What is utm_source=*.beehiiv.com?

Who adds it

beehiiv tags links in posts automatically. By default utm_source is the publication's domain (for example a name.beehiiv.com address), utm_medium is email for email readers or referral for web readers, and utm_campaign is the post's title as a slug.

What it means

Someone clicked a link in a beehiiv newsletter, either in the email or on the web version. The source value tells you which publication sent it.

What to do with it

Publishers can change the defaults or switch automatic tagging off, and values they add by hand take precedence. GA4 counts the email clicks as Email and the web clicks as Referral, based on the medium.

How Vireo shows it

Vireo Pro's UTM campaigns card lists tagged visits by Source, Medium and Campaign, with visitors and pageviews. The tags are read from the first page of each visit, and the same tags feed revenue by source.

In the free plugin, Vireo drops the query string from page addresses, keeping only a few WordPress ones such as p and page_id, so a tagged URL counts as the same page as the untagged one. The visit is counted under the referrer it arrived with.

When a link carries utm_source with no utm_medium, as ChatGPT's do, Pro's revenue attribution takes the medium from the referrer's source group. With no referrer either, it's labelled campaign.

UTM campaigns are part of Vireo Pro. See UTM campaigns in the docs.

Sources

UTM Source: Your publication domain (e.g., beehiiv.com).

Using UTM parameter tracking with beehiiv - beehiiv Help

UTM Medium: 'Email' if the user is receiving the newsletter via email, or 'Referral' if they are viewing it online.

Using UTM parameter tracking with beehiiv - beehiiv Help

Email Source = email|e-mail|e_mail|e mail OR Medium = email|e-mail|e_mail|e mail

Default channel group - Analytics Help