UTM tags on Asset downloads

Mautic can capture UTM parameters when a Contact downloads a managed Asset, a file hosted inside Mautic. However, this behavior differs significantly from UTM capture on Forms, Emails, Dynamic Web Content - DWC - blocks, and Landing Pages. Understanding the distinction prevents tracking gaps and misplaced expectations.

How Asset download UTM works

Mautic only populates UTM values on Asset downloads when you share the Asset URL directly as a link with UTM parameters manually included, for example, inside an Email, a button, or any other Channel where you control the full URL:

https://example.com/asset/your-file?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring_sale_2026

In this URL, utm_source=newsletter identifies the sending newsletter as the origin, utm_medium=email identifies the Channel, and utm_campaign=spring_sale_2026 groups the download under a named Campaign. You construct this URL manually and place it directly in your content rather than relying on a Form submit action.

Mautic stores those values on the download record itself, not on the Contact’s profile. This distinction matters because it restricts how you can use the data downstream:

  • You can only view UTM values in Asset Reports.

  • You won’t see them on the Contact’s activity timeline.

  • You can’t use them in Segment filters based on Contact UTM data.

Limitation: Form-triggered downloads

Contacts commonly download Assets through the Download an asset Form action on submit. In this flow, Mautic never captures UTM parameters, not because of a configuration issue, but because of how Mautic generates the download URL internally:

https://example.com/asset/some-uuid?ct=eyJsZWFkIjoxMjMsImNoYW5uZWwiOnsiZm9ybSI6NH19&stream=0

Mautic generates this URL internally at the moment of Form submission. The token-based ct parameter carries identity and Channel context, but Mautic never forwards the original Landing Page URL’s UTM parameters, for example utm_source=newsletter, to that download request. As a result, the UTM fields on every Form-triggered download record are always empty.

This internal URL format reflects how Mautic tracks Asset delivery through its own Contact tracking layer rather than through query string parameters. Because the download request originates from Mautic’s backend rather than from the visitor’s browser carrying the original Landing Page URL, there’s no mechanism to pass the Landing Page-level UTM context forward to the Asset download record.

Important

If you need UTM data to appear on the Contact’s profile for segmentation or timeline visibility, use the Record UTM Tags Form action instead. That action reads UTM parameters from the Landing Page URL at submission time and writes them to the Contact’s profile. See Recording UTM tags in Forms for setup instructions.

See also