utm-attribution-strategy

UTM & Attribution Strategy

Campaign tracking with UTM parameters and marketing attribution modeling.

Install

git clone https://github.com/thatrebeccarae/claude-marketing.git && cp -r claude-marketing/skills/utm-attribution-strategy ~/.claude/skills/

UTM Parameter Reference

The 5 Standard UTM Parameters

Parameter	Purpose	Required	Example
utm_source	Where traffic comes from	Yes	google, linkedin, newsletter
utm_medium	Marketing medium/channel	Yes	cpc, email, social, referral
utm_campaign	Campaign name	Yes	spring-sale, product-launch-q1
utm_term	Paid keyword (search ads)	No	email+marketing+software
utm_content	Differentiate ad variants	No	cta-button, sidebar-banner, video-ad

UTM Naming Convention

Rules:

• All lowercase (Google Analytics is case-sensitive)
• Use hyphens (-) as word separators, never spaces or underscores
• Be descriptive but concise
• Use consistent vocabulary across all teams
• Document your taxonomy and enforce it

Recommended Taxonomy

utm_source

Value	When to Use
google	Google Ads, Google organic
facebook	Meta/Facebook ads and organic
instagram	Instagram ads and organic
linkedin	LinkedIn ads and organic
tiktok	TikTok ads
twitter	Twitter/X
youtube	YouTube ads and organic
bing	Microsoft/Bing ads
newsletter	Your email newsletter
email	Transactional or one-off emails
partner-[name]	Partner/affiliate traffic
podcast-[name]	Podcast mentions

utm_medium

Value	When to Use
cpc	Paid search (cost per click)
paid-social	Paid social media
social	Organic social media
email	Email marketing
referral	Partner/affiliate referrals
display	Display/banner ads
video	Video ads (pre-roll, in-stream)
retargeting	Retargeting/remarketing
influencer	Influencer partnerships
organic	Organic search (usually auto-tagged)
direct	Direct traffic (usually auto-tagged)

utm_campaign

Pattern: [initiative]-[audience]-[date]

Examples:

• spring-sale-2026
• product-launch-enterprise-q1
• webinar-seo-masterclass-mar2026
• blog-weekly-digest-w12
• retarget-cart-abandoners-mar

utm_content

Pattern: [format]-[variant]-[placement]

Examples:

• video-testimonial-feed
• carousel-product-stories
• cta-start-trial-hero
• banner-logo-sidebar
• text-ad-headline-v2

UTM Builder

URL Structure

https://example.com/landing-page?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=product-launch-q1&utm_content=video-demo-feed

Common UTM Templates

Channel	Full UTM String
Google Search Ad	?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=[campaign]&utm_term=[keyword]&utm_content=[ad-group]
Facebook Ad	?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=[campaign]&utm_content=[ad-name]
LinkedIn Ad	?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=[campaign]&utm_content=[creative-type]
Email Newsletter	?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=[newsletter-name]-[date]&utm_content=[link-position]
Organic LinkedIn Post	?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=[post-topic]
Partner Referral	?utm_source=partner-[name]&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=[initiative]

Attribution Models

Model Comparison

Model	How It Works	Best For	Limitation
Last Click	100% credit to last touchpoint	Short sales cycles, direct response	Ignores awareness/consideration
First Click	100% credit to first touchpoint	Brand awareness measurement	Ignores conversion-driving touches
Linear	Equal credit to all touchpoints	Simple multi-touch view	Over-credits low-impact touches
Time Decay	More credit to recent touches	Long sales cycles with clear momentum	Under-values early awareness
Position-Based	40% first, 40% last, 20% middle	Balanced view of full funnel	Arbitrary weight distribution
Data-Driven	ML-based credit allocation	Large datasets (1000+ conversions)	Black box, requires volume

GA4 Attribution

GA4 uses data-driven attribution by default. Key settings:

• Reporting attribution model: Set in Admin > Attribution Settings
• Lookback window: 30 days (click) / 7 days (view) default
• Conversion paths: Analyze in Advertising > Attribution > Conversion Paths

Choosing a Model

Sales cycle < 7 days → Last Click or Data-Driven
Sales cycle 7-30 days → Position-Based or Data-Driven
Sales cycle > 30 days → Time Decay or Data-Driven
Brand awareness focus → First Click
Performance marketing focus → Last Click
Balanced view needed → Position-Based
1000+ monthly conversions → Data-Driven (always)

UTM Audit Checklist

• All paid campaigns have UTM parameters
• Naming convention documented and shared with team
• No mixed case (utm_source=Google vs google)
• No spaces in parameter values (use hyphens)
• utm_medium values align with GA4 default channel groupings
• Internal links do NOT have UTM parameters (breaks attribution)
• UTM parameters are on the landing page URL, not post-redirect
• No PII in UTM parameters (names, emails, account IDs)
• Short URLs / link shorteners preserve UTM parameters
• Redirects preserve UTM parameters (302s can strip them)

Common Mistakes

1. UTMs on internal links — breaks session attribution, inflates source counts
2. Inconsistent naming — Facebook vs facebook vs fb creates 3 separate sources
3. Missing utm_medium — traffic falls into "(other)" channel grouping
4. Non-standard utm_medium values — use GA4 recognized values for proper channel grouping
5. UTMs on organic search results — Google auto-tags organic; adding UTMs creates duplicate sources
6. PII in UTM parameters — email addresses or user IDs in URLs violate privacy policies
7. Forgetting post-click tracking — UTMs track the click, not what happens after

Integration with Other Skills

• google-analytics — UTM data flows into GA4 for analysis
• google-ads — Google auto-tags with gclid; UTMs are supplementary
• facebook-ads — Meta auto-tags with fbclid; UTMs needed for GA4 attribution
• linkedin-ads — LinkedIn requires manual UTM configuration
• tiktok-ads — TikTok requires manual UTM configuration