The one report where your UTM data lives
You tagged your links, shared them, and now you want to see your UTM codes in Google Analytics. There is one report to open, and almost everyone looks in the wrong place first.
In Google Analytics 4, go to Reports, then Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition. That is where every manually tagged link reports in. The catch is that the report does not open showing your UTM values. It opens grouped by a dimension called "Session default channel group", which lumps your Reddit link and your newsletter into broad buckets like "Organic Social" and "Email". Your actual utm_source and utm_medium are one click away, and this guide is that click.
Seeing your source, medium and campaign
All of your link tracking in Google Analytics runs through this one table. Inside the Traffic acquisition report, find the dimension dropdown at the top, the one currently reading "Session default channel group", and click it.
- Choose Session source / medium to see your
utm_sourceandutm_mediumside by side. A row readingreddit / socialis a link you taggedutm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social. - Choose Session campaign instead to group by
utm_campaign, so every link from one launch collapses into a single row. - Add a second dimension with the blue
+next to the dropdown if you want, say, source and campaign together.
If you want to be precise, Google also documents dimensions named Session manual source, Session manual medium, and Session manual campaign name that reflect only your manual UTM tags, separate from traffic Google auto-detects. For most founders, "Session source / medium" in this report is all the Google Analytics link tracking you need day to day, and it maps straight back to what each parameter means.
The two parameters GA4 hides
Here is where people lose an afternoon. If you tagged links with utm_content or utm_term, you will not find them anywhere in the standard reports. Google removed them. They are not hidden behind a dropdown, they are simply not there.
To see them you have to build an Exploration. In the left menu, click Explore, start a Blank exploration, and add dimensions. The two you want have names that do not obviously match the parameters. Google maps them like this: utm_content appears as the dimension Session manual ad content, and utm_term appears as Session manual term. Add those, drop them into the rows, and your content and term values finally show up.
That naming mismatch is exactly why people conclude their utm_content "isn't working" when it was recording fine all along. It was recording. It just lives under a name nobody would guess.
I tagged a link and see nothing
The most common panic is opening Traffic acquisition, seeing no sign of your link, and assuming the tag failed. Usually it did not. Three things cause an empty report, in rough order of likelihood.
It is too soon. GA4's standard reports do not update instantly. Data can take up to a day, sometimes two, to fully process and appear (Google Analytics Help). If you clicked your own link ten minutes ago, open the Realtime report instead, which shows very recent activity, and you will see the visit there long before the standard report catches up.
It shows as (not set) or (direct) / (none). This means the visit arrived without your tags. Either a redirect stripped the parameters before the click landed, or you used a utm_medium value Google does not recognise, which sends the visit to Unassigned rather than your channel. The fix is on the tagging side: use a medium value from Google's list, which the source and medium guide and the ready-made examples both cover, or build the link in a builder that only produces valid values.
You are looking at the wrong dimension. If the report is still grouped by "Session default channel group", your specific source will not appear as a row at all. Switch the dimension to "Session source / medium" as above, and it will.
The honest limit
Even set up perfectly, this report tells you which channel and which campaign your sessions came from, in aggregate. It counts sessions; it does not follow people. It will not tell you which individual clicked your Reddit link, or that one of them read your pricing page twice before leaving. For a founder trying to turn a launch into the first paying users, that is usually the question that decides the next move.
This report counts sessions and tells you a channel. It will not tell you which person clicked, or what they did after landing. ScoutVibe gives you a link per person or per community and shows the path each visitor took through your site. The free tier covers your next launch.
Try ScoutVibeFAQ
Where in Google Analytics do I actually see my utm_source, medium, and campaign?
Open Reports, then Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition. The report starts grouped by "Session default channel group", so click that dimension dropdown and switch it to "Session source / medium" to see your utm_source and utm_medium, or to "Session campaign" for your utm_campaign. Those three all live in this one report.
Why can't I find utm_content or utm_term anywhere in the standard reports?
Because GA4 removed them from the standard reports entirely. To see them you have to build an Exploration: click Explore, start a Blank report, and add the dimensions Google calls "Session manual ad content" (that is your utm_content) and "Session manual term" (that is your utm_term). The names do not match the parameters, which is why they feel missing when they are actually recording.
I tagged a link but see nothing. Where did my data go?
Most often it is just too soon: standard reports can lag a day or two, so check the Realtime report for anything recent. If the visit shows as (not set) or (direct) / (none), the tags did not arrive, usually because a redirect stripped them or the utm_medium value was one GA4 does not recognise and the traffic went to Unassigned. And if you simply see broad channel names, you are still on the default dimension and need to switch to "Session source / medium".