Free tools

Free tools for paid-media people

Four small tools for the jobs that come up on every campaign: tagging links, sizing creative, checking spend and writing the brief. No sign-up, no paywall — an account (also free) just keeps your history.

UTM builder

Build tracking URLs with click-to-copy. History stays in your browser — or in your free account, synced across devices.

When to use it: Use it whenever a link goes into an ad, email or social post, so your analytics can credit the visit to the right campaign.

Ad specs directory

Dimensions, file sizes and copy limits for every major placement — Facebook feed to TikTok TopView.

When to use it: Check it before a designer starts work, so assets are made once at the right size instead of resized after rejection.

Budget pacing calculator

Is your campaign on track to blow its budget? Project total spend and the exact day the money runs out.

When to use it: Run it mid-flight with your budget, dates and spend to date — it tells you whether to slow down, speed up or leave things alone.

Campaign brief generator

Answer a few questions, get a clean printable brief you can send to your agency or team.

When to use it: Fill it in before anything is designed or bought, so everyone agrees on the objective, budget and measure of success.

Using the tools together

The tools follow the order a campaign is usually built in. You don't have to use all four, but working through them in sequence catches most of the mistakes that cost money later.

Step 1
Brief
Agree the objective, audience, budget, dates and success measure in the brief generator.
Step 2
Specs
Look up every placement in the brief so creative is made at the right size and length.
Step 3
Links
Build a UTM for each ad and creative variant before launch, using one naming scheme.
Step 4
Pacing
A few days in, and weekly after that, check spend against budget with the pacing calculator.

UTM parameters explained

UTM parameters are tags added to the end of a URL. When someone clicks the link, your analytics tool reads them and records where the visit came from. Google Analytics and most other tools recognise the five standard parameters below.

Parameter	Status	What it records	Examples
utm_source	Required	Where the traffic comes from.	facebook, google, tiktok, newsletter
utm_medium	Required	The type of channel.	paid_social, cpc, email
utm_campaign	Required	The campaign the link belongs to.	spring_espresso_launch
utm_term	Optional	The keyword or audience, mostly for search.	oat_milk_latte
utm_content	Optional	Which ad or creative was clicked — useful for A/B tests.	carousel_v2, video_15s

Three rules that keep UTM data clean

Use lowercase. Most analytics tools treat Facebook and facebook as two different sources.
Pick one name per channel and keep it. If paid social is paid_social this month, it should be next month too.
Never tag internal links. UTMs on links between your own pages overwrite the original source and break attribution.

Budget pacing in plain terms

Pacing answers one question: at the current rate, where will spend end up? Divide spend so far by the days elapsed to get average daily spend, then multiply by the total days in the flight.

projected spend = (spend so far ÷ days elapsed) × total days

If the projection is well above budget, you're overpacing and the money will run out before the end date. Well below, you're underpacing and will under-deliver. Within a few percent either way is on track. Platforms spend unevenly from day to day, so judge pacing on several days of data, not one.

What goes in a good brief

A brief doesn't need to be long. It needs to answer these questions before work starts:

Objective — the one business result the campaign is for.
Audience — who you're reaching, described specifically enough to target.
Key message — the single thing people should remember.
Deliverables — the channels and formats needed.
Budget and timing — how much, when it goes live and how long it runs.
Success measure — a number to judge it by, such as a target CPA.

Paid-media glossary

The terms you'll see in these tools and in every platform's reporting.

CPM: Cost per mille — what you pay for 1,000 impressions. Useful for comparing the price of reach between platforms.
CPC: Cost per click. Total spend divided by link clicks.
CTR: Click-through rate — clicks as a percentage of impressions. A falling CTR is often the first sign of creative fatigue.
CPA: Cost per acquisition — spend divided by the number of conversions (a sale, sign-up or lead).
ROAS: Return on ad spend — revenue attributed to ads divided by what the ads cost. A ROAS of 4 means R4 back for every R1 spent.
Frequency: The average number of times each person has seen your ad. High frequency with falling CTR means the audience is tired of it.
Pacing: How fast a budget is being spent compared with how much of the campaign's flight has passed.
Flight: The period a campaign runs for, from start date to end date.
Attribution window: How long after a click or view a conversion can still be credited to the ad — for example, 7 days after click.
Lifetime vs daily budget: A lifetime budget is spread across the whole flight; a daily budget is spent again every day. Mixing them up is one of the most common causes of overspend.

Questions about the tools

Do I need an account to use these tools?

No. Every tool works without signing up. Your UTM history is kept in your browser's local storage; a free account simply syncs it across devices.

Is the information I type sent anywhere?

The pacing calculator and brief generator work in your browser. The UTM builder saves history to your browser, or to your account if you're signed in. See our privacy policy for full details.

How up to date are the ad specs?

Platforms change their specs regularly. The directory is based on each platform's published guidelines, but always check the platform's own help centre before a large production run.

Why do these tools show ads?

Ads on these public pages pay for keeping the tools free. They never appear inside the AdHub console, and they're kept apart from the tool itself so they don't get in the way.