See which post or campaign sent you traffic

Want to know whether your Instagram post, your email, or that flyer you printed brought people to your profile? Add a small tag to the link before you share it. Then your Reports page can tell those visits apart and show you what's working. It's no trouble.

Before you start

Reports is free on every plan, so you don't need to upgrade to use this. Tagging happens in the link itself, not in a setting, so there's nothing to turn on.

One thing to know up front: a tag only counts visits that happen after you start sharing the tagged link. It can't go back and label clicks you already got. So tag the link first, then share it. And Reports finalizes its numbers once a day, so today's visits aren't in the totals yet. Tagged visits you get today show up the next day.

This walks you through tagging links by hand. To read the results once they roll in, see how to find out where your visitors come from.

How do I track which Instagram post or email sent me visitors?

The trick is to give each place its own link. Your profile address stays the same, but you add a short tag to the end that says where the link lives. When someone taps it, that tag rides along, and your Reports page can group those visits on their own.

A tag is made of three small parts:

• Source: the exact spot the link lives, like instagram, newsletter, or flyer.
• Medium: the kind of channel, like social, email, or qr.
• Campaign: a name for the push, like spring-sale or grand-opening. This one is up to you.

You don't have to fill in all three, but more parts mean a richer breakdown later.

What is a UTM tag and how do I add tracking to my link?

A UTM tag is a bit of text you stick on the end of a link. It carries the source, medium, and campaign you picked. "UTM" is the name of the format. Google made it the web standard, so it works the same most everywhere.

Here's how to build one by hand:

1. Start with your normal profile link, like https://yourname.notrouble.com.
2. Add a question mark ? to the end. That marks the start of the tag.
3. Add utm_source=, then your source, like utm_source=instagram.
4. Add an ampersand &, then utm_medium=, then your medium, like &utm_medium=social.
5. Add another &, then utm_campaign=, then your campaign name, like &utm_campaign=spring-sale.

Put together, that's:

https://yourname.notrouble.com?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=spring-sale

Share that whole thing in place of your plain link. Each = ties a label to a value, and each & joins the next pair. Keep the words lowercase with dashes instead of spaces, and you'll be fine.

We read these tag names: utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, and utm_content. There are also two short ones, ref and promo, plus gclid and fbclid, which Google and Facebook ads add on their own.

A newsletter link

Sending a profile link in your email blast? Try:

https://yourname.notrouble.com?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=june-update

Now every click from that email lands under its own source, separate from your social traffic.

An Instagram bio link

For the link in your Instagram bio:

https://yourname.notrouble.com?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bio

Taps from your bio show up on their own, apart from links you post in stories or comments.

A printed QR code campaign

Printing a flyer or table card with a QR code? Point the QR code at a tagged link:

https://yourname.notrouble.com?utm_source=flyer&utm_medium=qr&utm_campaign=grand-opening

Scans from that flyer get counted as their own source, so you can tell if the print run paid off. A free QR maker turns the tagged link into a code you can print.

Where do my tags show up?

On your Reports page, the Detailed Insights card has three buttons: Source, Campaign, and Medium. They group the same visits three ways, so your utm_source, utm_campaign, and utm_medium values each get their own view. For what those columns mean and how to read them, see the guide on finding out where your visitors come from, linked above.

One thing that trips people up: Reports groups visits on the exact tag value you typed, character for character. utm_source=Instagram and utm_source=instagram are two different values, so they make two separate rows with the visits split between them, even though both happen to display as "Instagram". So pick one spelling and one casing, then reuse it every time. Lowercase with dashes, like spring-sale, is the safe habit.

I shared the same link two places. How do I tell them apart?

Give each place its own tag. The profile link is the same, but the source (and campaign, if you like) changes. That's the whole point of tagging.

Say you're promoting one sale in two spots:

• In your email: ...?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring-sale
• In your Instagram bio: ...?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=spring-sale

Both roll up under the Campaign "Spring Sale" so you see the sale's total. But the Source view splits them into "Newsletter" and "Instagram", so you also see which spot pulled more. Same idea works for two flyers, two posts, or two emails. Change one part of the tag, and Reports keeps them apart.

My campaign isn't showing up in Reports

A few normal things can cause this. Work down the list:

• You're looking the same day you shared it. A tag only counts clicks after you share the tagged link, and Reports finalizes its totals once a day. Today's visits aren't counted yet, so a campaign you shared today shows up the next day. Share it, then check back tomorrow.
• The link you shared had no tag. It's an honest slip. Check the link you actually posted: it needs the ?utm_... part on the end. A plain link lands under "Direct" in the Campaign view, not under your campaign.
• A part of the tag got cut off. Some apps shorten or rewrite links. Open the link the way a visitor would and confirm the whole ?utm_source=...&utm_campaign=... part is still there.
• You're on the wrong view or time range. In the Detailed Insights card, make sure you tapped Campaign, not Source or Medium. Then check the Week, Month, Quarter, or Year tab covers the days you shared the link.
• You're searching the friendly label, not the tag. The search box matches the bare tag value you typed, not the tidied label. A row that shows as "Spring Sale" is stored as spring-sale, so search spring-sale with no spaces, the exact spelling you used in the tag.

If the campaign still isn't there the next day, after real visits have come in, double-check the exact link you shared against the examples above. A single missing & or = is the usual culprit.

What if I don't tag my links at all?

You're still covered for the basics. Untagged visits get sorted by where they came from on their own, as the visitor-sources guide above explains. You only need tags when you want to split traffic by your own campaign or channel, or tell two spots apart that would otherwise look the same.