Glossary · Étiqueter et diffuser
Source (utm_source)
A click's source is the precise platform or site that sent it: *instagram*, *linkedin*, *newsletter-march*. It is the proper name of the place, not the category it belongs to.
Dire d’où vient un clic avant qu’il ne soit trop tard pour le savoir. The forty terms of the trade
What it is for
It is the most useful of the five labels, because it answers “where should I publish” directly. A report by source ranks your publishing places by what they bring in, which is exactly the decision a creator or an agency makes at the start of the week.
How it is named
A proper name, lowercase, no accents or spaces, and always the same one. You write *instagram*, never *Instagram* or *insta* or *IG*: three spellings make three rows in the report, and by week four nobody knows which one to read.
The classic mistake
Putting a category in it instead of a name. *social* is not a source, it is a medium: the day you want to know whether LinkedIn or TikTok pays, the information was never recorded.
The two labels people swap most
social
A category. Answers “what kind of place”.
A proper name. Answers “which place”.
The category goes in utm_medium. The proper name goes in utm_source.
What Subtraq does with it
The report breaks down by utm_source, and also by referrer — the site that actually sent the visitor, read from the request. The two do not say the same thing, and the gap between them is readable.
Read next
Un terme seul ne sert à rien. Voici ceux qui le rendent utilisable.
UTM parameters
Read the definition →Medium (utm_medium)
Read the definition →Channel
Read the definition →Campaign
Read the definition →« Source (utm_source) », une fois posé sur de vraies ventes
A badly placed label cannot be fixed afterwards: the link is already published. The builder writes the address without a syntax error, and the preview shows what the report will make of it.
Write a tagged link