Two different questions hide inside “track my links”. One: which campaign sent each visit? Two: which links do visitors click on my site? Google Analytics 4 answers both, with different tools, and neither needs a plugin. Here is the full workflow.
Method 1: UTM labels for inbound campaigns
When you share links out in the world — newsletter, social post, ad, QR code — add UTM labels before you share. Source says where the click came from, medium says what kind of channel, campaign says which push. Build the tagged link with the free UTM builder below, share it, and the visits arrive pre-labeled. This is the only reliable way to attribute email, chat, and QR traffic, because those channels send no referrer.
Method 2: enhanced measurement for clicks on your site
For links visitors click while already on your site — outbound links to partners, downloads, affiliate links — GA4 can record the clicks itself. Turn it on under Admin, then Data Streams, then your web stream, then Enhanced Measurement: toggle on the outbound-click option and save. GA4 will now log a click event for outbound link clicks automatically. No code, no Tag Manager setup for the basic case.
Reading the results
For campaigns, open Reports, then Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition. Add session source, session medium, and session campaign as dimensions and you will see your tagged visits grouped exactly as you labeled them. For clicks, open Reports, then Engagement, then Events, and look for click events; add Link URL as a dimension to see which destinations were clicked. Note that enhanced measurement does not track internal link clicks or mailto and tel links — those need manual event setup if you want them.
End-to-end example
- You write a newsletter with a link to your pricing page.
- In the builder below, you set source to newsletter, medium to email, campaign to october_update, and copy the tagged link.
- Subscribers click. GA4 files those sessions under newsletter / email / october_update.
- In Traffic acquisition you compare that campaign against your social posts and see which one actually converted.
- On your pricing page, outbound clicks to your checkout partner are captured by enhanced measurement as click events.
Mistakes that ruin reports
- UTM labels on internal links. They overwrite the real campaign with your own navigation. Tag only links that leave your site or arrive from outside.
- Inconsistent casing. Email and email are different sources in GA4. Lowercase everything, always.
- Sharing the tagged link as the canonical page. Visitors may copy and re-share it, polluting future campaigns. Keep the clean URL canonical.
- Judging too early. GA4 reports lag behind real time. Give a campaign at least a full day before you read it.
- Old tutorials. Many guides still show the old Universal Analytics code (_gaq, _gat) or plugin settings that no longer exist. In GA4, UTMs plus enhanced measurement cover the standard cases.
How long before the data shows?
GA4 is not instant. Campaign sessions usually appear in standard reports within a day, and intraday data covers only the last 30 minutes in the realtime view. Do not judge a campaign an hour after sending it. Wait a full day, then read Traffic acquisition for the campaign; wait a week before comparing channels, because weekday and weekend behavior differ. If a tagged link shows zero sessions after two days, check the link itself first: a typo in the parameter name (utm_soruce, for example) silently drops the label, and GA4 files the visit as direct.
What you do not need
You do not need a paid analytics plugin, a link shortener with a dashboard, or Tag Manager for basic link tracking. UTM labels plus enhanced measurement answer the two questions most site owners actually ask. Add Tag Manager later only if you need custom events, like tracking a specific button separately from all other outbound clicks.