Most Brisbane business owners are flying blind, and they don’t even know it. They look at their Google Analytics 4 (GA4) dashboard, see a spike in traffic, and pat themselves on the back. But when you dig deeper, half that traffic is sitting in a bucket called ‘Unassigned’ or ‘Direct’, and nobody has a clue which Facebook ad or email blast actually drove the sale.
If you aren’t using UTM parameters correctly, you’re essentially burning your marketing budget and hoping the smoke signals tell you which way the wind is blowing. UTMs (Urchin Tracking Modules) are simple tags you add to the end of a URL to tell GA4 exactly where a visitor came from.
But here’s the problem: most agencies and internal teams are doing it wrong. They’re inconsistent, messy, and lazy. Here are the common UTM mistakes I see every day in the Australian market—and how you can fix them before your next campaign launches.
1. Case Sensitivity: The Silent Data Killer
Google Analytics is literal. It sees utm_source=Facebook and utm_source=facebook as two completely different things. If your social media manager uses a capital 'F' and your agency uses a lowercase 'f', your reports are now split.
You end up with fragmented data that makes it impossible to see the big picture. Stop overcomplicating it: Always use lowercase. No exceptions. If I see a ‘Social_Media’ tag with a capital S, I know the data is already compromised. Pick a standard and stick to it like glue.
2. Stop Being Vague with Your Sources
I often see businesses use utm_source=ad. That tells us nothing. Was it a Google Ad? A LinkedIn sponsored post? A flyer at a Brisbane networking event?
Your 'Source' should be the specific platform (e.g., facebook, google, klaviyo). Your ‘Medium’ should be the broader category (e.g., cpc, email, social). When you get these mixed up, you end up measuring noise instead of actual performance. If your medium is ‘banner’ one day and ‘display’ the next, your GA4 Default Channel Groupings will break, and your traffic will end up in the ‘Unassigned’ graveyard.
3. The 'Internal UTM' Sin
This is the biggest mistake of all. Never, ever use UTM parameters on links inside your own website.
If a user lands on your homepage from a paid Google Search ad, and then clicks a banner on your site that has a UTM tag pointing to your contact page, you have just ‘killed’ the original session. GA4 will think the user left and came back from a new source. You’ve just wiped out the data that told you the Google Ad worked.
If you want to track how people move around your site, you should be tracking custom events instead. Leave UTMs for the traffic coming from outside your domain.
4. Ignoring the 'Term' and 'Content' Fields
Most people stop at Source, Medium, and Campaign. That’s lazy marketing.
If you’re running an A/B test on two different images in a Meta ad, use the utm_content tag to differentiate them (e.g., utm_content=lifestyle_photo vs utm_content=product_shot). This is how you actually optimise a budget. Without this level of detail, you’re just guessing which creative resonated with your audience.
In a competitive market like Brisbane, where CPCs are rising, you can’t afford to guess. You need to know exactly which headline or image is doing the heavy lifting so you can stop giving last click credit to the wrong touchpoints.
5. Using Spaces and Weird Characters
URLs don’t like spaces. If you use utm_campaign=summer sale 2026, the browser will turn those spaces into %20, making your reports look like a coding error.
Use dashes (-) or underscores (_). Personally, I recommend dashes as they are cleaner and more standard. Pick one and make it a company-wide rule. Consistency is the difference between a dashboard that provides insights and a dashboard that provides headaches.
Your UTM Checklist for Clean Data:
1. Lowercase everything: No capitals, ever. 2. No internal links: Use GA4 events for on-site tracking. 3. Use a Naming Convention Sheet: Don't let staff 'wing it'. Create a shared Google Sheet that generates your URLs. 4. Be specific: Ensure yourutm_medium matches GA4’s expected values (like cpc, email, organic_social) so your traffic categorises correctly.
Conclusion
Clean data isn't a luxury; it’s a requirement for growth. If your UTM parameters are a mess, your marketing decisions are based on fiction. By standardising your tags and avoiding these common pitfalls, you’ll finally have a clear view of which channels are actually contributing to your bottom line.
Stop settling for messy reports. If you want a digital strategy that’s backed by accurate, actionable data, let’s talk. At Local Marketing Group, we help Brisbane businesses cut through the noise and focus on the metrics that actually drive profit.
Contact Local Marketing Group today to audit your tracking and get your marketing back on course.