How to Troubleshoot Missing UTM Tracking in GA4 & Google Tag Manager

The Problem: UTM Parameters Missing in GA4

A client reached out when they noticed that their UTM-tagged campaign URLs were no longer showing up in their Google Analytics reports. Both old and new UTM links failed to populate traffic source fields like Source, Medium, or Campaign.

Initial concerns pointed toward possible misconfigurations in their GTM setup or broken integration between GTM and GA4.

What We Found

After digging into the tracking setup, here’s what we discovered:

• GTM was installed—but inactive
  The GTM container was embedded on the site, but had no active tags or triggers configured. In short, GTM wasn’t being used for any analytics functions.

• GA4 was running independently
  Google Analytics was tracking events, sessions, and conversions—but it wasn’t doing so through GTM.

• UTM parameters were never routed through GTM
  The client had assumed GTM was handling tracking. In reality, UTM tags are captured natively by GA4 and don’t require GTM at all.

👉 Need help reviewing your GA4 or GTM setup? Book a free audit call.

How We Fixed It

With a clearer picture in place, we walked the client through a few simple but important checks:

✅ Confirmed GA4 was tracking UTM data

We tested UTM-tagged links using Google’s Realtime Reports. The UTM parameters (source, medium, campaign) showed up immediately.

✅ Reviewed historical campaign traffic

Looking back four months, we found limited use of UTM-tagged URLs—confirming it wasn’t a tracking failure but a lack of consistent campaign tagging.

✅ Verified new campaigns

The client shared a fresh UTM URL. We tested it live and confirmed that Session Source, Session Medium, and Campaign Name all showed up correctly in GA4.

👉 Want to be 100% sure your UTM tracking is working? Let’s test it together.

What You Should Know

UTM tracking confusion is common, especially when multiple tools (like GA4, GTM, and CRM systems) are in play. Here’s what matters:

• UTM tags are read directly by GA4
  You don’t need Google Tag Manager to track campaign parameters like source, medium, or campaign name.

• Use GA4’s Realtime Report for testing
  It’s the fastest way to confirm whether UTM-tagged links are being tracked properly.

• Keep GTM clean and purposeful
  If you're not actively using GTM for event tracking, don’t assume it's capturing campaign data.

• Be consistent with UTM usage
  Inconsistent tagging often looks like “missing data” when it's actually just incomplete link building.

👉 Need a UTM strategy that works across platforms? Let’s build it →

Final Outcome

No broken tools. No bugs. Just a bit of miscommunication. After clarifying how their setup worked, the client was relieved to see their campaign data flowing correctly—and now has a direct report to track UTM-tagged traffic in real time.

Struggling with Google Analytics or Tag Manager?

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