FastUTM guides
Campaign tracking guides
Practical, plain-English help with UTM links, GA4 reports, QR codes and Google Ads, written for charities, freelancers and small teams. Every guide links to the free tool that does the job.
Tracking basics
How campaign tracking and GA4 reporting fit together.
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Tracking QR codes on posters, flyers and print
How to give every printed piece its own tracked link, size and test the code, and read the results in GA4 without guessing.
Published 24 October 2026 -
UTM naming conventions: a simple system a small team will actually follow
A short set of naming rules for source, medium and campaign that fits on one page, survives staff changes and keeps GA4 reports tidy.
Published 24 October 2026 -
GA4 source and medium explained in plain English
What source and medium mean in GA4, how they decide the channel a visit lands in, and which values to use so your traffic is grouped correctly.
Published 24 October 2026 -
Why your campaign traffic shows as "(direct)" or "(not set)" in GA4
The usual reasons campaign visits lose their source in GA4, how to tell which one is affecting you, and what you can and cannot fix.
Published 24 October 2026 -
Tracking your Instagram link in bio
How to tag the one link in your Instagram profile, keep it up to date between campaigns and tell bio clicks apart from story and post links.
Published 24 October 2026 -
UTM tags for email newsletters
How to tag every link in a newsletter so GA4 shows which issue and which button brought people in, and how to avoid the common email mistakes.
Published 24 October 2026 -
Common UTM mistakes: capital letters, spaces and duplicate names
Ten small tagging mistakes that split or hide campaign results in GA4, how to spot each one and how to stop it happening again.
Published 24 October 2026
Google Ads
Tracking paid search and other Google Ads campaigns.
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Google Ads auto-tagging versus manual UTMs: when to use each
What auto-tagging does, what manual UTMs add, what happens when a link has both, and a simple rule for which to use in your account.
Published 24 October 2026 -
ValueTrack parameters cheat sheet
The ValueTrack parameters small advertisers actually use, what each one returns, and ready-to-copy Final URL suffix examples.
Published 24 October 2026 -
Google Ads Tracking Guide
Final URL suffixes, ValueTrack curly bracket parameters, UTMs and how GA4 reads paid traffic, explained simply.
Updated 7 May 2026
Charities and small teams
Practical systems for appeals, events and busy teams.
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Campaign tracking for charities: appeals, events and newsletters
A practical tracking setup for a small charity: one plan per appeal, links for every channel and a simple way to report what worked.
Published 24 October 2026 -
A pre-launch landing page checklist
Twenty quick checks to run on a landing page before you spend money or send an appeal: tracking, speed, mobile, trust and the basics people forget.
Published 24 October 2026 -
Tracking links shared on WhatsApp and by SMS
Why messaging apps hide where visits came from, how to tag links you send and links people forward, and what GA4 will and will not show.
Published 24 October 2026 -
Keeping a campaign log your team will actually use
A one-sheet campaign log with the columns that matter, who fills it in and when, and how it saves you when someone asks what a link was for.
Published 24 October 2026
Tools
Step-by-step help for each FastUTM tool.
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Short Links Guide
When to use a short link, how FastUTM short links keep your UTM tags, how to change a link after printing a QR code, and how to check a short link is safe.
Published 31 October 2026 -
QR Code Guide
The different QR code types, how they work, when to use each one, and how to track QR campaigns with FastUTM.
Updated 19 October 2026 -
Site Checker Guide
What each Site Checker result means, how the score is worked out and what to fix first before a campaign goes live.
Updated 19 October 2026 -
UTM Builder Guide
What UTM links are, how campaign URLs work, and how to use source, medium, campaign, term and content with the FastUTM UTM Builder.
Updated 7 May 2026 -
Campaign Naming Guide
How to create clean, consistent campaign names and short codes for UTM tracking, reports and small marketing teams.
Updated 7 May 2026 -
UTM Reader Guide
How to break down tracked campaign links, check the UTM parameters in links you receive and spot mistakes before they reach your reports.
Updated 7 May 2026