How to Set Parameters in Google Analytics

Setting up parameters in Google Analytics 4 is one of the best ways to turn generic traffic data into a clear story about how your marketing is performing and what users are actually doing on your site. This guide will walk you through the two main types of parameters, show you how to set them up step-by-step, and explain where to find the data you need to make smarter decisions.

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First, What Are Parameters in Google Analytics 4?

Think of parameters as small bits of extra information that give context to the data you collect. When a user does something on your website (an "event"), a parameter adds important details to that event. For example, knowing that a user made a purchase is useful. But knowing they made a purchase with a value of $99 and a currency of "USD" is far more powerful.

In GA4, there are two primary categories of parameters you need to know:

• Query Parameters (most commonly, UTMs): These are tags you add to the end of a URL. Their job is to tell Google Analytics exactly where a user came from—like a label on a package. They answer the question, "How did this person get to my website?"
• Event Parameters: These add detail to the specific actions (events) users take once they are on your website. They answer the question, "What exactly did this person do here?"

Mastering both is the key to creating a full-funnel view of your performance, from the first ad click to the final conversion.

Setting Up UTM Parameters to Track Campaign Performance

If you've ever looked at your traffic sources and seen a huge chunk labeled as "Direct," "unassigned," or a generic referral, it's likely because your links weren't properly tagged with UTMs (Urchin Tracking Modules). Without them, traffic from an email newsletter you sent, a link in a PDF, or a specific social media post all gets jumbled together, and you have no way to measure what’s working.

Google recognizes five standard UTM parameters that you can add to your URLs.

• utm_source: Identifies the advertiser, site, publication, etc. that is sending traffic. Example: google, facebook, newsletter.
• utm_medium: The channel or marketing medium. Example: cpc, email, organic_social.
• utm_campaign: The name of your specific campaign, promotion, or slogan. Example: may_sale_2024, q2_promo.
• utm_content (optional): Used to differentiate similar content or links within the same ad. For example, if you have two "Buy Now" buttons on a single email. Example: blue_header_button, footer_text_link.
• utm_term (optional): Primarily used for paid search to identify the keywords for this ad. Example: data_analytics_software.

Putting these together answers the simple but crucial question: "Which campaign, sent through which channel and from which source, is driving traffic and conversions?"

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How to Build a URL with UTM Parameters

You don't need to manually type these long URLs. The easiest way to create them is with Google’s GA4 Campaign URL Builder.

1. Navigate to the URL Builder.
2. Enter the destination URL of your landing page (e.g., https://www.yourwebsite.com/sale).
3. Fill in the utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign fields. These are the most important ones.
4. Add utm_content or utm_term if needed.
5. The tool will automatically generate your full campaign URL at the bottom of the page.

For example, a URL for a link in a spring sale newsletter might look like this:

https://www.yourwebsite.com/sale?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring_sale_promo

Now, whenever someone clicks this specific link, their session actions and conversions will be attributed directly to your "spring_sale_promo" campaign in GA4.

Best Practices for UTMs

• Be Consistent: Decide on a naming convention and stick to it. facebook, Facebook, and facebook.com will all show up as different sources. Always use lowercase and use underscores or dashes instead of spaces.
• Keep a Record: Use a spreadsheet to track the UTMs you create. This prevents inconsistencies and helps your whole team stay on the same page.
• Use Link Shorteners: Long URLs with lots of parameters can look spammy on social media. Use a service like Bitly to create a cleaner, shorter link for public sharing.

How to Find UTM Data in GA4

Once you've started using UTM-tagged URLs, you can see their performance in GA4. The primary place to look is the Traffic acquisition report.

1. On the left-hand menu in GA4, go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition.
2. By default, you’ll see data grouped by 'Session default channel grouping.' This is GA4’s automated categorization.
3. To see your specific UTM parameters, click the dropdown menu on the primary dimension and choose Session source / medium, Session campaign, or the specific dimension you want to analyze.

You can now see the sessions, users, engagement rate, and conversions attributed to each of your campaigns.

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Setting Up Event Parameters to Track User Behavior

While UTMs tell you how people arrive, event parameters tell you what they do. In GA4, almost every user interaction is tracked as an event. Scrolling down a page is an event, clicking a link is an event, and making a purchase is an event. Parameters add the crucial "who, what, where, and when" to these actions.

For instance, the scroll event is automatically tracked if you have Enhanced measurement enabled. By itself, it tells you that a user scrolled. But GA4 also sends a percent_scrolled parameter with that event, which has a value of '90' when a user gets 90% of the way down a page. That added detail is what makes the data actionable.

Creating a Custom Event with Parameters in GA4

What if you want to track an action unique to your website, like a "Request a Demo" button click? You'll need to create a custom event and send custom parameters along with it. While the most robust way to do this is with Google Tag Manager, GA4 provides a code-free way to create new events directly in the interface.

Let's walk through tracking a "Schedule Demo" button click from two different locations: the header and the page footer.

Step 1: Create a New Custom Event

1. Go to Admin (the gear icon at the bottom-left).
2. In the Property column, click on Events.
3. Click the Create event button and then click Create.

Step 2: Define the Matching Conditions

Here, you tell GA4 what user action should trigger your new event. Let’s say your "Schedule Demo" button has the CSS class demo-button.

• Custom event name: This is the name you’ll see in reports. Let's call it request_demo.
• Matching conditions:

Step 3: Configure Your Parameter

This is where things get interesting. We want to tell GA4 where the clicked button was located.

• Under the Parameter configuration section, click Add modification.
• Set the Parameter to button_location.
• Set the New Value. Here, it can be tricky. You might define two separate events: one for footer clicks and one for header clicks, allowing you to hardcode the value as 'footer' or 'header'. For simplicity, we'll imagine a scenario where we are setting a single event for header button clicks. We will set the value to header.
• Click Create.

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Crucial Step: Register Your Custom Parameters as Custom Dimensions

Setting up a custom parameter isn’t enough. For GA4 to display your button_location data in its reports, you must "register" it as a custom dimension. If you skip this, GA4 will collect the data but you won't be able to use it as a reporting dimension.

1. Go back to Admin.
2. In the Property column, click on Custom definitions.
3. Under the Custom dimensions tab, click Create custom dimensions.
4. Fill out the configuration:
5. Click Save.

Be patient! It can take 24-48 hours for data from new custom dimensions and events to appear in your GA4 reports.

Putting It All Together: An Example

Let's imagine you run an e-commerce store and you're launching a holiday campaign via your email newsletter. You want to see if your email blast on November 25th drove not just traffic, but specifically sales for your new Holiday Sweater.

1. UTM Setup: You create a URL for the newsletter with the parameters ?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=holiday_sale_nov25.
2. Event Tracking: Your Shopify or e-commerce integration is already sending a purchase event to GA4. This event automatically includes parameters like items array, transaction_id, and value.
3. The Analysis:

Final Thoughts

By effectively using both UTM parameters for tracking acquisition and custom event parameters for monitoring on-site behavior, you create a powerful, end-to-end view of your customer journey. This process moves you away from just counting website visitors and toward understanding exactly which marketing efforts lead to valuable actions.

While setting all this up manually provides incredible insight, it can also become a burden. Constantly building URLs, setting up events, registering definitions, and digging through GA4 menus takes time. With Graphed, we connect directly to your Google Analytics account so you can skip the manual report-building. Instead of navigating menus, you can just ask questions in plain English, like "How many purchases came from my holiday sale campaign last month?" and get an instant report or visualization without ever leaving our platform.