What is utm_source vs utm_medium for a home goods store?
For a home goods store, utm_source should name the site, mailing or partner that sent the shopper. The medium tag names the kind of link: social, paid_social, email or affiliate. Printed catalogs need a custom channel, because GA4 has no default channel for print.
By Joris van Huët, Founder & CEOUpdated 5 min read
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For a home goods store, utm_source names who sent the shopper: a pin-board site, your catalog or a trade partner. The medium tag, utm_medium, names the kind of link: social, paid_social, email or affiliate. Print is the catch: GA4 has no channel for it, so tagged catalog visits usually land in Unassigned until you add one.
If you sell home goods
If you sell sofas, rugs or lamps, your buyer may measure the room, order a swatch and come back weeks later. Each visit on that road arrives with its own source and medium, and GA4 files each one separately.
The senders are a mixed bunch too. Inspiration may start on pin-board and home-design sites, and the big ones sit on GA4's list of social sources. If you mail a printed catalog, part of your traffic starts on paper. If you run a trade programme, interior designers send clients through their own links. That mix makes the two slots work harder for you than for a store that sells socks.
What one store's data shows
One store's anonymised GA4 export, 1 January 2024 to 21 August 2026. It holds shares of revenue only: no ad spend, no order counts.
| What the export shows | Share of revenue | Source cell |
|---|---|---|
| Journeys with 1 touch (0.5 days to buy) | 79.5% | Journeys sheet, 1 touch row |
| Journeys with 4 to 9 touches (16.9 days to buy) | 5.4% | Journeys sheet, 4-9 touches row |
| Journeys with 10 or more touches (16.0 days to buy) | 3.0% | Journeys sheet, 10+ touches row |
Store A is one store, and nothing in its export says it sells home goods. On its Journeys sheet, journeys with 1 touch hold 79.5% of revenue and took 0.5 days to buy. Journeys with 4 to 9 touches took 16.9 days and journeys with 10 or more took 16.0 days, per the same Journeys sheet.
In a one-touch journey, one pair takes all the credit. In a journey of ten touches, ten pairs compete, and the first click and the last click can name different senders. If your sofa buyers take weeks, more of your revenue may sit in long journeys than in this store's, so check your own split.
What the export cannot show is which pairs sat inside those long journeys. It groups revenue by journey length, not by source or medium, and it cannot tell a catalog visit from a typed address.
What changes for a home goods store?
Catalogs need a medium GA4 does not have. Google's own example values for utm_source include billboard, so naming the mailing as the source is fine: spring_catalog, say. For the medium, print is honest, but it matches no default channel rule, and the visits land in Unassigned. Give print a channel of its own in a custom channel group, rather than dressing the catalog up as email.
Board and design sites are on GA4's social list. Free pins tagged with the site's name and the medium social land in Organic Social. Promoted pins need a paid medium, such as paid_social, to reach Paid Social. Spell the source the way Google's list does, or the paid clicks slip into Paid Other.
Trade partners are one source, not dozens. If designers earn a commission, give the programme one source and the medium affiliate, which GA4 files under Affiliates. Put each designer's code in utm_content, which GA4 reports as Session manual ad content.
Watch campaign names with shop in them. GA4's Shopping channels match campaign names containing shopping, or shop at the start of a word. A shop_the_room email can end up in Organic Shopping instead of Email.
What to do this week
- Find your catalog visits. In GA4, go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition and set the table to Session source / medium. Type your catalog's source name into the search bar. Pass: one row, spelled one way. Fail: no row or several spellings, so fix the QR code links before the next print run.
- Give print its own channel. In Admin, under Data display, click Channel groups, then Create new channel group. Add a channel named Print with the condition Medium exactly matches print, then save the channel and the group. Pass: with the new group picked in Traffic acquisition, past catalog visits show as Print. Fail: they still read Unassigned, so check the medium's spelling.
- Check your trade links. Switch Traffic acquisition to Session medium and search for affiliate. Pass: designer visits sit there under one source. Fail: each designer shows up as a separate source or medium, so move their names into utm_content.
Check the homework. Your GA4 Attribution paths export already holds the evidence. Causality Engine reads that one file and shows what each channel caused next to what last-click gave it, in 1 to 2 minutes, for €99 once (excluding VAT), refundable within 30 days. Check the homework
Sources, 1 October 2026: URL builders: Collect campaign data with custom URLs (Google); Default channel group (Google); GA4 default-channel-group sources and categories (Google); Custom channel groups (Google); Traffic-source dimensions, manual tagging, and auto-tagging (Google); Traffic acquisition report (Google)
Related answers
Frequently asked questions
How should I tag the QR code in a printed catalog?
Name the mailing in utm_source, such as spring_catalog, and the format in utm_medium, such as print. Add a campaign name for the season. GA4 has no print channel, so those visits land in Unassigned until you add a Print channel in a custom channel group.What utm_medium should a promoted pin get?
A paid one, such as paid_social, with the board site's name as the source. GA4 files a click under Paid Social only when both halves match: a source on its social list and a medium that reads as paid. With social as the medium, your ad clicks look free.Should each interior designer get their own utm_source?
No. Give the trade programme one source, and use affiliate as the medium if you pay per sale, so GA4 files the visits under Affiliates. Put each designer's code in utm_content, where GA4 reports it as Session manual ad content, one row per designer.
Go deeper: Causal attribution, explained.
Sixty-second versions of these ideas: Causality Engine on YouTube Shorts.
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Terms in this article
- Ad SpendAd Spend is the total amount invested in advertising campaigns. It is measured against Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) to evaluate campaign effectiveness.
- AnalyticsAnalytics is the systematic computational analysis of data. It reveals customer behavior and measures campaign performance.
- AttributionAttribution identifies user actions that contribute to a desired outcome and assigns value to each. It reveals which marketing touchpoints drive conversions.
- CausalityCausality is the relationship where one event directly causes another, essential for identifying specific actions that drive desired outcomes in marketing.
- RevenueRevenue is the total income generated by the sale of goods or services related to a company's primary operations.
- SessionA Session is a group of user interactions with your website within a given timeframe. It can include multiple page views, events, and transactions.
- TaggingTagging labels or mentions another user, page, or location in a social media post. It creates links between entities, which helps analyze influence and attribution.
- UTM ParametersUTM Parameters are URL tags marketers use to track campaign effectiveness across traffic sources. They provide data for accurate campaign tracking and attribution in analytics platforms.