UTM & Marketing Glossary

301 Redirect A 301 redirect is an HTTP status code that permanently sends one URL to another. It tells browsers

302 Redirect A 302 redirect is an HTTP status code that temporarily sends one URL to another. It tells browsers

307 Redirect A 307 redirect is an HTTP status code that temporarily sends one URL to another while preserving the

308 Redirect A 308 redirect is an HTTP status code that permanently sends one URL to another while preserving the

404 Error A 404 error is an HTTP status code that means the server could not find the page a

A/B Testing A/B testing is a controlled experiment in which two versions of a single element are shown to separate

Affiliate Link Tracking Affiliate link tracking is the practice of attaching a unique identifier to a partner’s link so any

Analytics Segment An analytics segment is a subset of your data, isolated by a set of conditions, so you can

Anchor Text Anchor text is the visible, clickable text of a hyperlink. Search engines read it as a short description

Assisted Conversion An assisted conversion is a conversion in which a marketing channel appeared somewhere on the conversion path but

Attribution Model An attribution model is a rule, or set of rules, that decides how credit for a conversion is

Attribution reporting is the practice of presenting which channels, campaigns, and touchpoints received credit for conversions, based on a chosen

Attribution Window An attribution window is the set period of time after a user clicks or views an ad during

Auto-Tagging Auto-tagging is a Google Ads feature that automatically adds a unique tracking parameter, the GCLID, to the URL of

Average Order Value (AOV) Average order value (AOV) is the average amount a customer spends in a single order. AOV

Base64 Encoding Base64 encoding is a method that converts binary data into a plain ASCII text string using a set

Bio Link A bio link is the single clickable URL placed in the bio section of a social media profile.

Bounce Rate Bounce rate is the percentage of website sessions that ended without the visitor engaging with the page. In

Branded Link A branded link is a shortened URL that uses a custom domain owned by the brand rather than

Broken Link A broken link is a hyperlink that points to a page or resource that no longer exists or

Call to Action (CTA) A call to action (CTA) is a prompt that tells someone to take a specific next

Campaign Attribution Campaign attribution is the practice of assigning credit for a conversion to the marketing campaigns, channels, or touchpoints

Campaign Brief A campaign brief is a short document that defines a marketing campaign’s goal, audience, message, channels, budget, and

Campaign Tracking Campaign tracking is the practice of measuring how individual marketing campaigns drive traffic, engagement, leads, and revenue across

Campaign URL Builder A campaign URL builder is a tool that appends UTM parameters to a destination URL so analytics

Canonical URL A canonical URL is the version of a web page that search engines treat as the master copy

Cart Abandonment Tracking Cart abandonment tracking is the practice of measuring how many shoppers add items to a cart and

CCPA CCPA stands for the California Consumer Privacy Act, a state law that gives California residents control over how businesses

Click Fraud Click fraud is the deliberate or automated clicking of pay-per-click ads by someone with no genuine interest in

Click ID A click ID is a unique alphanumeric code that an ad platform adds to a destination URL each

Click Tracking Click tracking is the practice of recording every click a user makes on a link, button, ad, or

Click-Through Rate (CTR) Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who click on a link, ad, or search result

CNAME Record A CNAME record is a DNS entry that points one hostname to another hostname instead of to an

Cohort Analysis Cohort analysis groups users by a shared starting point, usually the period in which they were acquired, then

Consent Mode Consent Mode is a Google framework that adjusts how Google tags behave based on a user’s cookie consent

Conversion Deduplication Conversion deduplication is the process of recognising that two reported conversion events describe the same real action, and

Conversion Goal A conversion goal is a specific, valuable action you want a visitor to complete, such as a purchase,

Conversion Path A conversion path is the full sequence of touchpoints a user interacts with before completing a conversion. It

Conversion Rate Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action out of the total number of

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the practice of increasing the percentage of visitors who complete a

Conversion Tracking Conversion tracking is the process of recording when a user completes a valued action after clicking a link

Conversion Window A conversion window is the set period of time after a user clicks or views an ad during

Cookie Consent Cookie consent is a user’s explicit permission to store or read non-essential cookies and similar trackers on their

Cookie Syncing Cookie syncing is the process two ad tech platforms use to match their separate user IDs for the

Cost Per Click (CPC) Cost per click (CPC) is the amount an advertiser pays each time a user clicks on

Cost Per Lead (CPL) Cost per lead (CPL) is the average amount a business spends on marketing to generate one

Cost Per Mille (CPM) Cost per mille (CPM) is the amount an advertiser pays for every 1,000 ad impressions. CPM

Cross-Channel Attribution Cross-channel attribution is the practice of measuring how every marketing channel a customer touched contributed to a conversion,

Cross-Device Tracking Cross-device tracking is the practice of linking one person’s activity across multiple devices, such as a phone, tablet,

Cross-Domain Tracking Cross-domain tracking is a method that lets analytics tools treat a user’s activity across two or more domains

Custom Domain A custom domain is a branded web address (like link.yourbrand.com) used to shorten URLs instead of generic services

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the total amount a business spends on sales and marketing to

Customer Data Platform (CDP) A customer data platform (CDP) is packaged software that builds a persistent, unified customer database and

Customer journey mapping is the process of building a visual record of every step a customer takes with a brand,

Dark Social Dark social is website traffic that comes from private link sharing but carries no referrer data, so analytics

Data Discrepancy A data discrepancy is a mismatch between the same metric reported by two different systems, such as Google

Data Layer A data layer is a JavaScript object on a web page that holds structured information about the page,

Data sampling is the practice of analyzing a subset of a dataset and scaling the results to estimate the whole.

Data thresholding is a privacy control in Google Analytics 4 that withholds rows from a report when the underlying user

Data-Driven Attribution Data-driven attribution is an attribution model that uses machine learning to assign fractional conversion credit to each touchpoint

Deep Link A deep link is a URL that opens a specific page or screen inside a mobile app or

Default channel grouping is the fixed set of rules Google Analytics 4 uses to sort every session into a traffic

Deferred Deep Link A deferred deep link is a link that sends a new user to a specific in-app screen

Device fingerprinting is the practice of identifying a device by combining its browser, hardware, and network attributes into a single

Device Targeting Device targeting is a link management technique that sends visitors to different destination URLs based on the device

Dimension A dimension is a qualitative attribute of your data that describes the characteristics of users, sessions, or events. It

Direct Traffic Direct traffic is website visits that analytics tools cannot attribute to any known source. It covers people who

A drip campaign is a series of pre-written messages sent automatically on a fixed schedule after a trigger, such as

Dynamic QR Code A dynamic QR code is a QR code that stores a short redirect URL instead of the

Ecommerce Tracking Ecommerce tracking is the practice of recording shopping actions on an online store and sending them to an

Email Click Rate Email click rate is the percentage of delivered emails in which a recipient clicked at least one

Email Open Rate Email open rate is the percentage of delivered emails that recipients opened. It measures how well a

Engagement Rate Engagement rate is the percentage of an audience that interacts with social media content out of those who

Enhanced Ecommerce Enhanced Ecommerce was the Universal Analytics feature set that tracked the full shopping funnel, from product impressions and

Event Tracking Event tracking is the practice of recording specific user interactions on a website or app, such as clicks,

Exit Rate Exit rate is the percentage of pageviews of a page that were the last page viewed in a

FBCLID FBCLID stands for Facebook Click Identifier. It is a unique code that Meta adds to a link’s URL when

First-Party Cookie A first-party cookie is a small text file that a website stores in your browser under its own

First-Touch Attribution First-touch attribution is a single-touch marketing attribution model that gives 100% of conversion credit to the very first

Frequency Frequency is the average number of times each unique person saw your ad or content over a set period.

Funnel Analysis Funnel analysis measures how many users complete each step in a defined sequence and where the rest drop

GA4 BigQuery Export The GA4 BigQuery export is a Google Analytics feature that sends raw, event-level data from a GA4

GA4 Client ID The GA4 client ID is a randomly generated string that identifies a single browser on a single

GA4 Key Event A GA4 key event is an event you have marked as valuable to the business, such as

GA4 User-ID The GA4 User-ID is an identifier you assign to a signed-in user and send to Google Analytics with

GCLID GCLID stands for Google Click Identifier. It is a unique code that Google Ads adds to your landing page

GDPR GDPR stands for the General Data Protection Regulation, the European Union’s law governing how organizations collect, store, and use

Geo Targeting Link A geo targeting link is a single URL that sends visitors to different destinations based on their

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is Google’s web and app analytics platform that measures user behavior using

Google Search Console Google Search Console is a free web service from Google that helps website owners monitor, maintain, and

Google Signals Google Signals is session data that Google Analytics collects from visitors who are signed in to a Google

Google Tag Manager (GTM) Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a free tag management system from Google that lets marketers deploy

Cardinality is the number of unique values a dimension holds. Google defines a high-cardinality dimension as one with more than

Identity Resolution Identity resolution is the process of matching records from different sources and devices to determine which ones belong

Impressions An impression is a single instance of content or an ad being displayed to a user. In marketing, every

Incrementality testing is a controlled experiment that measures how many conversions marketing actually caused, rather than how many happened to

The install referrer is the campaign data Google Play attaches to an app install and hands to the app on

Invalid Traffic Invalid traffic is any ad click, impression, or site visit that does not come from a genuine user

IP Anonymization IP anonymization is the process of masking or removing part of a user’s IP address before it is

KPI A KPI is a measurable value that shows how well you are hitting a specific goal. KPI stands for

Landing Page A landing page is a standalone web page created for a single marketing goal, built to turn visitors

Last-Touch Attribution Last-touch attribution is a single-touch marketing attribution model that gives 100% of conversion credit to the final channel

Lead Magnet A lead magnet is a free resource offered in exchange for contact details, usually an email address. It

Lead Nurturing Lead nurturing is the practice of building a relationship with leads who are not yet ready to buy,

Lead Scoring Lead scoring is the practice of assigning numeric values to leads based on how well they fit your

li_fat_id li_fat_id stands for LinkedIn First-Party Ad Tracking ID. It is a click ID that LinkedIn appends to the landing

Lifetime Value (LTV) Lifetime value (LTV) is the total revenue or profit a business expects to earn from a single

Lift Study A lift study is a randomized experiment that measures how much an advertising campaign changed a specific outcome,

Linear Attribution Linear attribution is a multi-touch attribution model that gives every touchpoint in a customer journey equal credit for

Link Analytics Link analytics is the measurement and reporting of how individual links perform after they are shared. It collects

Link Cloaking Link cloaking is the practice of hiding a long or unbranded destination URL behind a shorter, branded link

Link equity is the ranking value that passes from one page to another through a hyperlink. Search engines treat a

Link Expiration Link expiration is a setting that deactivates a URL after a defined condition: a specific date, a maximum

Link Preview A link preview is the card with an image, title, and description that appears when a URL is

A link redirect is a server instruction that sends a visitor from one URL to another automatically. When someone clicks

Link Retargeting Link retargeting is the practice of attaching an advertising pixel to a shortened URL so anyone who clicks

Link Rot Link rot is the gradual process by which hyperlinks stop working over time as the pages they point

Link Rotator A link rotator is a tool that sends clicks on one link to several different destination URLs. Each

Link Shim A link shim is an intermediate redirect page that a platform inserts between a click and the destination

Looker Studio Looker Studio is Google’s free dashboard and reporting tool, renamed Data Studio in April 2026. It connects to

Marketing Attribution Software Marketing attribution software is a platform that collects marketing touchpoint data and assigns conversion credit across the

Marketing automation is software that runs repetitive marketing tasks and multi-step campaigns automatically, triggered by customer behavior, time, or data

Marketing Campaign A marketing campaign is a coordinated series of activities that promote a product, service, or brand around a

Marketing Channel A marketing channel is a path a business uses to reach its audience and promote or sell its

Marketing Mix Modeling Marketing mix modeling is a statistical method that uses regression on aggregate historical data to estimate how

mc_cid mc_cid is a URL parameter that Mailchimp adds to every tracked link in a campaign email to identify which

Measurement Protocol The Measurement Protocol is a Google API that lets any server send events directly to Google Analytics 4

Metric A metric is a quantitative measurement of your data, expressed as a number. It counts, sums, or averages activity,

MSCLKID MSCLKID stands for Microsoft Click ID. It is a unique code that Microsoft Advertising adds to your landing page

Multi-Domain Link Management Multi-domain link management is the practice of creating, tracking, and organizing short links across several branded domains

Multi-Touch Attribution Multi-touch attribution (MTA) is a measurement method that distributes conversion credit across every marketing touchpoint a customer interacted

New vs Returning Visitor New vs returning visitor is the split between people seeing your website for the first time

NFC Tag An NFC tag is a small chip and antenna that stores a short piece of data, usually a

Nofollow Link A nofollow link is a hyperlink carrying the rel="nofollow" attribute, which tells search engines not to pass ranking

A north star metric is the single number that best captures the core value a product delivers to its customers.

Offline Conversion Tracking Offline conversion tracking is the practice of importing conversions that happen away from your website, like a

Omnichannel Marketing Omnichannel marketing is an approach where every channel a customer touches shares the same data, so the experience

Open Graph Tags Open Graph tags are HTML meta tags that control how a URL appears when shared on social

Open Redirect An open redirect is a web vulnerability that lets an attacker use a trusted site’s URL to send

Pageview A pageview is a single instance of a page loading or reloading in a browser. Each time a visitor

Paid Media Paid media is any placement a brand buys to put a message in front of an audience: search

Permalink A permalink is the permanent URL that points to a specific web page or blog post and is not

Position-Based Attribution Position-based attribution is a multi-touch attribution model that gives 40% of the conversion credit to the first touch,

Postback URL A postback URL is a web address that one server calls to report a conversion to another server.

Programmatic Advertising Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of digital ad inventory through software, using real-time auctions instead

QR Code A QR code is a two-dimensional barcode that stores data in a square grid of black and white

QR Code Error Correction QR code error correction is the redundant data built into every QR code that lets a

Query String A query string is the part of a URL that comes after the question mark (?) and carries

Reach Reach is the number of unique people who saw your content at least once. In marketing, it counts individuals,

Redirect Chain A redirect chain is a sequence of two or more redirects between the original URL a user requests

Redirect Loop A redirect loop is a redirect error where a URL sends the browser to another URL that eventually

Referral Traffic Referral traffic is website visitors who arrive by clicking a link on another website rather than from a

The referrer header is an HTTP request header that tells a web server which page the visitor came from. Browsers

Referrer policy is a browser rule that decides how much of the current URL gets sent in the referrer header

Regular Expression (Regex) A regular expression (regex) is a text pattern that matches a set of values rather than one

Revenue Per Click (RPC) Revenue per click (RPC) is the average amount of revenue generated each time someone clicks on

ROAS ROAS stands for Return on Ad Spend. It measures how much revenue is generated for every dollar spent on

ROI ROI stands for return on investment. It is the percentage profit earned on an investment relative to its cost,

Server-Side Tracking Server-side tracking is a method of collecting analytics and conversion data on a web server you control, instead

Session A session is a group of user interactions with a website or app that happen within a given timeframe.

Short Link A short link is a condensed URL that redirects visitors to a longer destination address. It replaces a

Smart Link A smart link is a single short URL that sends different visitors to different destinations based on rules

Split URL Testing Split URL testing is an experiment method that hosts each version of a page on its own

An SSL certificate is a data file installed on a web server that binds a public key to a domain

Static QR Code A static QR code is a QR code that stores its full destination or data directly inside

Subdomain vs Subdirectory A subdomain is a separate section of a site that sits in front of the root domain,

Third-Party Cookie A third-party cookie is a small file set by a domain other than the website you are visiting,

Time Decay Attribution Time decay attribution is a multi-touch attribution model that gives more conversion credit to touchpoints that happen

Top-Level Domain (TLD) A top-level domain (TLD) is the final segment of a domain name, the part that follows the

Touchpoint A touchpoint is any point of contact between a customer and a brand, before, during, or after a purchase.

Tracking Pixel A tracking pixel is a tiny piece of code, often a 1×1 transparent image, embedded in a web

Traffic Source A traffic source is the origin of a website visitor: where they came from before landing on your

Trailing Slash A trailing slash is the forward slash at the end of a URL path, as in https://linkutm.com/blog/. To

TTCLID TTCLID stands for TikTok Click ID. It is a unique code TikTok adds to your landing page URL each

Unique Visitor A unique visitor is a single distinct person counted once within a set time period, no matter how

A universal link is a standard HTTPS URL that opens a specific screen in an iOS app when that app

A URI scheme is the first component of a URI, the part before the colon, that tells software which protocol

URL Encoding URL encoding is the process of converting characters into a format that can be transmitted safely over the

URL Fragment A URL fragment is the part of a URL that follows the # symbol. It identifies a section

URL Parameters URL parameters are values added to a URL to pass extra data to a web page or server.

URL Shortener A URL shortener is a tool that converts a long web address into a short, condensed link. The

URL Slug A URL slug is the part of a URL that comes after the domain and identifies a specific

User-Generated Content (UGC) User-generated content (UGC) is any content about a brand that is created and published by customers, fans,

UTM Parameters: What They Are and How to Use Them UTM parameters are short text snippets added to the end

UTM Audit A UTM audit is a systematic review of an organization’s tagged campaign links and the resulting analytics data

UTM Builder A UTM builder is a tool that adds UTM parameters to a URL so analytics platforms can attribute

UTM Code A UTM code is a snippet of text added to the end of a URL to track the

UTM for Email UTM for email means adding UTM tags to the links inside your email campaigns so Google Analytics

UTM Governance UTM governance is the system of rules, ownership, and review processes that controls how an organization creates, approves,

UTM Link A UTM link is a website URL with UTM parameters appended to its end so analytics tools can

UTM Naming Convention A UTM naming convention is a documented set of rules that defines how every UTM parameter value

UTM Tag A UTM tag is a snippet of text added to the end of a URL that identifies where

UTM Tracking UTM tracking is the practice of appending parameter tags to URLs so an analytics platform can identify the

utm_campaign utm_campaign is the UTM parameter that names the specific marketing campaign, promotion, or initiative driving traffic to your site.

utm_content utm_content is the optional UTM parameter that distinguishes between links or ads pointing to the same destination URL. It

utm_creative_format utm_creative_format is an optional UTM parameter that records the type of ad creative behind a campaign click. It identifies

utm_id utm_id is the UTM parameter that assigns a unique campaign ID to a tagged URL so Google Analytics 4

utm_marketing_tactic utm_marketing_tactic is an optional UTM parameter that records the targeting approach behind a campaign click, such as remarketing or

utm_medium utm_medium is the UTM parameter that identifies the marketing channel or delivery method bringing a visitor to your site.

utm_source utm_source is the UTM parameter that identifies the specific platform, website, or publication that sent a visitor to your

utm_source_platform utm_source_platform is an optional UTM parameter that identifies the platform responsible for directing traffic to a Google Analytics 4

utm_term utm_term is the optional UTM parameter that identifies the paid search keyword that triggered a click. It was built

Vanity URL A vanity URL is a short, memorable web address that redirects to a longer destination URL. It replaces

View-Through Conversion A view-through conversion is a conversion that happens after a user sees an ad impression but does not

WBRAID and GBRAID WBRAID and GBRAID are two privacy-safe click IDs that Google Ads adds to landing page URLs for

Zero-Party Data Zero-party data is information a customer intentionally and proactively shares with a brand. It covers stated preferences, purchase