Skip to main content
What you’ll learn: how a second hierarchical picklist powers the UTM medium and source pair, how option lists change (admins edit, then publish), and how a per-taxonomy Option filter shows a different subset of the same picklist to each taxonomy.What you’ll build: a two-level hierarchy (the linked UTM Mediums and UTM Sources picklists), plus two dropdown fields (UTM Medium, UTM Source) that form the second cascade.Prerequisites: Part 5: Hierarchical picklists.

​
Why this matters

UTM values are where governance pays for itself. A free-text utm_source box produces facebook, Facebook, fb, and FB Ads within a month, and your analytics splinter four ways. A picklist-backed cascade produces exactly one spelling of each source, filed under the right medium. The trade-off is that the list is closed: a submitter can only pick what the published list offers, and a new source gets added by an admin, not typed into the form. This part builds the cascade and shows how that maintenance loop works. The other half of this part, the per-taxonomy option filter, solves a different problem. Three taxonomies share the same utm_medium field, but each should only see its own medium: Email should never offer social or cpc. You set the filters for real in Part 8; here you just meet them.

​
Concepts first

​
Option lists are closed

A dropdown offers the options its picklist holds, and nothing else. There is no way for a submitter to type a value that is not in the list; an out-of-list value simply fails validation. That closedness is the point: it is what keeps utm_source to one spelling per source.

​
Admins change options by editing and publishing

When marketing launches on a new channel, an admin opens the picklist, adds the option, and publishes the governance model. Option edits behave like any other governance model change: they sit in the draft until you publish, and submitters see the new option once the publish goes through. The publish a revision guide covers that loop.

​
When values move too fast for a list

Some values genuinely churn faster than any admin should be asked to keep up with. For those, a dropdown is the wrong shape. Use a Text field with Suggest from past entries turned on instead: submitters type freely, and the form suggests values the account has already approved for that field, which nudges everyone toward the same spellings without hard-blocking new ones. The suggest past values recipe shows when and how. In this tutorial the UTM vocabulary is deliberately admin-owned, so we stay with picklists.

​
Per-taxonomy option filtering

An Option filter hides options, per taxonomy. On a taxonomy’s copy of a dropdown field you either choose Only specific options I choose (an allowlist: only those codes show) or Use all options, hide a few (a blocklist: everything except those codes shows), never both. The picklist itself is untouched. This is how one UTM Medium field can appear on three taxonomies and show a different single medium on each.

​
Step-by-step

1

Create the UTM Mediums / UTM Sources picklist

With the Marketing governance model open, click Picklists in the sidebar, then Create new, and choose Static Picklist. Rename the Name column header to UTM Mediums. Add three rows: email / Email, social / Social, cpc / Paid search and ads. These are your mediums.
2

Add a second level for sources

Click + Level to add a child level for sources, and rename its Level 2 header to UTM Sources. As in Part 5, each row holds one medium and one of its sources. Fill in each medium’s first source on its own row. For each further source, right-click the medium’s row, choose Duplicate row, and change the copy’s source: the copy lands right below, so each medium’s rows stay together. Under email, add newsletter / Newsletter, drip / Drip campaign, transactional / Transactional. Under social, add facebook / Facebook, instagram / Instagram, linkedin / LinkedIn, twitter / X / Twitter. Under cpc, add google / Google Ads, bing / Bing Ads, meta_ads / Meta Ads. Click Save. The editor saves two linked picklists, UTM Mediums and UTM Sources.
3

Create the UTM Medium Dropdown field

Click Fields in the sidebar, then Create new, and pick Dropdown. Name: UTM Medium. In Picklist, select UTM Mediums. Leave option filtering alone; you set it per taxonomy in Part 8, once the taxonomies exist. Click Save to draft.
4

Create the UTM Source Dropdown field

Click Create new again and pick Dropdown. Name: UTM Source. In Picklist, select UTM Sources. Click Save to draft. The editor wires the cascade to UTM Medium automatically.
📸 Screenshot coming soon: part 06 utm hierarchy

​
Check your work

  • Two linked picklists exist: UTM Mediums with three mediums (email, social, cpc) and UTM Sources with the sources under each medium.
  • Two new fields exist: UTM Medium (Dropdown on UTM Mediums, no filtering yet) and UTM Source (Dropdown on UTM Sources, cascading from UTM Medium).
  • The governance model has eight fields total: the six from Parts 3 to 5 plus UTM Medium and UTM Source.

​
What you just built

A second cascade. The medium and source picklists behave like Countries and Regions: pick social, and the source dropdown offers only Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X / Twitter. The vocabulary is admin-owned, so every submission spells every source the same way. The option filter is ready; Part 8 sets it.

​
Gotchas

  • A new source is an admin edit plus a publish. If marketing starts using a channel that is not in the list, an admin adds the option to UTM Sources and publishes. Submitters cannot add it from the form, and the option appears for them only once the publish goes through.
  • A static picklist always needs at least one option. You cannot save an empty list and fill it in later; give every level at least one real option up front, or the editor skips the empty level.
  • Keep codes lowercase and stable. The code is what lands in the URL and in your analytics. Set the label to whatever reads well (Paid search and ads), but treat the code (cpc) as permanent.
  • The option filter is a per-taxonomy override, not a picklist setting. You configure it on each taxonomy’s copy of the field (the field’s Taxonomy settings tab, Option filter). Part 8 sets three different filters for the same UTM Medium field on three taxonomies. See filter options per taxonomy.

​
Next up

Part 7: Computed fields. The payoff. Wire UTM Campaign, Tagged URL, Short URL, and QR Code into a four-level chain. For the standalone version of this cascade, see the cascading dropdowns recipe.