UTM parameters are short text tags you add to the end of a URL to track where your website traffic is coming from. The acronym stands for Urchin Tracking Module — a holdover from Google's early analytics days — but what matters is what they do: they tell your marketing platform exactly which campaign, channel, and piece of content drove a visitor to your site.
A URL with UTM parameters looks something like this:
https://yoursite.com/landing-page?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=q1-webinar-promo&utm_content=cta-button
When someone clicks that link, Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (formerly Pardot) captures those parameters and associates them with the prospect record. This gives you clear, attributable data on which marketing efforts are actually driving engagement and pipeline — not just vanity metrics, but real insight into what's working.
There are five UTM parameters you can use, and understanding each one is important for building a tracking strategy that gives you actionable data.
utm_source identifies where the traffic is coming from. This is the platform or publisher — examples include "linkedin," "google," "newsletter," or "partner-site." It answers the question: where did they find the link?
utm_medium describes the marketing medium or channel type. Common values are "email," "social," "cpc" (cost per click), "organic," or "referral." It answers: what type of channel brought them here?
utm_campaign is the specific campaign name. This is where you identify the initiative — "q1-webinar-promo," "annual-report-2026," or "ae-free-trial." It answers: which campaign gets the credit?
utm_term is typically used for paid search to capture the keyword that triggered the ad. For most B2B marketers using Account Engagement, this parameter is less commonly used outside of paid search contexts.
utm_content differentiates between different links within the same campaign. If you have two CTAs in the same email — say a button and a text link — you'd use utm_content to tell them apart ("cta-button" vs. "text-link"). This is especially valuable for A/B testing.
Account Engagement is designed to capture UTM parameters automatically. When a prospect clicks a UTM-tagged link and arrives on a page with Account Engagement tracking code installed, the platform reads the UTM values from the URL and stores them on the prospect record.
This happens through Account Engagement's first-party tracking cookie. Once a visitor is identified — either through a form submission, email click, or other conversion event — their UTM data is tied to their prospect profile. From there, you can see exactly which source, medium, and campaign brought each prospect into your funnel.
The key fields in Account Engagement that capture UTM data are mapped to the standard parameters. The "Source" field on the prospect record corresponds to utm_source. Campaign membership and attribution can be influenced by utm_campaign values when configured properly. And the full set of UTM data flows into Account Engagement's reporting, giving you campaign-level visibility into traffic, conversions, and pipeline contribution.
One important detail: Account Engagement captures UTM data on the first touch by default. The initial UTM values that bring a prospect to your site are recorded and persist on their record. If the same prospect returns later through a different campaign, the original source data remains unless you've configured custom automation to update it. Understanding this first-touch attribution model is important for interpreting your data correctly.
Getting UTM tracking right in Account Engagement starts before you build any campaign. You need a consistent, documented approach to how you construct your UTM parameters. Here's how to set it up effectively.
Step 1: Build your links with UTMs. Every external link that points to your website — emails, social posts, paid ads, partner content — should include UTM parameters. Use Google's Campaign URL Builder or build your own internal tool. The critical thing is that every link is tagged before it goes live.
Step 2: Ensure tracking code is installed. Account Engagement's first-party tracking code needs to be on every page of your website. If it's only on your landing pages, you'll miss UTM data from prospects who land on your blog, service pages, or other content. Verify installation using Account Engagement's tracking code validator or by checking the page source.
Step 3: Connect campaigns in Account Engagement. Create campaigns in Account Engagement that correspond to your marketing initiatives. When a prospect's utm_campaign value matches a campaign you've set up, you can automate campaign membership assignment using completion actions or automation rules. This ties UTM data directly to your campaign reporting.
Step 4: Use completion actions and automation rules. Set up automation to take action based on UTM values. For example, you might create an automation rule that assigns prospects to a specific campaign based on their source field value, or triggers a notification to your sales team when a prospect arrives from a high-intent campaign.
Step 5: Test before launch. Always click your own UTM-tagged links and verify the data appears correctly on a test prospect record in Account Engagement. Catching a typo in a UTM parameter before launch saves you from a gap in your reporting data that's impossible to fix retroactively.
Once your UTM tracking is flowing, Account Engagement gives you several ways to analyze the data.
Campaign reports show overall performance for each campaign, including prospect count, opportunities influenced, and pipeline value. When UTM data drives campaign membership, these reports give you a clear picture of which campaigns are generating results.
Prospect records show individual-level UTM data. You can see exactly how each prospect found you — which source, medium, and campaign brought them in. This is useful for sales conversations and for auditing your data quality.
Lifecycle reports track how prospects move through your funnel stages, and when combined with UTM-driven campaign data, you can analyze which sources produce prospects that actually convert to opportunities and revenue — not just top-of-funnel volume.
For deeper analysis, you can also push UTM data into Salesforce custom fields and build cross-object reports that combine marketing source data with opportunity and revenue data. This gives your leadership team a clear line from marketing spend to closed business, attributed by channel and campaign.
The most common problem I see with UTM tracking isn't technical — it's inconsistency. When different team members tag links with different naming conventions, your data becomes fragmented and unreliable. "LinkedIn" and "linkedin" and "linked-in" all create separate entries in your reporting, making it impossible to get a clean view of channel performance.
Here are the naming conventions I recommend for B2B teams using Account Engagement.
Use lowercase only. UTM parameters are case-sensitive. Standardize on lowercase to avoid splitting your data across capitalization variants. "LinkedIn" and "linkedin" will show up as two different sources.
Use hyphens, not spaces or underscores. Spaces break URLs and underscores can cause issues with some analytics platforms. Hyphens are clean, readable, and universally supported. Use "q1-webinar-promo" not "q1_webinar_promo" or "Q1 Webinar Promo."
Be specific but concise. Your UTM values should be descriptive enough to identify the campaign at a glance, but short enough to keep URLs manageable. "q1-ae-webinar-2026" is better than "first-quarter-account-engagement-webinar-campaign-for-2026."
Standardize your source and medium values. Create a documented list of approved values for utm_source and utm_medium, and share it with your entire marketing team. Common source values: "linkedin," "google," "email," "partner-name." Common medium values: "social," "cpc," "email," "organic," "referral."
Include dates or quarters in campaign names. This makes it easy to filter and compare performance over time. "q1-2026-webinar-series" is immediately identifiable in a report six months later.
Document everything. Maintain a shared spreadsheet or document that logs every campaign with its UTM structure. This becomes your single source of truth and prevents duplicate or conflicting naming from creeping in over time.
A few things I see teams get wrong regularly. First, don't use UTMs on internal links — links from one page on your site to another page on your site. UTM parameters should only be used on external links pointing to your site. Internal UTMs will overwrite the original source data and mess up your attribution.
Second, don't forget to tag links in your emails. It's easy to focus on social and paid ad links and overlook the CTAs in your Account Engagement emails. Every link that drives to your website should be tagged.
Third, don't change naming conventions mid-campaign. If you discover a better naming approach, implement it going forward but don't retroactively rename active campaigns. Consistency within a time period is more valuable than perfection.
UTM tracking in Account Engagement isn't just a marketing exercise — it's a business intelligence tool. When implemented consistently, it answers the questions your leadership team cares about most: Which channels are driving qualified leads? Which campaigns generate pipeline? Where should we invest our marketing budget next quarter?
The key is commitment to the system. Tag every link, follow your naming conventions, review your data regularly, and use the insights to make better decisions. The technology handles the rest.
If you need help setting up UTM tracking in your Account Engagement instance — or if you're looking to optimize your broader marketing automation strategy — get in touch with Thompson Technology. We specialize in Account Engagement implementations that turn your marketing data into actionable business intelligence.
Founder of Thompson Technology. Salesforce and Account Engagement consultant for B2B companies.
