When UTMs are not enough, register curated custom parameters—then keep naming aligned with your warehouse.
Overview
GA4 captures standard UTM keys automatically; bespoke params need explicit registration as custom dimensions.
Why it matters
Limit cardinality explosion by only promoting fields with bounded vocabularies.
Implementation playbook
Mirror the same fields in BigQuery exports for analyst SQL and LLM-generated summaries.
Next steps
Version changes to your schema; breaking renames confuse historical comparisons.
Frequently asked questions
- Who should read this guide on GA4 Custom Dimensions for Richer UTM Context?
- When UTMs are not enough, register curated custom parameters—then keep naming aligned with your warehouse.
- How do DemandLinks-style structured links help analytics?
- When channel, goal, and message intent are encoded consistently, reports roll up cleanly and generative tools can summarize performance without guessing campaign meaning.
- What should we document alongside UTMs?
- Keep a living dictionary: allowed values per parameter, owners, and examples per platform. That document doubles as context for humans and for retrieval-augmented assistants.