Google Analytics Audit Test #

106

UTMs on All Possible Links

Why It Matters:

Critical to understanding where your traffic is coming from and assigning appropriate credit.

Industries:

All

Checks For:

Accuracy

How accurate is your recent data?

Insight Category:

Attribution

Can you tell which marketing efforts are working?

Google Analytics Audit logo

Background

A GA4 audit is essential for uncovering missing insights—key data points that organizations don't yet know and can act upon. A well-done audit evaluates both behavioral tracking and traffic attribution, ensuring each is accurate and useful. It also assesses whether the data collected truly supports business decisions and reporting.

Test Detail

This test checks whether UTM parameters are applied to all campaign links, across all marketing channels—not just emails or paid ads. This includes links from:

  • Social media (organic and paid)
  • Partnerships and affiliates
  • Influencers
  • Press or PR placements
  • QR codes
  • PDF documents
  • Offline-to-online flows

Missing UTMs leads to attribution loss—often defaulting to “direct” or “referral”—and obscures which campaigns, posts, or partners are actually driving performance.

Check This Test for Free! Instantly.

Our free instant audit tool checks for 90 issues in 90 seconds.

Then gives you a prioritized list of items to tackle.

No cost, no sales call... just free goodness.
‍

Run a free instant audit
Google Analytics audit test results.

How to Conduct This Test

Basic Tests

  • Review Google Analytics reports under Traffic Acquisition and sort by:
    • Session source/medium
    • Campaign
    • Look for spikes in (direct) / (none) traffic that coincide with untagged campaigns, social pushes, or external promotions.
  • Use Explore to break down landing pages receiving “direct” traffic—if it includes subpages linked only from campaigns, UTMs are likely missing.
  • Spot check recent campaigns, social posts, influencer links, and QR code destinations:
    • Do URLs include utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign?

Automated, Free Audit

Run our Instant Audit to identify missing UTMs instantly.

Not sure which links are under-tracked? Hire a pro to run a full UTM audit.

How To Fix

  • Implement a company-wide UTM tagging policy and templates:
    • Source: Identifies platform (e.g., facebook, newsletter, partner_site)
    • Medium: Identifies channel (e.g., paid_social, email, qr)
    • Campaign: Identifies the initiative (e.g., summer_launch)
  • Train all internal teams and vendors to use these tags consistently.
  • Set up UTMs in all tools:
    • Email platforms, ad platforms, social scheduling tools, influencer briefs, and press release URLs.
  • For offline links (QR codes, PDFs), use campaign-specific UTMs and track their usage separately in GA4.
  • Hire a pro to build UTM systems that scale across every touchpoint—so no campaign ever goes untracked.

Tips from a Google Analytics Consultant

Focus on Insights

Every Google Analytics audit should result in a plan for more insights.

‍

An insight is:

  • something you don't know
  • and can act on to improve performance

The Goal

Identify and remove insight blockers. Don't get tempted to track things you can't act on!

Hire a Google Analytics Consultant
Google Analytics consultant