Campaign QA guide

A UTM naming convention template for campaign teams

Agree on the names once. Check the campaign file before those names reach your reports.

A useful naming convention is a short set of choices your team can actually follow. Our example uses lowercase values, underscores instead of spaces, and a campaign prefix. These are example client rules, not required settings for every analytics account.

Try it with five sample links.

The download includes one clean link and four links that need review. Free users enter these example rules manually in Client profile. Pro users may import the saved JSON; saved-profile import and full audit CSV export are Pro features. There is no signup form.

Download sample CSV Download client rules

Choose three names before adding more detail

Source tells you where a link was placed. Medium describes the channel. Campaign identifies the specific promotion. Google recommends consistent naming and treats differences in capitalization as different values. Read Google's campaign URL guidance.

Field	Example choices	Our example rule
Source	google, newsletter, partner	Choose an approved source.
Medium	cpc, email, referral	Choose an approved medium.
Campaign	demo_spring_sale	Use lowercase, underscores and the demo_ prefix.

Replace these example choices with your own before using the rules on a real campaign. For instance, a partner placement may deserve its own source name. The point is to make that choice deliberately and use it consistently.

Change the tags, preserve the destination

This sample link mixes capitalization and spaces:

https://example.com/offer?ref=partner&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=Spring%20Sale#pricing

Under our example naming rules, the reviewed link would look like this:

https://example.com/offer?ref=partner&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=demo_spring_sale#pricing

The non-UTM ref parameter and the #pricing fragment are still there. Do not lowercase an entire destination URL just to normalize its campaign tags. Its path or other parameters may have a different purpose.

Keep the rule file with the campaign brief

Give the rules a client name, decide who can add new source values, and save the approved version with the campaign. Review suggested changes before exporting. A source outside the approved list needs a decision; it is not automatically a bad traffic source.

UTM Builder's campaign audit works with local CSV files and local client profiles. Free users enter rules manually in the profile form; Pro users can import a saved profile and export the full audit CSV. Follow the five-link audit walkthrough, or see the current extension release status.