What is utm_source=google?

Who adds it

Advertisers add it by hand; Google's own example lists google as a typical utm_source value. Google Ads auto-tagging uses a gclid instead of UTM tags, so a utm_source=google on a URL was put there by whoever built the link.

What it means

Someone tagged the link as coming from Google, usually a Google Ads campaign. Google Analytics reports auto-tagged Google Ads clicks as google / cpc even without UTM tags.

What to do with it

If you use auto-tagging, you don't need to add utm_source=google as well. Mind the case: Google Analytics treats google and Google as different values.

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 : Referrer, for example: google, newsletter4, billboard

URL builders: Collect campaign data with custom URLs - Analytics Help

auto-tagging adds a bit of additional information a parameter called GCLID, short for "Google Click Identifier" to the URLs people click through.

About auto-tagging - Google Ads Help

unlinked Google Ads campaigns will still appear in reports by default with a source/medium of google/cpc or using available UTM values.

Campaigns and traffic sources - Analytics Help