ActiveCampaign UTM parameters: what the Google Analytics toggle writes
ActiveCampaign tags your email links itself once Google Analytics is switched on for a campaign. It writes utm_medium=email, the campaign name as utm_campaign, the subject line as utm_content, and ActiveCampaign as utm_source, or Newsletter if your account's branding is off. The email medium puts those clicks in GA4's Email channel.
The interactive UTM builder loads with this page, pre-filled for ActiveCampaign, and runs entirely in your browser.
It copies what the toggle writes with branding on, capitals included, so a link you tag by hand shares a GA4 row with the automatic ones. The builder flags the capital letters and offers to lowercase them; skip that fix here, because lowercasing splits your hand-built links from ActiveCampaign's own. Google's source lists don't include ActiveCampaign, so the email medium decides the channel.
Where to put it
Every new campaign: click Settings, then Advanced, scroll to the bottom, turn on the Google Analytics Tracking toggle and click Save Settings. Campaigns created before that keep their own setting.
One campaign: click Email, find the campaign, open its Campaign Summary page and turn the Google Analytics toggle on. Check the Google Analytics Campaign Name in the window that opens, then click Done.
To change the campaign name GA4 will show, click Customize next to Google Analytics on the Campaign Summary page.
Duplicated campaigns copy the original's Google Analytics setting, on or off, so check it on every copy.
Make sure the Google Analytics tag is on the pages you link to. ActiveCampaign's help asks for that before you turn tracking on.
"If you have branding turned off, it will show 'Newsletter' instead." That sentence in ActiveCampaign's help decides your utm_source. With branding on, the toggle writes ActiveCampaign; with it off, Newsletter. ActiveCampaign documents no field for changing the source, so the branding setting is the only lever. Change it and your GA4 source report starts a second row from then on, for the same emails. Both rows stay in the Email channel, because the medium is email either way and neither word is on Google's lists of search, social, video or shopping sites.
utm_content is the subject line. ActiveCampaign fills utm_content with the email's subject, so every link in one email carries the same value. GA4 can compare one email with another, but it can't separate the header button from the footer link. When a send needs that split, turn the toggle off on its Campaign Summary page and build each link here with its own utm_content, spelling the source, medium and campaign the way ActiveCampaign writes them so the send stays on the same rows.
The account switch only works forwards. Turning on Google Analytics Tracking under Settings, Advanced affects campaigns you create afterwards, and ActiveCampaign says it doesn't update older ones. Duplicates copy the original's setting. Put those two rules together and an old campaign you copy as a template can bring its old off setting into the new one, even with the account switch on. Check the toggle on the Campaign Summary page before every send built from a copy.
Every click takes one extra hop. ActiveCampaign sends each click to one of its link-tracking domains, logs it there, then forwards the reader to your URL. That's where its click count comes from. GA4 only records a session once your page loads and its tag runs, which is why ActiveCampaign lists repeat clicks within one session, readers who close the page before it loads and pages without the Google Analytics tag as common reasons the two numbers differ. To see the hop for yourself, put a link from a test campaign through the redirect checker and check the utm_ values arrive on the final URL. The general version of that gap is in our guide to click counts that disagree between tools.
ActiveCampaign reads UTMs too. Its Attribution feature, on the Professional and Enterprise levels, uses UTM parameters to show which traffic sources helped a contact convert. That's the other direction: tags on your ads, posts and partner links, read back inside ActiveCampaign. Spell them the same way there as everywhere else, following one naming convention, or the same channel shows up under two names.
Questions
Does ActiveCampaign add UTM parameters automatically?
Yes, once Google Analytics is switched on, either for all new campaigns under Settings, Advanced, or for one campaign on its Campaign Summary page. It then adds utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign and utm_content to the links in that campaign or automation email.
Why does GA4 show Newsletter as the source of my ActiveCampaign emails?
Because branding is off on your account. ActiveCampaign writes utm_source=ActiveCampaign with branding on and utm_source=Newsletter with it off. The medium is email in both cases, so the clicks still land in GA4's Email channel.
Why don't ActiveCampaign clicks match Google Analytics sessions?
They're counted at different points. ActiveCampaign logs a click when the reader hits its link-tracking domain; GA4 logs a session when your page loads and the tag runs. Repeat clicks, pages closed before loading, test clicks and pages without the tag all push the numbers apart.