When you invest in Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram), it’s essential to accurately measure their performance to optimize your budget and maximize your ROI. Yet many advertisers find it difficult to effectively track their campaigns and correctly attribute conversions.
This is where UTM tags come in. By adding these parameters to your URLs, you gain detailed visibility into where your traffic is coming from and the effectiveness of your ads, especially if your store is on Shopify.
In this article, we’ll explain how to set up your UTMs for Meta Ads correctly, integrate them effectively with Shopify and leverage the data collected to optimize your advertising performance.
Please note that our method also works for other e-commerce platforms (Woocommerce, Magento, Prestashop, etc.).
What are UTM beacons for?
What is a UTM tag and why use it?
UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) tags are parameters added to a URL to precisely track the origin of traffic to a website. They can be used to identify which specific campaign, platform or ad is generating traffic and conversions.
When using Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram Ads), it’s crucial to add these tags to track which ad generates the most sales or engagement on Shopify.
The 5 main UTM parameters are :
- utm_source: the platform from which the traffic originates(facebook, instagram…).
- utm_medium: type of traffic(cpc, social, paid…) or traffic source(feed, story, …)
- utm_campaign: the name of the advertising campaign and ad group.
- utm_content (optional): to differentiate ad variants (e.g. video_vs_image).
- utm_term (optional): used to track specific keywords or audiences.
Example of a URL with UTM tags:
https://www.maboutique.com/produit?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=promo_hiver_2024+-+retargeting&utm_content=carrouselWith these settings, you can find out exactly which ad, format or audience generates the best conversions on Shopify.
📌 Did you know? The origin of UTMs
UTM tags were created by Urchin Software Corporation, a company specializing in web data analysis. In 2005, Google acquired Urchin and integrated this technology into Google Analytics, making UTMs an essential standard in marketing tracking.
Today, UTMs are used in all digital campaigns, whether for advertising, e-mails or even links shared on social networks. A simple but essential tool for measuring and optimizing marketing performance!
Although UTMs were originally developed by Google, they have now become a universal standard, supported by most marketing and e-commerce tools, independently of Google (such as Shopify, Woocommerce, …).
How to generate UTMs easily?
How do I create a URL with UTM tags?
To accurately track the origin of your traffic and analyze your advertising performance, add UTM tags to your links. Here’s how:
1. Use a UTM generator to avoid errors
👉 Generate your UTMs easily with our online tool
💡 Why use a UTM Builder?
- Save time: create UTM links in just a few clicks.
- Consistency: adopt a standardized nomenclature to avoid duplication.
- Precision: track your Meta Ads and Shopify campaigns without tracking errors.
2. Add the generated URL to your ads
In Meta Ads Manager, insert the URL with UTM in the “URL Parameters ” field for optimal tracking on Shopify and Google Analytics 4.
Example of a generated URL :
https://www.maboutique.com/produit?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=facebook_feed&utm_campaign=promo_hiver_2024+-+retargeting_dpa&utm_content=carrousel
📌 Tip: always use the same nomenclature to easily compare your campaigns. For example:
- ✅ utm_source=facebook and not fb
- ✅ utm_medium= facebook_feed and not cpc or even paid_social. Personally, I prefer to indicate the location of my ads in theutm_medium, as the cpc value tells me nothing.
- ✅ utm_campaign=promo_winter_2024+-+retargeting_dpa (avoid spaces and accents)
With UTMs, you can track exactly which ads are generating the most sales on Shopify, and optimize your advertising budget based on actual performance.
🙋♀️ Why use
+-+instead of a space in UTMs?You may have noticed that we use the UTM utm_campaign to communicate 2 pieces of information:
- The name of the Meta campaign.
promo_hiver_2024- Ad group name (Ad Set).
retargeting_dpaWe’d like to separate these 2 values with a space, but spaces are not well interpreted in URLs and can cause tracking errors. To avoid this, we recommend the use of wildcards. We can choose between:
%20→ standard encoding of spaces (difficult to read in Shopify/GA4 reports).+→ recognized as a space in some URLs, but can be misinterpreted.+-+(recommended) → improves readability and ensures compatibility with Shopify and Google Analytics 4.💡 Example of optimized tracking with
+-+utm_campaign=promo_hiver_2024+-+retargeting_dpa✅ Benefits:
✔ Easy to read in Shopify & Google Analytics.
✔ Avoids encoding errors in tracking tools.
✔ Standardizes ad campaign nomenclature.
Configuring your UTM for Meta Ads
Why add UTMs to Meta Ads?
Meta ads (Facebook & Instagram Ads) drive traffic to your Shopify store, but without accurate tracking, it’s difficult to properly attribute sales and optimize your campaigns.
UTM tags enable you to track each visitor, identify successful campaigns and measure the return on investment (ROI) of your advertising.
✅ With UTMs, you can :
✔️ Identify which campaign generates the most sales on Shopify.
✔️ Compare performance between different ad formats (carousel, video, image…).
✔️ Track the precise origin of traffic and avoid discrepancies between Meta Ads and GA4.
Where to add UTM tags in Meta Ads?
To integrate UTM tracking into your Facebook & Instagram Ads campaigns, follow these steps:
Step 1: Access Meta Ads Manager
- Go to Meta Ads Manager and select the relevant campaign.
- Click on the ad to be modified.
Step 2: Add UTM parameters to Meta Ads
- Go to the “Follow-up” section.
- Find the “URL parameters” field.
- Add your URL with the generated UTMs in this recommended format
utm_source={{site_source_name}}&utm_medium={{placement}}&utm_campaign={{campaign.name}}+-+{{adset.name}}&utm_content={{ad.name}}
📢 Why use this format?
✅ It allows you to identify which specific ad generated the visit and analyze the impact of each campaign, ad set and ad in Shopify and Google Analytics.
✅ Since the format is dynamic, you can use it for all your Meta ads without modifying it, and it will adapt to all your campaigns.
Automate tracking with Meta’s dynamic parameters
Instead of modifying each ad by hand, use Meta:
🔹 {{site_source_name}} → Automatically replaces with facebook.com or instagram.com, depending on the display platform.
🔹 {{placement}} → Indicates the specific location where the ad is displayed (e.g. feed, story, reels).
🔹 {{campaign.name}} → Automatically inserts the campaign name.
🔹 {{adset.name}} → Adds the name of the ad set.
🔹 {{ad.name}} → Replaces with ad name.
🎯 Example of a dynamic UTM optimized for Meta Ads :
utm_source={{site_source_name}}&utm_medium={{placement}}&utm_campaign={{campaign.name}}+-+{{adset.name}}&utm_content={{ad.name}}
✅ Advantages :
✔️ Faster: UTMs automatically adapt to campaigns.
✔️ More accurate: track every ad without manual errors.
✔️ Compatible with Shopify & Google Analytics 4 for optimized reporting.
✔️ Actionable data: Differentiation between Facebook and Instagram traffic in Shopify and Google Analytics.
Best practices for effective tracking
1. Use consistent nomenclature
A common mistake with UTMs is inconsistency in campaign and source names. Follow these best practices:
✅ utm_source=facebook (avoid fb, FB Ads)
✅ utm_medium=facebook_feed (very important to differentiate traffic coming from stories, feed, audience network)
✅ utm_campaign=promo_winter_2024+-+retargeting_dpa (avoid accents and special characters – apostrophes, parentheses, spaces, question marks, etc.)
2. Test your UTMs before publishing
Before launching your campaign, test your URLs by :
✔️ Copying the URL with the UTMs into a browser to check redirection.
✔️ Using Google Tag Assistant or GA4 DebugView to ensure proper tracking.
3. Check performance in Shopify and Google Analytics 4
After setting up your UTMs in Meta Ads, track the performance of your campaigns:
🔹 In Shopify: go to Reports > Sessions by source to see where visitors and sales are coming from.
🔹 In GA4: go to Acquisition > Traffic > Campaigns to track the impact of Meta Ads campaigns.
Conclusion: Precise tracking for informed decisions
Correctly configuring your UTMs in Meta Ads is essential for tracking the real impact of your Facebook and Instagram ads on Shopify. By integrating UTMs in the “URL parameters” field and using dynamic settings, you get a detailed analysis of the performance of each ad.
Good tracking allows you to accurately measure your conversions,optimize your advertising budget andimprove the return on investment (ROI) of your campaigns.
💡 Need a reliable UTM generator?
👉 Try our UTM Builder and create your tracking links in seconds
