How to View UTM in Google Analytics 4

UTM parameters tell you exactly which marketing efforts are sending traffic to your website, but finding that vital data inside Google Analytics 4 can feel like a hunt. You know the information is in there somewhere, but the new interface doesn't make it obvious. This guide will walk you through exactly where to find your UTM data in GA4's standard reports and how to create powerful custom reports to see exactly what's working.

A Quick Refresher: What Are UTM Parameters?

UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters are short snippets of text you add to the end of a URL to track the performance of specific sources, mediums, and campaigns. When someone clicks a link with UTMs, Google Analytics reads these tags and categorizes that visitor's session accordingly.

This allows you to stop guessing where your users come from and start knowing. Instead of seeing a vague "Social" source, you can see traffic from your exact May promo email, your summer campaign on Facebook, or even a specific influencer's bio link.

There are five standard UTM parameters, three of which are the most common:

• utm_source: The platform or specific site that sent the traffic. Examples: google, facebook, newsletter.
• utm_medium: The general category of the marketing channel. Examples: cpc (cost-per-click), email, organic_social.
• utm_campaign: The specific campaign, slogan, or promotion you're running. Examples: summer_sale_2024, may_promo, webinar_launch.
• utm_term: Used primarily for paid search to identify specific keywords. Examples: data_analytics_software, small_business_reporting.
• utm_content: Differentiates between links within the same ad or promotion, like A/B testing a button vs. a text link in an email. Examples: blue_button, header_link.

A complete URL with UTM parameters might look something like this:

https://www.yourwebsite.com/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid_social&utm_campaign=summer_sale_2024

This tells GA4 that any user who arrived through this link came from a paid social ad on Facebook that was part of the "summer_sale_2024" campaign.

How to View UTM Data in GA4 Standard Reports

The quickest way to get a glimpse of your campaign performance is within the standard Traffic acquisition report. It gives you a great overview without any custom setup.

Here’s how to get there and make sense of the data:

Step 1: Navigate to the Traffic Acquisition Report

From your GA4 dashboard, look at the left-hand navigation panel. Click on:

1. Reports
2. Under the Life cycle collection, click Acquisition
3. Finally, click Traffic acquisition

By default, GA4 shows you data grouped by the "Session default channel group". This is a high-level view that buckets your traffic into broad categories like "Direct," "Organic Search," and "Paid Social." This is helpful, but it doesn't show your specific UTM campaign details.

Step 2: Change the Primary Dimension

To see your UTM-tagged traffic, you need to change this primary grouping (or dimension). It’s simpler than it sounds.

Look for the dropdown arrow just above the first column of the main table, right where it says "Session default channel group."

Click on that dropdown menu. You'll see a long list of dimensions you can use to slice your data. The most useful ones for viewing UTM performance are:

• Session campaign: This directly shows a list of the utm_campaign values you've used. This is often the best place to start.
• Session source / medium: This combines the utm_source and utm_medium into one helpful view (e.g., "facebook / cpc" or "google / organic").
• Session source: Shows only the utm_source.
• Session medium: Shows only the utm_medium.
• Session manual term: This dimension corresponds to the utm_term parameter.
• Session manual ad content: This dimension corresponds to the utm_content parameter.

Select Session campaign, and the report will instantly reload, showing you a table of all your campaign names as the primary rows.

*Pro Tip: You might also see dimensions named "First user campaign" or "First user source / medium." The "Session" dimensions attribute the conversion to the session that brought the user to your site that one time. The "First user" dimensions attribute it to the very first campaign that EVER brought that user to your site. Most of the time, Session campaign is what marketers are looking for to measure recent campaign performance.*

Step 3: Add a Secondary Dimension for More Detail

Viewing performance by campaign name is great, but what if you're running the same "summer_sale_2024" campaign on Google Ads and Facebook Ads? To see them separately, you need to add a secondary dimension.

1. Next to the primary dimension dropdown you just used, you'll see a small blue "+" icon. Click it.
2. A menu will slide out, similar to the one before. Here, you can select another layer of detail.
3. Under the Traffic source category, find and click Session source / medium.

Now your report will list the campaign name, and then indented under it, you'll see a breakdown of the sources and mediums for that campaign. This gives you a complete, multi-layered view of your performance right in the standard reports.

Creating a Custom Report for Enhanced UTM Analysis

While the Traffic acquisition report is good for quick checks, it has limitations. For more flexibility and a permanent, shareable view of your UTM data, building a custom report in GA4's Explore section is the way to go.

This allows you to build a report from scratch with the exact dimensions and metrics you care about most, and you only have to build it once. Here's a step-by-step walkthrough:

Step 1: Start a New Exploration

In the left-hand navigation menu of GA4, click the Explore icon (it looks like a small diagram).

• On the Explorations page, click the box at the top labeled Blank to create a new, custom report.
• At the very top left, give your new exploration a clear name, like "UTM Performance Tracker."

Step 2: Add Your Dimensions

An exploration is broken into two main columns: Variables and Tab Settings. The first thing you need to do is tell the report which dimensions you want to have available.

1. In the Variables column, find the Dimensions section and click the "+" button.
2. A menu will appear with a search bar. Search for and import the following dimensions. After you check the box for each one, it gets added to a list on the right. Hit the blue "Import" button when you have them all.

• Session campaign
• Session source / medium
• Session manual term
• Session manual ad content

You now have these dimensions ready to use in your report.

Step 3: Add Your Metrics

Next, you need to import the metrics, or the actual numbers you want to measure.

1. In the same Variables column, find the Metrics section and click the "+" button.
2. Search for and import the metrics that are most important for your reporting. Here are some common ones:

• Sessions
• Total users
• Conversions (make sure you pick the specific conversion events that matter to you!)
• Engagement rate
• Purchase revenue
• Average engagement time

Click "Import" when you're done. Your variables are now ready.

Step 4: Build Your Custom UTM Report

Now comes the fun part: assembling the report. You’ll simply drag-and-drop the dimensions and metrics you just imported into the Tab Settings column.

1. Add Rows: Drag Session campaign from the Dimensions list and drop it into the Rows box in the Tab Settings column. To get more granular, you can also drag Session source / medium into the same Rows box, right underneath Session campaign.
2. Add Values: Drag the metrics you want to measure, like Sessions, Conversions, and Purchase revenue, from your Metrics list and drop them into the Values box in Tab Settings.

As soon as you drop these in, the table on the right-hand side of the screen will instantly populate with your data, neatly organized. You now have a reusable, custom UTM tracking report that you can come back to anytime from the Explore section.

Best Practices to Avoid Common UTM Problems

Viewing UTM data is only half the battle. Your reports are only as good as the data you send. Here are a few simple rules to follow to keep your data clean and accurate.

• Consistency is Everything: Using Facebook, facebook, and FB as campaign sources will create three separate line items in your reports, splitting your data and making analysis a headache. Create a simple spreadsheet or policy for your team. A common practice is to use all lowercase for all parameters.
• Never Use UTMs for Internal Links: If you add UTMs to a promotional banner on your homepage that links to another page on your site, you will overwrite the user's original source data. Their session will reset, appearing as if they came from an "internal_promo" campaign instead of "google / organic," losing the original journey information.
• Use a URL Builder: Don't try to type a bunch of UTMs out by hand. You're bound to make a typo. Use Google’s free Campaign URL Builder to generate perfect, error-free links every time.
• Tag Everything That Matters: Any non-organic effort that drives traffic to your site should be tagged. This includes emails, social media posts, partnership links, QR codes, paid ads that aren't auto-tagged, and affiliate links.

Final Thoughts

Tracking UTM parameters in Google Analytics 4 is fundamental to understanding what's working in your marketing mix. By mastering both the standard Traffic Acquisition report and the more powerful custom Explorations, you can move from guessing to knowing exactly which channels and campaigns are driving growth for your business.

While digging into GA4 provides the raw ingredients, reporting can still be a manual and time-consuming process. At Graphed, we plug directly into your Google Analytics account so you can stop wrestling with reports and just ask questions. You can tell our AI analyst things like, "compare revenue and user growth from our summer_sale_campaign vs our may_promo_campaign," and instantly get back a dashboard with the answers you need. It gives you the power of a data analyst without the hours of manual work.