Track campaigns with UTM tags
Add three short tags to the links in your ads, emails and posts, and see which campaign brought each visitor.
What UTM tags are
A UTM tag is a small label you add to the end of a link, so you can tell later where a visit came from. You’ve probably seen them: everything after the ? in a link like this one.
https://example.com/spring-sale?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring-saleThe page is the same with or without them. Crustat reads them when someone lands on your site through that link. There’s nothing to turn on.
The three tags Crustat reads
utm_source: who sent the visit. For examplenewsletter,facebookorgoogle.utm_medium: what kind of link it was. For exampleemail,socialorcpc(a paid ad).utm_campaign: your name for the campaign. For examplespring-sale.
Crustat keeps only these three. utm_term, utm_content and any other part of the address are dropped.
Where they show up
On your dashboard, open the Sources card and pick the Campaign tab. Each row is a campaign name, with its source and medium underneath, and the number of visitors it brought.
A visit appears there only if its link has utm_campaign. A link with just utm_source or utm_medium still helps sort the visit into a channel (see below), but it doesn’t add a row to Campaign.
How tags affect channels
The Channel tab sorts every visit into Direct, Search, Social, Email, Paid, AI or Referral. Your tags can decide that:
utm_mediumset tocpc,ppc,paidorpaidsocialalways makes the visit Paid.utm_mediumset toemailornewsletteralways makes it Email.- A tagged link with no other website behind it is sorted by
utm_source. For examplegoogleorbingbecomes Search,facebookorlinkedinbecomes Social,chatgptorperplexitybecomes AI. Any other source name becomes Referral.
When the visitor came from another website, that website decides the channel, unless the medium already made it Paid or Email. See Where visitors come from for the full rules.
Tips for clean numbers
- Use the same spelling every time. Crustat turns tags into lowercase, so
Newsletterandnewsletterend up together. Butnewsletterandnews-letterare two different sources. - Keep names short. Each tag keeps its first 100 characters.
- Tag links that point to your site, not links inside your site. A visitor who clicks around after landing doesn’t need tags on every page.
- Pick a medium that matches the channel you want. Use
cpcfor ads andemailfor newsletters, so those visits land in the right channel.
A few ready-to-copy examples
?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=october-news
?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paidsocial&utm_campaign=autumn-launch
?utm_source=partner-blog&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=guest-postAdd one to the end of your page’s address. If the address already has a ?, use & instead of the first ?.
Still stuck? Write to hello@crustat.com.