How do I use Link Tracking?

How do I use Link Tracking?

Link Tracking (also called UTM tracking) lets you append parameters to the URLs you share through Sprout, so you can measure the impact of your social content in analytics tools like Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

Important: GA4 is the only supported version of Google Analytics for UTM links. If you haven't migrated from Universal Analytics, your tracking data will not appear.

Availability by plan

Permission required: Account Owner or Manage URL Tracking permission (for rule configuration on Advanced+ plans).

Tracking rules are configured per group — you'll need to set up rules for each group separately.

Dynamic parameter values

When configuring your UTMs (either in rules or manually in Compose), you can use these dynamic values that Sprout populates automatically at publish time:

Note: The Social Network value outputs twitter (not "X") in the URL parameter. Keep this in mind when filtering in GA4.

How to create tracking rules (Advanced+ plans)

1. Navigate to Settings > Publishing > Link Tracking.

2. Click Add Parameter Set.

3. Name your parameter set.

4. Configure your default parameters (Campaign, Source, Medium, Content):

   • Select a dynamic value from the dropdown, or choose Custom Value and type your own.

   • Toggle each parameter on or off.

5. (Optional) Add custom parameters (up to 100 characters per parameter name).

6. (Optional) Enter a URL in URL Matching — this parameter set will auto-apply whenever that URL (or a subdomain/path of it) appears in Compose.

7. Preview the resulting link.

8. Click Save.

Subdomain and path matching: If you create a rule for sproutcoffee.com, it will also auto-apply to blog.sproutcoffee.com and sproutcoffee.com/careers — unless you create a more specific rule for those.

Where rules auto-apply: Message text links, attached link preview, Google My Business button URL, and Pin URL.

How to use Link Tracking in Compose

If you have URL Matching set up (Advanced+): Simply paste the matching URL into Compose — the parameters auto-apply.

For any link (Professional+):

1. Click the link in Compose.

2. Select Edit Link Tracking.

3. Choose a saved parameter set from the dropdown, or manually configure individual parameters.

4. Check or uncheck "Apply these tracking parameters to all links on this post" depending on whether you want the UTMs on every link in the post (message text, attached link, GMB button, Pin URL).

5. Preview and click Save.

Multi-network posts and link shortening

• If you use {SOCIAL_NETWORK} as a dynamic value and publish to multiple networks, Sprout dynamically inserts the correct network name for each.

• Exception: If you shorten a link in a multi-network post, the shortened URL locks in all selected networks as a combined value (comma-separated). To get per-network tracking with shortened links, use the Schedule + Duplicate workflow to schedule each network separately.

• You do not need to shorten links to apply tracking rules — rules apply automatically to the full URL.

• If you edit tracking parameters after shortening, you must re-shorten the link before posting.

Viewing Link Tracking data in Google Analytics 4

To find your UTM-tagged traffic in GA4:

1. Navigate to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition.

2. Use the dimension dropdowns to view by:

   • Session source (your utm_source values)

   • Session medium (your utm_medium values)

   • Session campaign (your utm_campaign values)

3. For more advanced analysis, use Explore > Free-form and add Session source, medium, and campaign as dimensions.

Tip: Create a GA4 segment for Session medium = social to isolate all Sprout-published traffic in one view.

Example scenario

Sprout Coffee wants to measure traffic from social channels to www.sproutcoffee.com/careers for a recruiting campaign.