utm_term and utm_content Explained with Real Examples

What utm_term Was Built For

utm_term was originally designed specifically for paid search advertising, to record the keyword that triggered a particular ad. If you're running Google Ads campaigns targeting several different search terms, utm_term lets you see, inside your analytics platform, exactly which keyword drove a given click through to your site. For example, a running shoe retailer bidding on both "running shoes for beginners" and "marathon training shoes" could tag each ad group's destination URL with a different utm_term value, then compare which keyword actually converts into sales rather than just clicks.

Expanding utm_term Beyond Search

While utm_term's original purpose was keyword tracking, many marketers have adapted it more broadly to capture any kind of "search intent" or "targeting segment" detail. Some use it to record an audience segment in paid social campaigns, such as utm_term=lookalike_audience versus utm_term=retargeting_audience, when running the same ad creative to different audience types. This isn't the parameter's textbook use, but it's a legitimate and common extension, as long as your team agrees on the convention.

What utm_content Was Built For

utm_content exists to distinguish between different versions of an ad, link, or piece of content within the same campaign, source, and medium. This is the parameter you reach for when you're running an A/B test or simply want to know which specific creative variant a click came from. If your email newsletter contains two different call-to-action buttons — one that says "Shop Now" and another that says "Learn More" — both linking to the same page as part of the same campaign, utm_content is exactly the parameter to differentiate between them.

A Real Example: Email A/B Testing

Imagine you're sending a promotional email and you want to test whether a text link or an image banner drives more clicks. Both links point to the same landing page and belong to the same campaign, so your source, medium, and campaign values stay identical:

`https://example.com/sale?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring_sale&utm_content=text_link`

`https://example.com/sale?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring_sale&utm_content=banner_image`

When you review your analytics later, you can filter by campaign and then break the results down by utm_content to see, definitively, which format performed better. Without this parameter, both links would appear identical in your reports, and the test would be worthless.

A Real Example: Paid Search with Keywords

Now consider a paid search example using utm_term. A software company running Google Ads for two different keyword groups might structure their links like this:

`https://example.com/signup?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=q3_lead_gen&utm_term=project_management_software`

`https://example.com/signup?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=q3_lead_gen&utm_term=team_collaboration_tool`

Both ads belong to the same overall campaign and are delivered through the same source and medium, but utm_term reveals which specific keyword is generating signups, letting the team shift budget toward the better-performing term.

When You Don't Need These Parameters

Not every link needs utm_term and utm_content. If you're only running a single version of an ad, or a single link in a single email with no variants to compare, adding these parameters provides little additional insight and just adds complexity to your naming conventions. They earn their place specifically in situations involving multiple variants of the same underlying campaign — split tests, multiple keyword groups, multiple creative formats, or multiple placements.

A Note on Consistency

As with all UTM parameters, the value of utm_term and utm_content depends entirely on consistent naming. If one team member labels a variant utm_content=cta_button and another labels a nearly identical variant utm_content=cta-btn, your reports will treat them as separate entities, undermining the very comparison you were trying to make. It helps to maintain a shared reference list of standard content and term labels, especially for recurring test formats like "text link" versus "image banner," so the same wording gets reused every time.

Making These Parameters Part of Your Routine

The easiest way to build the habit of using utm_term and utm_content is to bake them into your campaign planning template. Before launching any campaign with more than one creative variant, ad group, or keyword target, add a line to your planning checklist asking "does this need a utm_content or utm_term breakdown?" Answering that question up front, before links go live, avoids the frustration of later wanting granular performance data on a test you didn't tag properly. Small additions like these are what separate a basic tracking setup from one that actually tells you why something worked, not just that it worked.