UTM Parameters for Microsoft Dynamics 365

Why UTM Tracking Matters in Dynamics 365

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a powerful CRM and marketing automation platform — but without UTM parameters, you're flying blind on campaign attribution. Every email journey, social post, and paid ad you run through Dynamics 365 drives traffic to your website. The question is: do you know which ones are actually generating leads and revenue?

Without UTM tracking, most of your Dynamics 365 marketing traffic shows up in Google Analytics as "direct" or gets lumped into generic "email" channels. You can't tell which journey drove the click, which email variation performed better, or which campaign deserves more budget.

UTM parameters solve this by appending tracking tags to every link, giving you campaign-level visibility from click all the way through to closed deal — especially powerful when that data flows back into your CRM.

How Dynamics 365 Handles UTM Parameters

Since the 2023 Wave 1 release, Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys (formerly D365 Marketing) supports automatic UTM tagging on all outbound email links. This means every link inside your journey emails can be tagged without manually editing URLs.

Here's how Dynamics 365 maps UTM parameters by default:

utm_source

Defaults to Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys. You can customize this to something shorter like d365 or dynamics.

utm_medium

Automatically set based on the channel type: email, text_message, etc. This value cannot be overridden.

utm_campaign

Defaults to the Journey name. Can be customized to pull from a custom field on the Journey table — highly recommended for cleaner GA4 reporting.

utm_content

Set to the email message name. Useful for identifying which specific message within a journey drove the click. Can be toggled off if not needed.

utm_term

Not mapped by default in Dynamics 365 auto-tagging. Typically used for paid search keywords — not relevant for email journeys.

New to UTM parameters? Read our complete UTM parameters guide for a breakdown of all five parameters.

Enable Auto UTM Tagging in Dynamics 365 (Step-by-Step)

Setting up automatic UTM tagging in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys takes just a few minutes. Here's how:

Step 1: Enable the feature switch

Navigate to Settings → Overview → Feature switches. Find the UTM tracking toggle and turn it on. This is the master switch — nothing works without it.

Step 2: Configure your UTM tracking options

Go to Settings → Customer engagement → UTM tracking. Click + New to create a UTM tracking record. You can only have one active record at a time (or one per business unit if business units are enabled).

Step 3: Set your UTM values

Customize the utm_source (e.g., change it from the verbose default to "d365_marketing"). Choose whether utm_campaign should pull from the Journey name or a custom field. Decide if you want utm_content enabled.

Step 4: Check your consent settings

UTM parameters are only appended to emails that allow tracking. If your compliance consent model is set to "Restrictive", contacts must have an explicit tracking opt-in. With a "Non-restrictive" model and default tracking set to "Track", UTMs are added for all contacts automatically.

Step 5: Test with a live journey

Send a test email from a journey, click a link, and check the URL in your browser. You should see the UTM parameters appended. Then verify in GA4's Realtime report that the source, medium, and campaign appear correctly.

Customize Your UTM Values in Dynamics 365

The default UTM values in Dynamics 365 are functional but not ideal. "Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys" as a utm_source value is long, contains spaces, and will display awkwardly in GA4 reports. Here's what to customize:

Shorten your utm_source

Change the default source to something concise and lowercase: d365_marketing or simply dynamics. This keeps your GA4 reports clean and consistent with other sources.

Add a custom UTM Campaign field to Journeys

By default, utm_campaign uses the Journey name. This is a problem if your journeys have internal names like "Welcome Flow v3 - Test". Create a custom text column on the Journey table (msdynmkt_journey) called "UTM Campaign". Add a business rule that defaults it to the Journey name if left empty. Then point your UTM tracking record to this new field.

Decide on utm_content

The utm_content field maps to the email message name. If you run journeys with multiple email variations (A/B tests, multi-step nurtures), keep this on — it's the only way to see which specific email drove the click. If your journeys have a single email each, you can turn it off to keep URLs shorter.

Here's what a well-configured Dynamics 365 email link should look like:

https://yoursite.com/pricing?utm_source=d365_marketing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=abandoned_cart_q1_2026&utm_content=reminder_email_v2

Manual UTM Tagging for Ads, Social & Other Channels

Dynamics 365's auto-tagging only covers emails and text messages sent through Customer Insights – Journeys. For every other channel — LinkedIn ads, Google Ads, social media posts, partner referral links — you need to build UTM links manually.

Here are the most common Dynamics 365 marketing scenarios that need manual UTM tagging:

LinkedIn & Facebook Ads

When running paid ads that drive traffic to your Dynamics 365 landing pages, add UTM parameters to your destination URLs in the ad platform.

utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=product_demo_q1_2026&utm_content=carousel_ad

Organic Social Posts

Every link you share on social media should include UTMs, otherwise GA4 may misattribute the traffic.

utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=thought_leadership&utm_content=blog_share

QR Codes for Events

If you're using Dynamics 365 to manage event registrations, add UTMs to QR code links on printed materials so you can track offline-to-online attribution.

utm_source=conference_badge&utm_medium=qr_code&utm_campaign=dreamforce_2026

Pro tip: Use our free UTM builder with pre-filled Dynamics 365 values to generate consistent links for all your Dynamics 365 campaigns. No sign-up required.

Capture UTM Data on Lead Records in Dynamics 365

Tracking UTMs in Google Analytics is great for understanding traffic patterns. But the real power for Dynamics 365 users is getting that UTM data attached to actual lead and contact records in your CRM. This lets you build reports that connect marketing campaigns directly to pipeline and revenue.

There are two approaches to achieving this:

Approach 1: Hidden form fields (native)

Add custom text fields to the Lead table in your Dynamics 365 solution (e.g., "UTM Source", "UTM Medium", "UTM Campaign", "UTM Content"). Create hidden fields on your marketing forms mapped to those Lead columns. Use JavaScript on your landing page to read UTM values from the URL query string and populate the hidden fields before submission. When the form is submitted, the UTM data flows into the Lead record automatically.

Approach 2: Third-party attribution tools

Tools like Attributer and GA Connector install a lightweight script on your website that captures UTM parameters (and non-UTM sources like organic search and referrals), stores them in a cookie, and passes the data into Dynamics 365 when a form is submitted. These also handle first-touch vs. last-touch attribution, which the native approach doesn't.

Once UTM data lives on your Lead records, you can build Dynamics 365 dashboards that show which campaigns generate the most qualified leads, which sources have the highest deal close rate, and what your true cost-per-acquisition is across every marketing channel.

View Dynamics 365 UTM Data in Google Analytics 4

Once your Dynamics 365 journeys start sending tagged emails, the UTM data will appear in GA4 automatically. Here's exactly where to find it:

Traffic Acquisition report

Go to Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition. The default grouping is "Session default channel group". To see your Dynamics 365 data specifically, click the dropdown and switch to Session source/medium. You'll see entries like d365_marketing / email.

View campaign names

Add a secondary dimension by clicking the + icon. Select Session campaign to see the utm_campaign values — these will show your Journey names (or custom campaign values if you configured them).

View email message names (utm_content)

The utm_content value maps to Session manual ad content in GA4. This dimension is slightly hidden — find it by searching in the secondary dimension picker. Note: it works best when you remove user-level details from the same view to see aggregated data.

Build an Exploration for deeper analysis

For more granular analysis, go to Explore → Blank. Add dimensions for Session source, Session medium, Session campaign, and Session manual ad content. Add metrics like Sessions, Conversions, and Revenue. This gives you a complete view of Dynamics 365 marketing performance in a single report.

The GA4 dimension mapping for Dynamics 365 UTM parameters:

UTM Parameter	D365 Default Value	GA4 Dimension
utm_source	D365 Marketing	Session source
utm_medium	email / text_message	Session medium
utm_campaign	Journey name	Session campaign
utm_content	Message name	Session manual ad content
utm_term	Not mapped	Session manual term

UTM Naming Conventions for Dynamics 365

Consistency is everything. Without a standardized naming convention, your GA4 data fragments into dozens of unrecognizable rows. Here's a Dynamics 365-specific naming framework that works:

utm_source values

d365_marketing, linkedin, google, facebook, newsletter, partner_name

Always lowercase. Use "d365_marketing" (not the verbose default) for all journey emails.

utm_medium values

email, cpc, social, display, referral, qr_code, webinar

Stick to GA4's recognized medium values so traffic maps to the correct default channel groupings.

utm_campaign format

{campaign_type}_{descriptor}_{quarter}_{year}

Examples: nurture_onboarding_q1_2026, promo_spring_sale_q2_2026, event_webinar_ai_trends_q1_2026

utm_content values

welcome_email_v1, reminder_email_v2, cta_button_hero, banner_sidebar

Use descriptive names that tell you exactly which creative or message variation this was.

For a deeper dive into naming conventions that scale across all platforms, see our UTM best practices guide.

5 Common Mistakes D365 Marketers Make with UTMs

1. Keeping the default utm_source value

"Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys" is too long, contains spaces, and has mixed capitalization. This creates messy GA4 reports and is easily misspelled. Change it to something short and lowercase like "d365_marketing" immediately.

2. Using Journey names as utm_campaign without a convention

If your Journeys are named "Welcome Flow (copy)" or "Test - Don't Delete", that's exactly what shows up in Google Analytics. Either rename your Journeys consistently or create a custom UTM Campaign field with a business rule fallback.

3. Forgetting to tag non-email channels

Auto-tagging only covers Journey emails and SMS. Every LinkedIn ad, social post, event link, and paid campaign linking to your website still needs manually built UTM links. Use a UTM builder to keep these consistent.

4. Ignoring consent model impact on tracking

If your compliance consent model is set to "Restrictive" and contacts haven't explicitly opted in to tracking, UTM parameters will not be appended to email links — silently. Check your Tracking Consent settings or you'll wonder why no email data appears in GA4.

5. Tagging internal site links with UTMs

Never add UTM parameters to links between pages on your own website. This creates a new session in GA4, overriding the original source attribution. A lead who came from a LinkedIn ad will appear as coming from your own site instead.

Dynamics 365 UTM Implementation Checklist

UTM tracking feature switch is enabled in Settings
utm_source changed from default to a short, lowercase value
Custom UTM Campaign field added to Journey table (optional but recommended)
Business rule created to default UTM Campaign to Journey name if empty
utm_content toggle set based on your reporting needs
Consent model and tracking settings verified (restrictive vs. non-restrictive)
Test email sent and UTM parameters confirmed in browser URL
GA4 Realtime report confirms correct source, medium, and campaign
Hidden UTM fields added to marketing forms for lead attribution
Manual UTM links created for all non-email channels (ads, social, QR codes)
Naming convention document shared with your marketing team
GA4 Exploration report built for Dynamics 365 campaign analysis

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Dynamics 365 automatically add UTM parameters to emails?

Yes, since the 2023 Wave 1 release, Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys supports automatic UTM tagging on all email links. You need to enable it in Settings → Feature switches and configure your UTM tracking record. Once active, every link in your Journey emails is tagged automatically.

Can I change the default UTM source in Dynamics 365?

Yes. Go to Settings → Customer engagement → UTM tracking and edit your UTM tracking record. You can change utm_source to any value you prefer. We recommend something short and lowercase like "d365_marketing" or "dynamics".

Why aren't UTM parameters appearing on my Dynamics 365 email links?

The most common reason is your consent model. If set to "Restrictive", contacts must have explicit tracking consent. Check Settings → Compliance → Tracking Consent. Also verify the UTM feature switch is enabled and you have an active UTM tracking record.

How do I track Dynamics 365 campaigns in Google Analytics 4?

Once UTM tagging is active, data flows into GA4 automatically. Go to Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition and switch the dimension to "Session source/medium". For campaign-level data, add "Session campaign" as a secondary dimension. For deeper analysis, build a custom Exploration report.

Can I store UTM parameters on Lead records in Dynamics 365?

Yes, but not out of the box. You need to either add hidden form fields with JavaScript that reads UTM values from the URL, or use a third-party attribution tool. Both methods capture UTM data at form submission and pass it to the Lead table for CRM reporting.