How to Track Email Campaigns and Traffic in Google Analytics 4

Figuring out which of your email newsletters or automated campaigns actually drive traffic, engagement, and revenue can feel like guesswork. You hit send, see open and click rates in your email platform, but lose the trail the moment a subscriber lands on your website. This article breaks down exactly how to use UTM parameters to track every email link precisely, so you can see your campaign's full impact directly within Google Analytics 4.

Why Default Email Tracking in GA4 Isn't Enough

You might notice an "Email" channel already showing up in your Google Analytics 4 traffic reports. While that's a good start, relying on it alone leaves a lot of valuable information on the table. GA4 automatically categorizes traffic as "Email" if it recognizes the source as a common email service provider (like mail.google.com), but it often misses traffic from desktop email clients (like Outlook or Apple Mail) or certain webmail services.

When GA4 can't identify the source, it lumps this valuable traffic into the vague "Direct" or "(not set)" categories. This means you could be sending successful campaigns that get zero credit for the traffic, leads, and sales they generate.

By actively tracking your email campaigns, you connect the dots and unlock critical insights:

• Attribute Revenue: Directly link sales and conversions back to a specific email, not just the "email" channel in general. Was it the "Summer Sale" announcement or your weekly newsletter that drove the most revenue?
• Understand Your Audience: Discover which content, calls-to-action (CTAs), and subject lines compel your subscribers to click and engage with your site.
• Optimize Future Campaigns: Use data-backed insights to decide what works. If emails with user-generated content get more clicks and longer session durations, you know to create more of them.
• Prove Your ROI: Stop guessing and start demonstrating the tangible value your email marketing efforts bring to the business.

The solution isn't complicated. It all comes down to adding a simple tracking code to the links in your emails, known as UTM parameters.

The Key to Accurate Tracking: Understanding UTM Parameters

UTM parameters (Urchin Tracking Module parameters) are short snippets of text you add to the end of a URL to help GA4 understand exactly where your traffic is coming from. When a user clicks a link with UTMs, those tags are sent directly to GA4, providing precise details about the source, medium, and specific campaign.

Think of it like putting a detailed shipping label on every visitor who arrives from your email. Instead of just knowing they came by "mail," you know which mail carrier they used, which warehouse they came from, and even which specific package they were in.

There are five standard UTM parameters, but for email, you'll mainly focus on three:

1. Campaign Source (utm_source)

This answers the question: "Where is the traffic coming from?" It identifies the specific platform or source that sent the visitor. For email, this could be the name of your email service provider (ESP) or your newsletter series.

• Examples: utm_source=klaviyo, utm_source=mailchimp, utm_source=weekly_newsletter

2. Campaign Medium (utm_medium)

This answers the question: "What type of marketing channel is it?" This is your high-level channel grouping. For all your email marketing links, this should always be set to email to ensure GA4 categorizes the traffic correctly.

• Example: utm_medium=email

3. Campaign Name (utm_campaign)

This answers the question: "Which specific marketing campaign is this link a part of?" This is where you get granular. Use it to identify a promotion, newsletter edition, feature announcement, or specific sale.

• Examples: utm_campaign=july_2024_newsletter, utm_campaign=summer_footwear_sale, utm_campaign=new_feature_announcement

Optional Parameters for A/B Testing:

While the first three are essential, two others - utm_content and utm_term - can help you test different elements within the same email campaign.

• Campaign Content (utm_content): Used to differentiate links within the same email that point to the same URL. This is perfect for A/B testing. For instance, you could see if the link in your header gets more clicks than the button in the body.
• Campaign Term (utm_term): Originally created for paid search to identify specific keywords, it's rarely used for email tracking but can be repurposed for internal segmentation if needed.

Putting It All Together

A full URL with UTM parameters looks like this. The parameters are added to the end after a question mark (?), and each parameter is separated by an ampersand (&).

https://www.yourwebsite.com/products/summer-sandals?utm_source=klaviyo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=summer_footwear_sale&utm_content=main_cta_button

How to Build Your UTM-Tagged URLs

Creating these URLs is straightforward, and you have a few options to make it even easier and avoid mistakes.

Method 1: Use Google's Campaign URL Builder

The most reliable way to avoid syntax errors is with Google's free GA4 Campaign URL Builder. You simply fill in the fields, and it generates the final URL for you. Just copy and paste it into your email.

• Website URL: https://www.yourwebsite.com
• Campaign Source: klaviyo
• Campaign Medium: email
• Campaign Name: july_newsletter

The tool automatically generates the properly formatted URL for you.

Method 2: Use Your Email Service Provider's (ESP) Tools

Most modern ESPs like Klaviyo, HubSpot, and Mailchimp have built-in features to add UTM tags to your links automatically. This is the most efficient method, as it saves you from tagging every single link in a campaign manually. You can usually enable this in your email campaign settings. They often let you set dynamic tags, so you don't have to manually update utm_campaign for every new email send.

Create a Consistent UTM Naming Convention

The biggest mistake marketers make with UTMs is inconsistency. GA4 treats July_Newsletter and july_newsletter as two separate campaigns. To keep your data clean and easy to analyze, you need to establish and follow a consistent naming convention.

Here are some ground rules for your team:

• Always use lowercase. Don't mix Klaviyo and klaviyo.
• Use underscores (_) or hyphens (-) instead of spaces. Spaces can break URLs, and campaign names like summer%20sale are messy.
• Be descriptive but concise. 2024_07_monthly_newsletter is better than email_1.
• Document everything. Create a shared spreadsheet where you log the naming structure and the campaigns you run. This is essential for keeping everyone on the same page and ensuring data from six months ago is still understandable.

Where to Find Your Email Campaign Data in GA4

Once you've sent a campaign with your new UTM-tagged links and users have started clicking, where do you find the results in GA4? Follow these steps.

1. Navigate to the Traffic Acquisition Report

In the left-hand menu, go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition. This report shows you which channels are driving traffic to your site.

2. Analyze Your Email Channel

The primary dimension will be set to Session default channel group. Find the row for Email. This gives you a high-level view of all sessions, users, conversions, and revenue attributed to your tagged (and untagged) email traffic.

3. Add a Secondary Dimension for Campaign Details

This is where you dig into specifics. To see the performance of individual campaigns:

• Click the blue + icon next to the primary dimension dropdown.
• Under Traffic source, select Session campaign.

A new column will appear showing the names you defined in your utm_campaign parameter. You can now compare july_newsletter directly with summer_footwear_sale within the email channel.

To see which call-to-action performed better within an email, you can add Session manual ad content as a secondary dimension, which corresponds to your utm_content tag.

Creating a Custom Email Performance Report

Instead of adding a secondary dimension every time, you can create a dedicated, saved report just for your email campaigns for quick and easy access.

1. Navigate to Reports > Library (at the bottom of the left menu).
2. Click Create new report and select Create detail report.
3. Choose the Traffic acquisition report as your template.
4. In the top-right customizer, click on Dimensions. Make Session campaign your primary dimension. You can add others like Session manual ad content to the list.
5. In the Metrics section, customize which data points you want to see. Common metrics include Sessions, Engaged sessions, Conversions, and Total revenue.
6. To narrow this report down to only show email traffic, add a filter. Click Add filter > search for and select Session default channel group > check Exactly matches > and enter Email.
7. Click Save, give your report a clear name like "Email Campaign Performance," and add it to your main navigation under the 'Acquisition' collection. Now your customized report is just a click away.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

• Forgetting to tag all links. A simple logo link in your email's footer can generate clicks. If it's not tagged, that traffic will be misattributed.
• Using UTMs on internal links. Never use UTM parameters on links from one page of your website to another. Doing so will overwrite the original traffic source and start a new session, completely messing up your attribution data.
• Inconsistent naming schemes. The importance of this cannot be overstated. A messy naming convention leads to messy, unreliable data.

Final Thoughts

Properly tracking your email campaigns in GA4 isn't difficult once you get the hang of using UTM parameters. By establishing a consistent naming system and knowing where to find the data, you can move from guessing to knowing exactly which emails drive results, enabling you to make smarter decisions and prove the real value of your email marketing.

While building custom reports in Google Analytics is a powerful way to understand performance, it can still feel like you're jumping through hoops and digging for answers. At Graphed, we aim to simplify this process entirely. You can connect your Google Analytics account in seconds and ask questions in plain English like, "show me which email campaigns drove the most revenue last month" or "compare user engagement between my weekly newsletter and our product announcements." We deliver a real-time answer with clean visualizations, saving you the time of building reports and freeing you up to act on your insights immediately.