variations

The utm_content parameter distinguishes between different links or content variations within the same campaign.

Examples include:

  • header_link
  • sidebar_banner

Imagine that an email campaign contains two links to the same pricing page: one in the main body and another in the footer. You can assign a different utm_content value to each link to help distinguish their associated views.

Best practice: Use descriptive values that clearly identify the link placement or content variation you want to compare.

How to Set Up UTM Tracking for Umami Analytics

Setting up UTM tracking involves adding the appropriate parameters to your campaign URLs and then reviewing the resulting data in Umami.

You do not need to configure additional parameters inside the UTM insight itself.

Follow these steps to get started.

Step 1: Choose the Page You Want to Track

First, identify the destination page for your marketing campaign.

This might be:

  • Your homepage.
  • A product or service page.
  • A pricing page.
  • A landing page for a specific promotion.

Use the destination URL that visitors should reach when they click your campaign link.

For example:

https://example.com/pricing

In this guide, example.com is a placeholder for your own website.

Step 2: Add the UTM Parameters to Your URL

Append the relevant UTM parameters to your destination URL.

For example, if you are promoting your pricing page through a newsletter for a product launch, you could use:

https://example.com/pricing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=product_launch

This URL identifies three things:

  • Source: newsletter
  • Medium: email
  • Campaign: product launch

You do not have to include all five UTM parameters in every URL. Start with the parameters that are relevant to your campaign, and add utm_term or utm_content when you need more detailed distinctions.

If your destination URL already contains query parameters, append the UTM parameters using & rather than starting a second query string with ?.

For example:

https://example.com/pricing?plan=pro&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=product_launch

This preserves the existing plan parameter while adding campaign tracking information.

Step 3: Use the Tagged URL in Your Marketing Campaign

Once your URL is ready, use it wherever you distribute the campaign.

For example, you could place it in:

  • An email newsletter.
  • A social media post.
  • A paid advertising campaign.
  • A promotional banner.
  • A link within other marketing content.

If you want to compare traffic from multiple channels, create appropriately tagged URLs for each one.

For example, you could promote the same product launch through email and social media:

Email campaign

https://example.com/pricing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=product_launch

Social media campaign

https://example.com/pricing?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=product_launch

Both URLs share the same campaign name, but their source and medium values differ. This makes it easier to compare the views associated with each distribution channel.

Step 4: Open Umami Analytics

Sign in to your Umami Analytics dashboard and open the website whose campaign traffic you want to analyze.

Make sure you are reviewing the correct website and select a date range that covers the period you are interested in.

The UTM insight displays data for the selected date range, so the date selection affects which views are included in the report.

Step 5: Open the UTM Insight

Navigate to the UTM insight in Umami Analytics.

Unlike a tracking setup that requires configuring extra parameters inside a report, the UTM insight does not require any additional parameters to run.

Simply open the insight and the available data will be displayed for the selected date range.

If you have already received visits through URLs containing UTM parameters, the insight can show the corresponding breakdown of views.

Step 6: Review the UTM Data

Examine the reported views for each UTM parameter.

Use the results to investigate questions such as:

  • Which sources are driving the most views?
  • Does email or social media generate more traffic?
  • Which campaign attracts the most views?
  • Which paid search terms are associated with traffic?
  • Which content variations receive more views?

Reviewing these dimensions together helps you move beyond total website traffic and understand how your marketing distribution contributes to that traffic.

Step 7: Compare Campaigns and Refine Your Tracking

Once you have enough data, compare the results across your campaigns and channels.

For example, you might discover that a newsletter and a social media post both generate traffic to the same pricing page, but one produces more views during the reporting period.

You can use this information to investigate which channels deserve more attention and how future campaigns should be organized.

For meaningful comparisons, keep your UTM naming conventions consistent. A well-organized tracking structure makes campaign data easier to interpret over time.

Example: Tracking a Product Launch Across Multiple Channels

Let us put the five UTM parameters together in a practical example.

Suppose you are promoting a product launch through an email newsletter, a social media post, and a paid search advertisement.

You could create the following URLs.

Email newsletter

https://example.com/pricing?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=product_launch&utm_content=main_link

Social media

https://example.com/pricing?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=product_launch

Paid search

https://example.com/pricing?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=product_launch&utm_term=analytics+tool

Each URL identifies the campaign and provides additional context about how the link was distributed.

In the Umami UTM insight, you can review views by source, medium, campaign, term, and content where those parameters are present.

This gives you a structured way to compare traffic from different marketing activities without needing to create a separate campaign name for every channel.

Remember that these URLs illustrate how to structure your tracking. Actual results depend on visitors clicking the links and on the analytics data collected by your website.

Best Practices for UTM Tracking in Umami

To get the most useful insights from your campaign data, follow these recommendations.

Keep Naming Conventions Consistent

Use a standard format for your source, medium, campaign, term, and content values.

For example, choose newsletter as your source name and use it consistently instead of alternating between Newsletter, email_newsletter, and newsletter_campaign.

Consistent names make it easier to compare results and reduce unnecessary fragmentation in your reporting.

Use Descriptive Campaign Names

Campaign names should communicate their purpose without becoming unnecessarily complicated.

Names such as spring_sale and product_launch are easier to understand than vague labels such as campaign1 or test2.

If you run multiple campaigns, establish a naming convention that helps you distinguish them.

Include Only Relevant Parameters

You do not need all five UTM parameters for every link.

For a basic email campaign, utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign may be sufficient. Add utm_content when you want to distinguish multiple links, or utm_term when you need to identify paid search keywords.

The goal is to collect information that helps you answer specific marketing questions.

Test Your Tagged URLs

Before distributing a campaign, open the tagged URL and check that it leads to the intended page.

Make sure the URL retains its UTM parameters and that any existing query parameters still work as expected.

Testing helps prevent avoidable tracking mistakes before a campaign goes live.

Select an Appropriate Date Range

When reviewing the UTM insight, choose a reporting period that covers your campaign activity.

If the date range excludes the period when visitors clicked your links, the resulting report may not reflect the traffic you are trying to measure.

For ongoing campaigns, compare consistent reporting periods to make trends easier to identify.

Remember What the Insight Measures

The Umami UTM insight breaks down views, not every possible measure of marketing success.

A higher number of views can indicate greater traffic volume, but it does not automatically mean more conversions, purchases, or revenue.

Use UTM insights to understand traffic acquisition, and consider other relevant analytics when evaluating the overall effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

Troubleshooting: Why Isn’t My UTM Data Showing Up?

If you open the UTM insight and do not see the expected data, check the following.

1. Are you using tagged URLs?

Make sure your campaign links actually contain the UTM parameters you want to analyze. Untagged links will not provide those campaign values.

2. Are the parameter names correct?

Use the standard parameter names exactly as shown:

  • utm_source
  • utm_medium
  • utm_campaign
  • utm_term
  • utm_content

3. Are you looking at the correct website?

Confirm that you are viewing the Umami dashboard for the website receiving the tagged traffic.

4. Is the selected date range correct?

Expand the date range if necessary to include the period when the campaign received visits.

5. Has the campaign received any traffic yet?

Creating a tagged URL does not generate analytics data by itself. The URL must be used to bring visitors to your website before there are views to analyze.

6. Are your parameter values consistent?

Check for variations in spelling and naming. For example, product_launch and product-launch are different parameter values and may appear as separate entries in reporting.

These checks can help you identify common reasons why campaign data might be missing or difficult to interpret.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is UTM tracking in Umami Analytics?

UTM tracking uses tags added to URLs to identify the source, medium, campaign, search term, and content associated with marketing traffic. Umami’s UTM insight breaks down website views using these five standard parameters.

Do I need to configure the UTM insight before using it?

No additional parameters are required to run the UTM insight. Open the insight in Umami Analytics, and the available data will be displayed for the selected date range.

Which version of Umami supports the UTM insight?

The UTM insight is available starting with Umami v2.11.0.

Do all five UTM parameters need to be included in a URL?

No. Include the parameters relevant to your tracking needs. Source, medium, and campaign are a useful starting point, while term and content provide additional detail for specific use cases.

Can I use UTM tracking for email and social media campaigns?

Yes. UTM parameters can identify traffic from email newsletters, social media platforms, paid advertising, and other marketing channels. Use consistent naming conventions to make comparisons easier.

Does UTM tracking measure conversions or revenue?

The UTM insight described here breaks down views by UTM parameter. Views help you understand traffic volume, but they do not automatically represent conversions, purchases, or revenue.

Why does my UTM report appear empty?

Check that your URLs contain correctly formatted UTM parameters, that visitors have used those links, that you are viewing the correct website, and that the selected date range includes the relevant traffic.

Conclusion

UTM tracking is a straightforward way to understand where your marketing traffic comes from and how different campaigns contribute to website views.

With Umami Analytics, you can use the UTM insight to examine five standard parameters: source, medium, campaign, term, and content. By tagging campaign URLs consistently and reviewing the results over an appropriate date range, you can compare marketing channels and make better-informed decisions about future promotions.

Getting started is simple: create your tagged URLs, use them in your marketing campaigns, open the UTM insight in Umami Analytics, and review the resulting views.

Consistent tracking leads to clearer insights—and clearer insights help you make smarter marketing decisions.

Related reading

Campaign views tell you where visitors came from. To understand what they did after arriving—from page performance to session behavior—check out our Umami Analytics Dashboard Walkthrough. And to measure whether those visitors completed the actions that matter, see Umami Goals: Track Conversions That Matter.

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