What is a UTM Parameter?

UTM parameters are five standardized query-string tags appended to URLs to track the source of website visits. They were originally defined by the Urchin Tracking Module (now part of Google Analytics) and have become a universal convention. The five parameters are utm_source (where the traffic comes from, e.g., google or newsletter), utm_medium (the channel, e.g., cpc or email), utm_campaign (the promo name), utm_term (paid keyword), and utm_content (which ad creative).

UTMs are visible to anyone and trivial to fake, so they are not useful for attribution security, but they are the single most common tool for understanding which marketing efforts actually drive conversions. When a form submission arrives, capturing the UTM values present in the referring URL lets you tie revenue back to the campaign that produced it.

SheetLink Forms automatically captures all five UTM parameters (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content) and writes them as dedicated columns in your Google Sheet, alongside GCLID (Google Ads click ID), fbclid (Facebook Ads), and msclkid (Microsoft Ads). The plugin reads these values from the visitor's current URL at form submission time, so you get the attribution context even for multi-page visits. No configuration is needed - UTM capture is on by default for every form.