How to Track Email and Banner Ad Campaigns with Google Analytics

Why Track Your Campaigns?

Understanding how your marketing campaigns perform is essential for making smart decisions and growing your business.

Google Analytics—especially Google Analytics 4 (GA4)—lets you see exactly how traffic from your email marketing or banner ad campaigns engages with your website.

To measure this traffic accurately, you need to tag your campaign links using UTM parameters.

Using the Google Analytics URL Builder (UTM Tagging)

The Google Analytics Campaign URL Builder Tool helps you add tracking parameters (UTM tags) to your URLs. These tags let you view your campaign results as standalone entries in Google Analytics reports.

Note: You don’t need to do this for Google Ads campaigns if your Google Ads and Analytics accounts are properly linked—UTM tagging is mainly for email, banner ads, social posts, and non-Google paid placements.

The Key UTM Parameters Explained

Add the following UTM parameters to every link in your email or banner ad campaign:

• utm_source: Who sent the traffic? (e.g. newsletter, nzh_herald, facebook)
• utm_medium: What type of channel? (e.g. email, banner, display, social)
• utm_campaign: Which campaign or offer? (e.g. winter_promo, spring_sale)
• utm_term: (Optional) Used for paid keyword tracking
• utm_content: (Optional) Distinguish between different links (e.g. header_link, footer_button)

Best Practices

• Always use utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign
• Use lowercase and consistent naming for easier reporting (e.g. newsletter, not NewsLetter)
• Be specific—unique campaign names make your analytics reports clear
• Differentiate links with utm_content if you have multiple clickable links in one campaign
• Avoid spaces: use underscores (_) or dashes (-)
  

How to Generate Your Campaign URL Links

Use the URL builder tool to generate your campaign URLs, then copy and paste them into your campaign assets.

The URL builder tool can be found here:

https://ga-dev-tools.web.app/c...

The tool will create a full campaign URL with UTM tags. You can use this tagged URL wherever you want to track campaign clicks—email buttons, banner ads, etc.

Separate the parameters from a URL with a question mark. List the variables and values as pairs separated by an equals sign. Separate each variable-value pair with an ampersand. Parameters can be added to a URL in any order, but must use the proper syntax. Note that Analytics is case sensitive, so utm_source=google is different from utm_source=Google. Case sensitivity applies for each variable you define.

For more information about creating custom campaigns see:

http://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033863?hl=en&ref_topic=1032998

Or contact Adhesion for advice.

Viewing Your Campaign Data in GA4

Once your tagged links are in use, you can view the campaign performance in GA4:

• Go to Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition
• Use the search and filter options for “Session source/medium” or “Session campaign” to analyze your results

This lets you see:

• Which campaigns drove the most traffic
• How users from campaigns engaged with your site
• Which links perform best (using utm_content)

Need Expert Help?

If you want personalized guidance, help with campaign strategy, or detailed analytics setup, contact the Adhesion team. We’re here to help you get the most from every advertising dollar!