Academy / Analytics diagnosis: events, UTMs, and the memo
Event model, debug, and UTM discipline · 26 min
Five UTM errors that collapse a report
In this lesson
- Spot five tagging errors in a dealer or HVAC URL
- Write a UTM convention a second buyer can follow on Monday
The five errors, with the broken string
(1) Missing medium: ?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=fall-tuneup — Facebook paid and a human share land in the same bucket; GA4 session medium becomes (none) or a guess. Always send utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign. (2) Spaces and case chaos: utm_campaign=Fall Tune Up encodes as Fall%20Tune%20Up and next month someone writes fall-tune-up — two campaigns, one offer. Use lowercase kebab-case. (3) Campaign name reuse: utm_campaign=northfield-search for six months of brand, inventory, and a spring sale. You cannot split the report. Name the job and the window: nf-search-inv-cuv-2026-04. (4) Paid social tagged as organic: a $200 Boost with utm_medium=social or utm_medium=organic. Paid must say paid / cpc / paid_social. Organic is a post with no spend. (5) Offline calls with no source: Priya’s 14 GBP rings and Dana’s lot walk-ins enter the CRM as “phone” with a blank campaign. If the call is from ads or GBP, the forwarding number or the receptionist script must write source=google / medium=organic|cpc / campaign=… or the row is unusable.
A convention a second buyer can follow
Write it on one line and stick it in the shared sheet: utm_source = platform (google, facebook, gbp, mailchimp). utm_medium = paid mechanism or organic surface (cpc, paid_social, email, organic_social, qr). utm_campaign = {biz}-{channel}-{job}-{yyyy-mm} (nf-search-inv-cuv-2026-04, cs-gbp-emergency-heat-2026-09). utm_content = the creative or sitelink if you are testing two RSAs. No spaces. No “campaign1”. No source=Priya. Offline: the call-tracking provider or the desk dropdown must emit the same three fields. If a URL is missing medium, it does not ship.
UTM is how two businesses stay comparable. Northfield’s Search click and Cedar’s GBP call are different instruments. They still need source, medium, and campaign or you cannot write next week’s memo.
Exercise
Rewrite five broken tags
Rewrite each into source / medium / campaign (kebab-case). (1) facebook.com/northfield — boosted post, no query string. (2) ?utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Search All. (3) ?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=organic on a $200 Boost for Cedar fall tune-up. (4) ?utm_campaign=fall tune up (spaces, no source/medium). (5) A GBP call to Priya’s cell with nothing written in the job ticket.
Deliverable: Five-row table: broken string, error name, corrected source/medium/campaign.
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Event, debug, and UTM check
Assignment
Two-column event map — Northfield and Cedar & Stone
Build one table with two columns (or two stacked tables): Northfield Motors and Cedar & Stone HVAC. For each business specify at least four first-wave events with trigger, required parameters, what the event is not, and who uses it (ads, desk, dispatcher). Include generate_lead (or form_submit) and click_to_call on both sides. Northfield must include view_item on the VDP. Cedar must include a booking/estimate event (book_estimate, book_tuneup, or generate_lead with service_type). Name two events you postpone for each business. No invented volumes, conversion rates, or DebugView screenshots.
Deliverable: Two-column event map (4+ events each) + two “not yet” rows per business + one paragraph on how generate_lead would lie if the thank-you were shared.
Write at least a short brief (80+ characters). A mentor reviews for a pass.
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