What UTM parameters are: how to know which campaign, post or QR code every lead came from

What are UTM parameters? They are short parameters added to the end of a link, so that Google Analytics knows which campaign, post or message each visitor to your site came from. (Not the coordinate grid that goes by the same name, but tags for links in marketing.) Most guides stop at "build a link and look at Analytics". For a business owner, though, the real question is where the lead who called yesterday came from. In this article we build UTM links for the channels businesses in Israel actually use: WhatsApp, SMS, the Instagram bio and a QR code on a business card. On top of that, we show how the source travels into your CRM, together with the lead.

What a UTM is, and what a link with parameters looks like

A link with UTMs is an ordinary address that, after the question mark, carries pairs of names and values. For example:

https://www.example.co.il/?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=summer_sale&utm_content=bio

The visitor lands on exactly the same page. The difference is that GA4 records the values and shows them in the Acquisition › Traffic acquisition report, in the Session source/medium and Session campaign columns. According to the Google Analytics Help Centre, whenever you add parameters you should always include the first three:

According to the same page, a missing parameter shows up in reports as (not set). The convenient way to build a link like this without typos is Google's Campaign URL Builder: you fill in the fields and copy the finished link.

Naming rules: what GA4 does with the values you write

This is where a lot of businesses come unstuck. GA4 distinguishes between capital and lowercase letters, so Facebook and facebook will be counted as two separate sources. Google itself recommends writing in lowercase and using one fixed source per platform.

Two more rules. First, in our experience, no Hebrew in the values: inside the link itself every Hebrew letter turns into a long string of encoded characters, and the link becomes long and hard to check. Second, the value of utm_medium matters too. According to the GA4 channel group definitions, traffic is sorted into channels by fixed rules: a medium called email goes into the Email channel, sms into SMS, and social into Organic Social. A value that matches none of the rules is recorded as Unassigned.

A naming table you can adopt today:

That last row is a deliberate choice. GA4 has no channel for print, so a medium called qr will land in Unassigned. That is no disaster: in the source/medium report it will appear exactly as you wrote it, and if you want, you can define a custom channel group.

UTMs in WhatsApp, SMS, Instagram and a QR code

WhatsApp. A link to your site that you send in a status, a broadcast list or a channel needs UTMs. A click from inside an app does not always pass the source on to the site, and the visit can then be recorded as Direct traffic. To tell a status apart from a broadcast list, keep the same source and change only utm_content.

Note one important difference. UTMs work on links that lead to your site. When a visitor on your site clicks a wa.me link, they are leaving for WhatsApp, and there are no UTMs there. To know which page the conversation started from, you use a different pre-filled message on each page, as we explained in our guide to the WhatsApp button on your website.

SMS. A long link in a message is usually run through a shortening service. Before you send, open the shortened link on a phone and make sure the address it opens still includes the parameters.

Instagram. The bio holds one link, so utm_content=bio. For stories with a link, use utm_content=story, and you will see which brings in more.

QR code. A printed code encodes the whole link, parameters included. So it is worth encoding a short address on your own domain that redirects to the link with the UTMs. That way you can change it without reprinting. We have written about digital business cards and QR codes in our complete guide to the digital business card.

From GA4 to your CRM: how the source arrives together with the lead

GA4 answers the question "how many enquiries came from Instagram". It does not answer the question "where did Dana, who signed yesterday, come from?". That is not its job either: according to Google Analytics' documentation, it is your responsibility to make sure no personally identifying information is collected in it. The link between a lead and a source is made in the form:

1. Read the parameters on the landing page. A short script saves utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign when the visitor arrives.
2. Keep them for the length of the visit. If the visitor moved to another page before filling in a form, the parameters are no longer in the address. Without saving them, they are lost.
3. Fill hidden fields in the form. The visitor does not see them, but they are sent along with the name and the phone number.
4. Map them to fields in your CRM. Source, medium and campaign, on every lead record.
5. Save the gclid too. That is the identifier Google Ads adds to a click. According to the Google Ads Help Centre, it is required in order to import conversions from a CRM system into Google Ads — a deal closed over the phone, for instance.

From there you can count closed deals by source, and not only leads. Without it, a channel that brings in plenty of irrelevant enquiries looks excellent. How to translate all that into return on investment we set out in our guide to measuring ROI in digital marketing.

Google Ads, Meta and internal links: when not to write UTMs by hand

Google Ads. In new accounts, auto-tagging is on by default. According to the Google Ads Help Centre, in GA4 auto-tagging takes precedence over manual tagging, and there is no way to override that. So there is no point adding manual UTMs to Google Ads ads. Simply make sure auto-tagging is on and that the accounts are linked.

Meta. On Facebook and Instagram ads you set the UTMs yourself, in the ad's parameters field. Instead of typing a campaign name into every ad, Meta supports dynamic parameters such as {{campaign.name}} and {{ad.name}}, which fill themselves in with the campaign and ad name.

Internal links. In our experience, a UTM on a link from one page to another inside your site mixes traffic source up with internal navigation, and the reports lose their meaning. UTMs go only on links that lead to your site from outside.

How all of this fits into measuring the conversions themselves — what counts as a lead and how it is counted — we explained in our conversion tracking guide. And how to choose which lead sources are worth measuring in the first place you will find in our article on 10 lead sources for a business.

What Simple Web does about it

Simple Web is an AI-first marketing agency from Bnei Brak, certified Meta partners and Google advertising experts, working with 200+ businesses and holding 35 five-star Google reviews. In the Google Ads accounts we manage, we set up real conversion tracking for calls, forms and messages, and send a transparent monthly report on cost per lead. The account is opened in the client's name and stays theirs. Paid media management starts at ₪1,500 a month, excluding the advertising budget itself. In marketing for online stores, attribution with GA4 and UTMs is a standing part of the work. On top of that, the bots we build for WhatsApp and for websites save leads straight into the CRM. Our monthly report shows traffic, leads, conversions and ROI, and it all starts with a free diagnostic call.

Summary

UTMs are the simple way to know which campaign, post or message each visitor came from. Write your values in lowercase and without Hebrew, and choose a utm_medium that GA4 knows how to sort. Tag every link that goes out from you to WhatsApp, SMS, Instagram and a QR code, and leave Google Ads to auto-tagging. Then pass the source through hidden fields into your CRM, so you can count deals and not just visits. Want us to check whether your leads' source is actually being recorded? Book a free diagnostic call.

Sources

• Meta Business Help: Add URL Parameters to Your Meta Ads: dynamic parameters that fill in the campaign and ad name automatically
• Google Analytics Help: URL builders, collect campaign data with custom URLs: the list of parameters, case sensitivity, (not set) and where to see the data
• Google: Campaign URL Builder: Google's tool for building UTM links
• Google Analytics Help: Default channel group: the rules that sort a medium into channels, and when traffic is recorded as Unassigned
• Google Ads Help: About auto-tagging: auto-tagging on by default, its precedence in GA4 and importing conversions from a CRM
• Google Analytics Help: Enhanced measurement events: the duty to make sure no personally identifying information is collected in GA4