Campaigns split across spellings and (not set) rows: write one UTM naming rule

What a campaign link must carry

GA4 reads campaign information from the address a visitor arrives on. Google lists the parameters it understands and says source, medium and campaign should always be present. If you set any one, Google strongly recommends setting all the relevant ones, and it warns that missing values show up as (not set).

That is the whole mechanism: nothing is guessed. A link that carries only a campaign name leaves source and medium empty, and the report shows exactly that. Check the three required parameters on every link before you check anything else.

• utm_source says where the traffic comes from; utm_medium the type of channel; utm_campaign the campaign.
• Optional extras such as utm_term and utm_content separate keywords and creatives.

Why one campaign becomes two rows

Google states that parameter values are case sensitive and gives two examples it treats as distinct: Meta against meta, and SpringSale against Spring_Sale. Fragmented rows therefore usually mean several people wrote the same campaign in several ways, not that GA4 split it.

The effect goes beyond tidiness. Google notes that inconsistent naming can cause traffic to be misclassified in default and custom channel groups, so a campaign can drift between channels depending on how its medium was typed.

• Sort the campaign list alphabetically and look for rows that differ only by capitals, spaces or separators.
• Check the medium values first: they decide the channel.

Write a rule short enough to follow

Google recommends lowercase as the default and a consistent convention across all fields. A usable rule is one page: a list of allowed mediums, one separator, one date format if dates appear, and the name of the person who approves new values. Add a shared link sheet so nobody types links by hand.

Two cautions from Google's documentation. If you use Google Ads auto-tagging, Google says GA4 gives it priority over manual tagging with no override, so do not expect your own values on those clicks. And UTM details are not captured in the landing page plus query string dimensions; they appear in Page location, so look there when you check a test link.

• Allowed mediums are a closed list; a new one needs approval.
• Test each new link pattern once in a new browser profile before the campaign goes out.

What does not fit, and how the paid outcome is accepted

Fixing links does not rewrite past sessions, change ad auto-tagging or improve campaign performance. If clicks do not arrive at all, the cause is a redirect or an ad-platform setting, not naming.

For up to 20 live link patterns, the fixed outcome Fix campaign tagging and channels is quoted at £245 as an untested proposal, with payment only after sign-off. Acceptance is a test table: each corrected pattern opened with a unique test campaign value in a new browser profile carries the agreed source, medium and campaign in its address, and once Google has processed the data appears in Traffic acquisition under that test value, in the agreed channel and not under Unassigned. Realtime is only a quick sighting: Google says its source card counts users by how they were first acquired and only for established users. Send five example links with personal data removed; no logins or customer lists.