How to Tag Your Ads With UTM Parameters
Tagging your ads with UTM parameters adds the campaign’s name or ID to every ad link. Once that’s set up, the Web Analytics reports can break your ad traffic down by campaign, and das Pixel has a campaign to read when it credits an order.
Before You Start
- Ad platforms add their own click ID to ad links while their click tracking is on, such as auto-tagging in Google Ads. That’s how das Pixel tells which platform sent a visit. UTM tags add the campaign.
- Set the tags once, at the account level or in a template every campaign uses. Tagging ads one at a time misses new campaigns.
- Use the platform’s dynamic value for
utm_campaign, so each campaign fills in its own name or ID. - das Pixel matches a
utm_campaignvalue to a campaign’s ID, or to its mapped value, ignoring capitals. The mapped value starts as the campaign’s name when it first synced, and doesn’t change if you rename the campaign later.
Steps
- In your ad platform, open the setting in the table below.
- Add
utm_source,utm_mediumandutm_campaign, using the example as a starting point. - Save, and repeat for each ad platform you use.
- When new ad visits have arrived, open the UTM Campaign Explorer report and check that your campaigns are listed.
| Platform | Where to set it | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | Keep auto-tagging on (it adds gclid), and add a final URL suffix |
utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign={campaignid} |
| Meta | Ads Manager, the ad set or ad’s URL Parameters | utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid_social&utm_campaign={{campaign.name}} |
| TikTok | The campaign’s tracking settings, as a URL suffix with dynamic parameters | utm_source=tiktok&utm_medium=paid_social&utm_campaign=__CAMPAIGN_NAME__ |
| Microsoft Ads | The campaign’s tracking template or final URL suffix | utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign={Campaign} |
For any other ad platform, add the same 3 tags in its own URL or tracking settings, with the campaign’s name or ID as the utm_campaign value. Ad platforms move these settings from time to time, so check the platform’s own help for the current place and dynamic values.
What Happens Next
- New ad visits arrive tagged. Visits from before you tagged your ads keep the tags they had, which can’t be added later.
- The UTM Campaign Explorer report groups your tagged ad traffic by source, medium and campaign.
- Orders Behind This Number, under the das Pixel page’s headline figure, names a campaign only when the last page das Pixel saw before the purchase carried the tag. That’s usually a checkout page with no tags, so most orders still show Platform-Level Only.
- The Untagged Ad Traffic (Last 7 Days) card on the das Pixel page shrinks as older untagged events drop out of its 7-day window.
- Tags are only recorded for visitors who allow marketing, and only while Track Marketing is on in das Pixel’s settings.
If your ads already send a utm_campaign value that isn’t the campaign’s name or ID, map it instead. Ad Traffic Shows as Untagged explains how.