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UTM Tracking Guide

Tag your ad URLs with UTM parameters so every booking can be traced back to the campaign that drove it.

What Are UTM Parameters?

UTM parameters are tags you add to your URLs. When a customer clicks your ad and later books a tour, the platform captures these tags and stores them against the booking. This tells you exactly which ad campaign, keyword, or channel drove each sale.

Example: a customer clicks your Google Ad for "phi phi islands tour" and books. You'll see in the Attribution dashboard that the booking came from source=google, medium=cpc, campaign=phi-phi-search-en.

UTM Parameters Reference

ParameterDescriptionExamples
utm_sourceWhere the traffic comes fromgoogle, facebook, instagram, email, tiktok
utm_mediumThe marketing channel typecpc, paid-social, organic, email, referral
utm_campaignThe specific campaign namephi-phi-search-en, summer-sale, retargeting-all
utm_contentThe specific ad or creativeheadline-a, carousel-1, video-sunset
utm_termThe keyword (Google Ads)phi phi islands tour, phuket day trip

Naming Conventions

  • Lowercase only: utm_source=google not utm_source=Google
  • Hyphens not underscores: phi-phi-search not phi_phi_search
  • No spaces: summer-sale-2026 not summer sale 2026
  • Include the language: phi-phi-search-en for English ads, phi-phi-search-de for German
  • Include the tour in campaign: phi-phi, james-bond, phang-nga-bay for easy filtering

Google Ads URL Templates

Add these to your Final URL suffix in Google Ads campaign settings. Google automatically replaces the {dynamic} parts:

Search campaigns (Final URL suffix):

utm_source=google&utm_medium={network}&utm_campaign={campaignname}&utm_content={adgroupname}&utm_term={keyword}&gclid={gclid}

Display / Demand Gen campaigns (Final URL suffix):

utm_source=google&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign={campaignname}&utm_content={creative}&gclid={gclid}

Manual URL example (Phi Phi search ad):

https://bestphuketguide.com/tours/phi-phi-islands?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=phi-phi-search-en&utm_content=headline-a&gclid={gclid}
Tip: Set the Final URL suffix at the campaign level so it applies to all ads automatically. You only need to manually tag URLs when testing.

Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram) URL Templates

Use Meta's dynamic parameters in your ad destination URLs. Meta replaces {{variable}} automatically:

Standard Meta URL parameter template:

utm_source={{site_source_name}}&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign={{campaign.name}}&utm_content={{adset.name}}&fbclid={{site_source_name}}

Manual URL example (Phi Phi carousel ad):

https://bestphuketguide.com/tours/phi-phi-islands?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=phi-phi-facebook&utm_content=carousel-beach

Instagram story ad:

https://bestphuketguide.com?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=phi-phi-instagram&utm_content=story-sunset
Tip: In Meta Ads Manager, go to the ad level, click "Website URL", and add the UTM parameters in the "URL Parameters" field below the destination URL.

Example URLs Per Tour

Phi Phi Islands Day Trip

Google:

https://bestphuketguide.com/tours/phi-phi-islands?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=phi-phi-search-en&gclid={gclid}

Facebook:

https://bestphuketguide.com/tours/phi-phi-islands?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=phi-phi-facebook

James Bond Island Tour

Google:

https://bestphuketguide.com/tours/james-bond-island?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=james-bond-search-en&gclid={gclid}

Facebook:

https://bestphuketguide.com/tours/james-bond-island?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=james-bond-facebook

Phang Nga Bay Kayak

Google:

https://bestphuketguide.com/tours/phang-nga-bay?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=phang-nga-search-en&gclid={gclid}

Facebook:

https://bestphuketguide.com/tours/phang-nga-bay?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=phang-nga-facebook

How Attribution Works in the Platform

When a customer lands on your site, the platform automatically captures all UTM parameters from the URL and stores them in the browser session. When they complete a booking, these values are saved to the booking record in D1.

You can see attribution data in:

Tip: Attribution is last-click: if a customer clicks two ads, only the second click's UTM is stored. For multi-touch attribution, use GA4.

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