Analytics
UTM Parameters: How to Track Your Startup Launch Campaigns
UTM parameters are the difference between knowing what drives signups and guessing. Here is how to implement them across directory submissions, email campaigns, and social posts.
UTM parameters are tags you add to URLs that tell your analytics tool where a visitor came from and what campaign sent them. Without them, traffic from Product Hunt, BetaList, and email campaigns all shows up as "direct" — making it impossible to evaluate which channels are producing results.
The five UTM parameters
| Parameter | What It Tracks | Example |
|---|---|---|
| utm_source | Where the traffic came from | producthunt, betalist, newsletter |
| utm_medium | The channel type | directory, email, social |
| utm_campaign | The specific campaign | launch-week, summer-2026 |
| utm_content | Which specific link or ad | top-cta, footer-link |
| utm_term | Keyword (for paid search) | invoice-software |
Building your UTM convention
Consistency is critical. Decide on a naming convention and stick to it. For directory submissions, use: utm_source=[directory_name]&utm_medium=directory&utm_campaign=launch-week. For email campaigns: utm_source=email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=[campaign-name].
Use Google's UTM builder or any URL builder to generate clean URLs without errors. Save them in a spreadsheet alongside each submission date and platform.
What to do with the data
After 4 to 6 weeks of submissions, review your analytics by source. Which directories drove the most signups? Which drove the highest activation rate? Double down on the top 3 performers and deprioritize the bottom half. This data-driven approach is far more effective than submitting everywhere equally.
Track your UpStart submissions from day one
Before submitting to any UpStart-recommended platform, add UTM parameters to your URL so you can measure each platform's impact on signups and activation.