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UTM Naming Conventions: The Complete Cheat Sheet
The definitive UTM naming convention guide - standard source/medium pairs for every channel, naming rules, and a copyable template for your team.
Why UTM Naming Conventions Matter
UTM parameters are case-sensitive in Google Analytics. Google, google, and GOOGLE show up as three separate sources. Without a team-wide naming convention, your data fragments and becomes unreliable.
The 4 Golden Rules
- Always lowercase.
google, notGoogle. - Use hyphens or underscores, never spaces.
- Be consistent, not creative. Pick one convention and enforce it.
- Never use UTM on internal links. They reset GA4 sessions.
Standard Source / Medium Pairs
| Channel | utm_source | utm_medium |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads (Search) | google | cpc |
| Facebook/Instagram Ads | facebook | paid-social |
| LinkedIn Ads | linkedin | paid-social |
| Email Newsletter | newsletter | email |
| Organic Social | instagram | social |
| QR Code (Print) | qr | offline |
| Affiliate | partner-name | affiliate |
Build Your UTM Links
Use the free UTM Builder to generate properly formatted links with force-lowercase and CSV export.