TL;DR

UTM parameters are little tags on a link that tell you which campaign or channel brought a visitor in, so you can credit the traffic that actually drives conversations.

Key Points

✓

There are five standard UTMs: utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, and utm_content; only utm_source is strictly required, the rest add granularity. [1][2]

✓

They live in the URL query string, so a click on a tagged link carries the campaign context all the way to the landing page and your analytics. [2][3]

✓

Eloqra reads UTM values present when a [[website-visitor]] first lands and stores them on the visitor record, alongside [[visitor-tracking]] signals like page URL and [[ip-geolocation]].

✓

Because the UTMs ride on the [[contact]]'s visitor record, an operator can see which campaign produced a [[conversation]] right when they reply.

✓

UTMs power [[conversational-marketing]] and [[lead-capture]] attribution: you learn which ad, email, or post turned into an actual chat, not just a pageview.

✓

Values are case-sensitive (utm_source=Google differs from utm_source=google), so a consistent naming convention matters for clean reporting. [3]

What UTM parameters are

UTM parameters are query-string fragments appended to the end of a URL that let analytics tools identify where a visitor came from. ^[3] UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module, named after Urchin Software, the web-analytics company Google bought in 2005 that became the foundation of Google Analytics. ^[1] The five standard tags are utm_source (the site or platform that sent the click, e.g. google or linkedin), utm_medium (the channel type, e.g. cpc or email), utm_campaign (the campaign name), utm_term (a paid keyword), and utm_content (a creative variant, often used for A/B testing). ^[1]^[2] By adding these to the destination URLs in ads, emails, and posts, you can later view which campaigns referred traffic. ^[2]

How Eloqra uses UTM parameters

When a Website Visitor loads a page where the Eloqra JavaScript Widget is installed, any UTM parameters present in the page URL are captured and attached to the visitor record - the same first-message capture step that records page URL, hostname, user agent, device, and IP Geolocation. This means the campaign context travels with the Contact into any Conversation they start. Eloqra forwards a visitor's first message to the project owner over Telegram Integration, and because the UTMs are stored on the visitor, an operator can tell whether a chat originated from a paid ad, a newsletter, or organic search before they reply. It connects marketing spend to real, human conversations rather than anonymous sessions.

Why UTMs matter for attribution

For SaaS founders and indie hackers, UTMs answer the question every channel test eventually raises: which source actually produced engaged users? Tagging links turns a generic Live Chat inbound into an attributable event, so you can see that a Product Hunt post drove ten chats while a paid campaign drove two. This feeds directly into Conversational Marketing and Lead Capture decisions - doubling down on what converts. Keep names consistent, since values are case-sensitive and a stray capital letter splits one campaign into two rows in reporting. ^[3] Reserve UTMs for external inbound links; tagging internal links overwrites the original source and corrupts attribution. ^[3] Eloqra stores the raw values it captures, leaving aggregate analysis to whatever analytics tool you already run.

Sources & References

UTM parameters - Wikipedia ↗

URL builders: Collect campaign data with custom URLs - Google Analytics Help ↗

What are UTM parameters? - Ortto ↗

Last updated: June 25, 2026

Related Terms

Visitor Tracking

Visitor tracking is the practice of collecting context about the people browsing a website, such as the pages they view, their device and browser, where they came from, and an approximate location. In Eloqra this context is captured on a visitor's first chat message and shown to the operator answering in Telegram.

Website Visitor

A website visitor is any person browsing a site where a live-chat widget is installed, tracked as an anonymous session until they send a message or identify themselves. In Eloqra, the visitor is the end-user on the other side of the chat bubble, distinct from the operator who answers from Telegram.

Conversational Marketing

Conversational marketing is a customer-centric approach that uses real-time, personalized dialogue, typically through live chat, chatbots, and messaging, to engage and qualify website visitors instead of relying on static forms and delayed follow-up. It treats chat as a revenue tool for sales and marketing rather than a pure support utility.

Lead Capture

Lead capture is the process of collecting a prospect's contact details (typically name, email, or phone) at the moment they show interest, so a business can follow up and move them through the sales funnel. On a website it happens through forms, pop-ups, chatbots, and live-chat conversations.

IP Geolocation

IP geolocation is the practice of estimating a device's approximate physical location (country, region, city) by looking up its public IP address in a database that maps IP ranges to places. In Eloqra it runs server-side on the first visitor message to attach location context to a conversation.

Telegram Integration

Telegram Integration is the mechanism by which Eloqra routes every website chat into the project owner's Telegram, forwarding visitor messages to a Telegram bot and flowing operator replies back to the widget. It turns Telegram into the operator inbox, so there is no separate agent console to keep open.

Collect testimonials that build trust

Eloqra gives you a lightweight live chat widget that routes every visitor message to your Telegram — free while in early access.

Get Started Free

UTM Parameters