Getting Started

4. UTM parameters & the UTM Builder

Tag every link – organic social, email, newsletters and any custom channel – with the right tracking parameters so LeadJourney attributes the click. Build those links in seconds with the free UTM Builder.

Your paid ad channels are tagged automatically once you connect them, but every other link you share – a LinkedIn post, a newsletter, a bio link, a partner placement – has to be tagged by hand, or LeadJourney can only file the visit under Direct / Unknown. The UTM Builder is a free tool that builds those tracked links for you, so organic and email traffic shows up in your reports with the same campaign, source and placement detail as your paid ads.

How LeadJourney reads a tracked link

Attribution runs on LeadJourney's own lj_* parameters on the destination URL – not on standard utm_* tags. The tracking script reads them on the landing page and files the click under the right channel, campaign, "ad set", "ad" and placement. The UTM Builder writes those lj_* parameters for you (and can add the standard utm_* ones too, see below). Tracking has to be live first – see Install the tracking script.

When you need this

TrafficHow it gets tagged
Paid ads (Google, Meta, LinkedIn, Bing)Automatically, during the integration. The platform fills in the campaign/ad/placement at click time – you don't build links by hand. See the integration guides.
Organic social (LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest…)Manually. Build a tracked link with the UTM Builder and use it wherever you post.
Email & newslettersManually. Build one tracked link per send and drop it into your email tool.
Custom channels (partners, affiliates, QR codes, offline)Manually. Build a tracked link for each placement.

In short

If a link came from a channel LeadJourney can't tag for you – anything that isn't a connected ad platform – build it with the UTM Builder before you share it.

The parameters explained

A LeadJourney tracked link is just your URL with a lj_* query string appended:

https://yourdomain.com/landing?lj_channel=linkedin_organic&lj_c_id=spring_launch&lj_as_id=founder_post&lj_ad_id=carousel_v2&lj_placement=bio_link

Each parameter tells LeadJourney one thing about where the click came from:

ParameterMeansOrganic / email example
lj_channelWhich channellinkedin_organic, email, your custom key
lj_c_idCampaignspring_launch, q1_newsletter
lj_as_idGroup within the campaign (the "ad set")founder_post, weekly_digest
lj_ad_idThe specific creative or variationcarousel_v2, subject_line_b
lj_placementWhere the link satbio_link, post_body, story, email_footer

You choose the values

For paid ads these slots are filled by the platform's macros. For organic and email there are no macros – you pick short, consistent labels yourself. Use the same naming every time (linkedin_organic, not LinkedIn-Organic one week and li_org the next) so your reports group cleanly. Only lj_channel is required; add as many of the others as you want to track.

Open the UTM Builder

Go to leadjourney.io/free-tools/utm-builder. Inside LeadJourney you'll also find it as Get UTM Tracking Parameter on Settings → Traffic Channels, and as Open UTM Generator when you add a custom channel.

Pick the channel

Choose where you're posting from the channel list – grouped into Paid Ads, Organic Social (LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest) and Other (Email Marketing, Custom). This sets lj_channel to the matching key.

Fill in the details

Enter your landing-page URL and the campaign, content and placement labels (the lj_c_id / lj_as_id / lj_ad_id / lj_placement slots from the table above). The builder assembles the full tracked link as you type.

Copy and use it

Copy the finished link and paste it wherever the click will happen – your LinkedIn bio, a post, the button in a newsletter, a partner's site. Every visit through that link now carries its channel and campaign into LeadJourney.

Example: a LinkedIn organic post

Say you share a launch post from your founder profile and want to know it drove the lead:

https://yourdomain.com/demo?lj_channel=linkedin_organic&lj_c_id=spring_launch&lj_as_id=founder_post&lj_ad_id=carousel_v2&lj_placement=post_body

In your reports that click lands under LinkedIn (organic) → spring_launch → founder_post, with the placement post_body – so you can tell the post itself apart from the same link in your bio (lj_placement=bio_link).

Also add standard UTM tags

LeadJourney attributes on its lj_* parameters, but the builder can append the standard utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content and utm_term tags to the same link. Switch that on when you want other tools – Google Analytics, your CRM, your email platform – to recognise the link too. The two sets sit side by side and don't interfere with each other.

Tips

  • Tag the link, not a redirect. The lj_* parameters have to arrive on the page that runs the tracking script, so put them on the final landing-page URL.
  • Keep a naming convention. Decide your channel keys and campaign labels once and reuse them – consistent values are what make the channel and campaign reports useful.
  • One link per placement. Building a separate link for the bio, the post and the newsletter is what lets you compare which placement actually converts.
  • Add a custom channel for sources that aren't in the list. Create it under Settings → Traffic Channels, then tag its links with the builder.

On this page