How to track where your leads come from: UTM links for a local business

What a UTM link looks like

It is your normal web address with labels on the end. Google's help page gives this example:

• http://www.example.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=summersale

Everything after the question mark is the label. The visitor sees the same page as anyone else. The labels are read by whatever counts your visitors, and can be saved with a form entry. Google calls adding them by hand "manual tagging." If you have not yet put a form or chat on your site to receive those visitors, start with how to install web chat.

The three labels to always use

Google's page on URL builders is direct: "When you add parameters to a URL, you should always use utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign."

• utm_source: where the link lives. Google's examples are google, newsletter4 and billboard. For a local business: facebook, nextdoor, google_profile, yelp, postcard.
• utm_medium: what kind of placement. Google's examples are cpc, banner and email. Keep your own list short: paid, social, email, print, listing.
• utm_campaign: which push. Google's example is spring_sale. Yours might be fall_furnace_check or storm_week.

There are more, for those who want them: utm_content to "differentiate creatives," such as two buttons in one email, utm_term for a paid keyword, and utm_id for a campaign ID. A small business can ignore them at first. The "how did you hear about us?" question on a form does a similar job for people who do not click a tagged link; ours is on the setup request form.

The mistakes that split your numbers

Tags fail quietly. Nothing breaks; your report just lies a little. Three causes, all from Google's pages.

• Mixed capitals. Values are case sensitive: "utm_source=google is different from utm_source=Google." Facebook and facebook become two rows, each with half the story. Use lowercase always.
• Different spellings for one thing. Google notes that SpringSale and Spring_Sale are treated as distinct. Pick one way to write each name and reuse it.
• Leaving a tag off. "Missing UTM parameters will result in (not set) values being present in reporting." Google explains that "(not set)" is a placeholder used when no information was received, and that it can appear "for URLs with incomplete or incorrect parameters."

One more detail worth knowing: Google says that if any UTM parameter is present on a link, it works out the source values "from UTM parameters, exclusively." In other words, a half-tagged link is worse than an untagged one. Tag fully or not at all. The same care with small details applies to your texts: why a text is 160 characters.

Where to put tagged links

Anywhere you control the link.

• Paid ads on social media or search.
• Your Google Business Profile website link, so you can tell profile visitors from ordinary search.
• Social posts and your profile link.
• Emails you send to past customers.
• Printed pieces with a short web address or a QR code: postcards, door hangers, yard signs, invoices.
• Directory listings that let you set your own link.

Do not tag links between pages of your own site. Those clicks are not a new source, and tagging them can overwrite the real one. While you are in your Google profile, check the hours too: Google Business Profile hours.

Keep a one-page list

The whole system depends on writing things the same way twice. A sheet with five columns is enough:

1. Where the link is used ("October postcard").
2. Source.
3. Medium.
4. Campaign.
5. The full link, ready to copy.

Before making a new link, look at the sheet and reuse the names already on it. Google's fix for messy tags is the same idea: use its URL builder to create correctly formatted parameters instead of typing them from memory. Keep the sheet next to your call tally from the missed-call audit, so phone and web sources sit in one place.

What the tags cannot tell you

• Phone calls. A tag follows a click to a web page. It does not see someone reading your number off a truck and dialing. Ask every caller how they heard about you, and note it.
• Word of mouth. A neighbor's recommendation arrives as a plain visit or a call.
• Whether the lead was any good. A source that brings ten enquiries and no jobs is worse than one that brings two and two jobs. Track through to the job.

That last point is why the answer to "how did you hear about us?" is worth saving next to each enquiry, along with what became of it. How quickly you answer each one matters as much as where it came from: how fast a business should respond to a new lead.

How NewFrontDesk uses them

Our own setup form saves the source, medium and campaign from the link a visitor arrived on, along with the page they were on, and asks "how did you hear about us?" as one of its questions. It uses no cookies for this; the labels are simply read from the address. Our privacy policy lists what is saved.

For client businesses, leads from the chat and form link land in one lead inbox marked with how they came in: web chat, form or missed call. To see it, open the sample inbox, call (346) 913-7215 or request setup.

Sources

• Google Analytics Help: URL builders (the UTM parameters, which to always use, case sensitivity)
• Google Analytics Help: traffic-source dimensions, manual tagging and auto-tagging
• Google Analytics Help: what the value (not set) means in your reports

Sources read on October 9, 2026. Google changes its reports and wording; its help pages are the final word. We are not affiliated with Google. NewFrontDesk does not use Google Analytics on its own site.