You post on three platforms. Some posts are paid, some are organic. At the end of the month, your analytics show “social” as one blob. You can’t tell if that sale came from a LinkedIn ad or an organic TikTok post.

This happens because social links either aren’t tagged, or they’re tagged inconsistently. Someone used facebook once and Facebook the next time. Now you have two sources that should be one.

What UTMs tell you

UTMs show which platform sent the click. For social, you’re answering:

• utm_source: Which platform? (facebook, linkedin, tiktok)
• utm_medium: Paid or organic? (cpc, social, paid_social)
• utm_campaign: Which specific campaign or post?

Example: LinkedIn ads drove 50 signups. Organic TikTok drove 200. You’d never know without tags.

Mistakes that break your reports

Mixing paid and organic in the same medium. If you use social for both, you can’t separate them later. Use different mediums.

Inconsistent source names. facebook, Facebook, fb, and FB are four different sources in your analytics. Pick one. Lowercase.

Platform-generated tags conflicting with yours. Facebook Ads Manager can auto-add UTMs. If you also add your own, you get double parameters or conflicts.

No campaign name. Without it, you can see traffic came from LinkedIn, but not which post or ad.

Using the post text as campaign name. utm_campaign=check_out_our_amazing_new_product_launch_2025 is unreadable in reports. Keep it short.

The format

For every social link, use this:

utm_source=[platform]
utm_medium=[paid or organic]
utm_campaign=[short identifier]

Sources (pick one per platform, always lowercase):

• facebook
• linkedin
• tiktok
• twitter or x
• instagram

Mediums:

• cpc or paid_social — for paid ads
• social — for organic posts

Paid vs organic: two examples

Paid ad example:

You run a LinkedIn ad campaign promoting a webinar:

https://example.com/webinar?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=webinar_q3_25

• linkedin — the platform
• cpc — standard for paid (cost per click)
• webinar_q3_25 — short, identifies the campaign

Organic post example:

You post a link to your blog on TikTok bio:

https://example.com/blog?utm_source=tiktok&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bio_link

• tiktok — the platform
• social — organic, not paid
• bio_link — tells you it’s the profile link, not a specific post

This ruins your data:

utm_source=Facebook
utm_medium=Social
utm_campaign=Check Out Our New Feature!

Three problems: uppercase source, uppercase medium, campaign name with spaces and punctuation. You’ll get a separate entry for this that won’t group with your other Facebook traffic.

Checking your social traffic

In Google Analytics, go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition.

Set the primary dimension to “Session source/medium.”

Look for your sources: facebook / cpc, linkedin / social, tiktok / cpc.

If you see:

• Multiple versions of the same platform (Facebook vs facebook) — fix casing
• Everything under generic social / social — you’re not tagging sources
• (not set) in campaign — links missing campaign parameter

Compare click counts in your ad platform to sessions in analytics. They won’t match exactly, but they should be close.