UTM links for TikTok and Instagram: how to see which videos send buyers to your store

A UTM link tells your analytics which TikTok or Instagram video sent each visitor to your store. Here is a simple naming scheme for e-commerce brands.

What a UTM link is

A UTM link is your normal product URL with a few parameters added at the end. They do not change the page; they tell your analytics tool where the visitor came from. Without them, traffic from social apps often lands in a vague bucket and you cannot tell which video did the work.

The five parameters

• utm_source: the platform, for example tiktok or instagram.
• utm_medium: the type of traffic, for example organic or social.
• utm_campaign: the product, the collection or the moment, for example summer-collection or black-friday.
• utm_content: the version, for example hook-a or demo-15s, to compare variations of the same video.
• utm_term: optional, rarely needed for organic video.

A naming scheme that stays readable

Pick one spelling and keep it: lowercase, hyphens, no spaces. A link might end with ?utm_source=tiktok&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=black-friday&utm_content=hook-a. Using the same scheme every week makes your reports comparable month after month.

Where to read the results

In Google Analytics 4, the traffic acquisition report can be broken down by session source, medium and campaign, and the content parameter can be added as a dimension. Many e-commerce platforms also show UTM sources in their own reports. Look at visits to product pages, add to carts and orders, not only sessions.

Common mistakes

• Sending every video to the home page instead of the product page it shows.
• Changing the spelling of a campaign halfway through (Black-Friday, blackfriday, bf).
• Adding UTM parameters to internal links on your own site, which overwrites the real source.
• Judging a video on views alone when the UTM data shows where buyers actually came from.

How Replik uses your UTM link

At Replik, the UTM link is the only technical thing we ask for. We use it on every link that points to your store, and every week you get a report with views, engagement and UTM clicks, so you can check in your own analytics which product videos bring traffic to your store.