UTM Campaign Tracking

UTM Campaign Tracking

Rich Statistics automatically detects UTM parameters on incoming URLs and attributes them to every pageview in that browser session. No configuration required — just add UTM parameters to your links and the Campaigns admin page will start populating.

How it works

When a visitor lands on your site, the tracker script reads three URL parameters:

Parameter	What it represents	Example
utm_source	Where the traffic came from	newsletter, google, twitter
utm_medium	The marketing channel	email, cpc, social
utm_campaign	The campaign name	summer-sale-2025, launch

If UTM values are found in the URL they are saved to sessionStorage and then sent with every subsequent pageview in the same browser session. This means the full visit — not just the landing page — is attributed to the campaign.

If a visitor lands on a page without UTM parameters, the tracker looks for previously stored UTM values in sessionStorage. If none exist, no UTM data is recorded and the visit appears in Referrers instead.

Viewing campaign data

Go to Rich Statistics → Campaigns in your WordPress admin. The table shows each unique source / medium / campaign combination along with the number of sessions and pageviews it generated. Use the Medium filter to narrow results to a single channel (e.g. only email traffic).

Tagging your links

Append UTM parameters to any URL that points to your site. Google's Campaign URL Builder is a convenient tool for this, or you can construct the parameters by hand:

https://example.com/blog/new-post
  ?utm_source=newsletter
  &utm_medium=email
  &utm_campaign=july-digest-2025

  UTM parameter values are case-sensitive. `Email` and `email` will appear as separate rows in the Campaigns table. Use a consistent naming convention across your team.

What is stored

• utm_source — up to 100 characters
• utm_medium — up to 100 characters
• utm_campaign — up to 255 characters

The values are stored as plain text columns on the rsa_events table alongside the standard pageview data. They are subject to the same retention policy as all other event data (configurable in Preferences, default 90 days).

What is NOT stored

• utm_content and utm_term — not captured
• The full landing-page URL — only the path is stored (consistent with the rest of the plugin)
• Any IP address or persistent identifier

Privacy considerations

UTM values are set by you on your own links, so they do not contain visitor PII. The source, medium, and campaign name you put into your links are the only values recorded. No referrer URL, email address, or personal identifier is ever extracted from UTM parameters.

Because sessionStorage is used (not cookies or localStorage), UTM attribution ends when the visitor closes the browser tab. Opening the same link in a new tab starts a fresh session with fresh UTM attribution.