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Core Features

UTM templates & campaign tracking

UTM templates let you save campaign-tracking presets and apply them quickly when creating or editing redirect links. This page explains what UTM is, why it’s useful, and how to use templates in linkembed.

What is UTM?

UTM stands for “Urchin Tracking Module.” In practice, it’s a standard way to add small pieces of information to a URL so that analytics tools (like Google Analytics) can tell you where your traffic came from and which campaign or link drove a visit or sale.

UTM parameters are the parts that appear after a ? in a URL, for example: utm_source=newsletter, utm_medium=email, utm_campaign=spring_sale. They don’t change the destination page—they only add labels that get recorded when someone opens the link.

Why UTM is useful

Without UTM, you often see traffic as “direct” or “unknown” in analytics. With UTM, you can see that a click came from your newsletter (source), via email (medium), for the spring_sale campaign. That helps you:

  • See which channels and campaigns bring the most visits or conversions.
  • Compare performance across different links, emails, or ads.
  • Keep reporting consistent by reusing the same source, medium, and campaign names.

linkembed captures UTM parameters from requests to your links and uses them for attribution in your analytics, so the data you add to URLs is reflected in your dashboard.

UTM templates in linkembed

A UTM template is a saved set of UTM values (source, medium, campaign, term, content) that you can apply to redirect links in one click instead of typing them every time. Templates are per workspace: only people in that workspace see and use its templates.

The five standard UTM parameters are:

  • Source — Where the traffic comes from (e.g. newsletter, twitter, google).
  • Medium — The type of channel (e.g. email, social, cpc).
  • Campaign — The campaign or promotion name (e.g. spring_sale, product_launch).
  • Term — Optional; often used for paid search keywords.
  • Content — Optional; used to distinguish variants (e.g. which link or ad creative).

A template must have a name and at least one of these fields set. You can leave term and content blank if you don’t use them.

Managing templates

Open your workspace, go to Settings, and find the UTM Templates card. There you can:

  • Create a template — Enter a name (and optional description), then fill in the UTM fields you want. Click Create.
  • Edit a template — Use the edit action on a template, change the fields, and save.
  • Delete a template — Use the delete action. Deleting a template does not change links that were already created with it; only future use is affected.

Only workspace owners and editors can create, edit, or delete templates. Other members can still use existing templates when creating or editing redirect links.

UTM templates apply only to redirect links (links that send visitors to another URL). When you create or edit a redirect link, expand the Campaign tracking (UTM) section to use templates.

  1. Choose a template — Pick one from the dropdown. You can optionally set a default template in Settings so it’s pre-selected when creating new redirect links.
  2. Apply the template — Click Apply template to fill the redirect URL with the template’s UTM parameters. How they’re applied depends on the mode (see below).
  3. Adjust if needed — You can override any field (source, medium, campaign, term, content) in the form. Your overrides are merged with or replace the template values based on the mode.
  4. Check the preview — When the section is expanded and you’ve selected a template or entered overrides, linkembed shows a URL preview: the redirect URL before and after UTM parameters are added. Use this to confirm the final link is correct before saving.

Merge vs replace

If your redirect URL already has UTM parameters (e.g. from a destination that added them), you can choose how the template and your overrides interact:

  • Merge (fill missing only) — Only adds or updates UTM parameters that are not already in the URL. Existing UTM values in the URL are left as-is. Use this when you want to add tracking without overwriting what’s already there.
  • Replace (overwrite UTM params) — Removes all existing UTM parameters from the URL, then adds the ones from the template and your overrides. Use this when you want the final link to have exactly the UTM values you set.

If the URL already has UTM and you choose Replace, the UI will warn you that existing UTM values will be overwritten.

Saving current values as a new template

While creating or editing a redirect link, if you’ve applied a template and/or edited the UTM fields and want to reuse that combination later, you can click Save as new template. You’ll be asked for a name; after saving, the new template appears in Settings and in the template dropdown for future links.

Analytics and attribution

When someone opens a link that includes UTM parameters, linkembed records those parameters with the view or redirect event. In your workspace Analytics, you can see how traffic is attributed by source, medium, campaign, and other UTM dimensions. This works for both links you build with templates and links that already had UTM in the destination URL (as long as the parameters are present when the request hits linkembed).