What are UTM parameters?
UTM parameters are five tags you add to a link (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term and utm_content) that tell analytics tools where a visit came from. When someone clicks the tagged link, Google Analytics and similar tools read the tags from the address and record them with the visit.
utm_source names the site or list, such as producthunt or newsletter. utm_medium names the kind of traffic, such as referral, social, email or cpc. utm_campaign names the launch or promotion. utm_term and utm_content are optional and tell paid keywords and link versions apart. GA4 also reads utm_id, a campaign ID used to import cost data.
Which GA4 channel does each UTM value land in?
GA4 puts each visit into a default channel group by checking the source and medium against fixed rules, in order. The first rule that matches wins, so google / cpc is Paid Search and newsletter / email is Email.
Some rules check the source against Google's own lists of search, social, video and shopping sites. The table shows the rules for tagged links in GA4's order.
GA4 default channel group rules for tagged (manual) traffic| Channel | Rule for source and medium | Example values |
|---|
| Direct | Source is (direct) and medium is (none) or (not set). | (direct) / (none) |
| Cross-network | Campaign name contains cross-network. | google / cpc, campaign pmax-cross-network |
| Paid Shopping | Source is a shopping site, or the campaign name contains shop or shopping, and the medium is paid (contains cp, or is ppc, retargeting or starts with paid). | amazon / cpc |
| Paid Search | Source is a search engine and the medium is paid. | google / cpc, bing / ppc |
| Paid Social | Source is a social site and the medium is paid. | facebook / paid_social, linkedin / cpc |
| Paid Video | Source is a video site and the medium is paid. | youtube / cpv |
| Display | Medium is display, banner, expandable, interstitial or cpm. | carbonads / display |
| Paid Other | Medium is paid, but the source is not a known search, social, video or shopping site. | podcast-ad / paid |
| Organic Shopping | Source is a shopping site, or the campaign name contains shop or shopping. | etsy / referral |
| Organic Social | Source is a social site, or medium is social, social-network, social-media, sm, social network or social media. | linkedin / social, reddit / social |
| Organic Video | Source is a video site, or the medium contains video. | youtube / video |
| Organic Search | Source is a search engine, or medium is organic. | duckduckgo / organic |
| Email | Source or medium is email, e-mail, e_mail or e mail. | newsletter / email |
| Affiliates | Medium is affiliate. | partner-name / affiliate |
| Referral | Medium is referral, app or link. | producthunt / referral |
| Audio | Medium is audio. | spotify / audio |
| SMS | Source or medium is sms. | twilio / sms |
| Mobile Push Notifications | Medium ends with push or contains mobile or notification, or source is firebase. | onesignal / web-push |
As of October 2026 · Source: Google Analytics 4 default channel group definitions
Why GA4 shows your campaign as Unassigned
GA4 shows a visit as Unassigned when its source and medium match none of the channel rules. Common causes are made-up mediums such as newsletter, post, launch or partner, and links with no medium at all.
Fix it with values from the table above: email for newsletters, social for organic posts, referral for listings such as Product Hunt, affiliate for partners and cpc or paid_social for ads. New values only change new visits; GA4 does not reclassify old data.
A UTM naming convention for a SaaS launch
Use lower case everywhere, one short word or a hyphenated phrase per field and the same campaign name on every channel. GA4 treats Facebook and facebook as two values, so a single capital letter splits a report.
For a launch, use producthunt / referral / launch-2026 for the Product Hunt listing, newsletter / email / launch-2026 for your email, and x / social / launch-2026 for posts on X. Use utm_content to tell links apart, for example hero-button and footer-link. Keep the list of allowed values in a shared sheet so everyone tags the same way.
Do UTM tags hurt SEO?
UTM tags have no direct effect on rankings. Search engines can still find tagged addresses, so put a canonical link on each page that points to the clean address; Google then usually treats the tagged versions as duplicates of the main page.
Do not tag internal links on your own site. A click on a tagged internal link starts a new attribution in analytics and replaces the real source of the visit, such as the search or the post that brought the visitor.