Generate UTM parameters from a url parameter for Google Analytics (WP Hosting)

Question

I am generating QR Codes and to keep it as clear as possible, I want a short URL, then expand to a full address + UTM or at least have Google Analytics understand.

QR Code payload:

https://example.com/as?q=A01

The website is on WP, so I can redirect to:

https://example.com/A-Subject?q=A01

What I am looking for is the next step: Having Google analytics understanding that:

• Source: Business card
• Medium: QR Code
• Campaign: 01

I have tried filters in GA => search and replace /?q=A01 with ?utm_source=cards&utm_medium=QRCode&utm_campaign=A01

Problem is that even if the active page is displayed with the correct URL, the UTM parameters are not used/understood by GA (source = (none) for example)

Any idea of what to do?

• Plugin in WP to rewrite URL?
• Javascript in WP to rewrite URL?
• GA ?

[edit] Doing a bit more research, I suspect the easiest would be to go through .htaccess and do some url rewritting on add_action

In my case, depending on the first letter of the parameter, I would have a few possible outputs: A = QR Code on a card => q=A01 would be rewritten into

utm_source=cards&utm_medium=QRCode&utm_campaign=A01

B = QR Code on a poster => q=B07 would be rewritten into

utm_source=poster&utm_medium=QRCode&utm_campaign=B07

Answer 1

The solution I used was within the WP Engine, and using conditional redirects by matching args.

my QR Codes were: https://example.com/shrt?q=A01 And I used 301 redirects

Source: /shrt?$

Dest: /long-name/?utm_source=cards&utm_medium=QRCode&utm_campaign=A01

Match Args: q=A01

Pretty sure there would be fancier solutions, but as I create my QRCodes/campaigns one by one, it only takes me 30s to add a new redirect rule when I create a new QRCode...

Problem solved!