Module 2 · Measuring anything at all Lesson 5 of 15
Sources, mediums and campaigns
UTM parameters are the labels that record WHERE a visitor came from, so "traffic went up" becomes "traffic from this one post went up".
The concept
Every visit arrives with a label, and the label is what tells you which of your efforts worked. Three parts: source is where they came from (google, instagram), medium is how (organic, paid, email, referral), campaign is which push (altigrad-launch). Untagged links get lumped together as 'direct' and teach you nothing.
Build the tag into every link you post outside your own site: ?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=altigrad-launch. Keep a spreadsheet of the exact tags you used, because instagram, Instagram and ig become three different sources and three useless rows.
https://way2fresher.com/tools/?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=altigrad-launch
Keep a sheet of the exact tags you used.
instagram / Instagram / ig become THREE different sources and three useless rows.
Test the link in a private window; confirm it reports the next day.Common mistakes
The mistake is a link shortener that strips the query string, so every campaign reports as direct traffic. Test the link once in a private window, then check the report the next day that the visit actually landed under the campaign name.
Worked example
Adding ?utm_source=linkedin&utm_campaign=august to a link is what makes that traffic attributable — without it, the same visit is lumped into "direct".
Your practice task
Tag three links to the same page with three different campaign names and confirm all three appear separately in analytics.
Do this before moving on. Reading a solution teaches the shape of it; typing it teaches you.
Key takeaway
Every visit arrives with a label, and the label is what tells you which of your efforts worked.
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