Shortening and tracking links is key to boosting social media ROI. Shortened links look better and are easier to share, while UTM codes help better organize your traffic through custom parameters. When used in coordination with Google Analytics, you can optimize the success of your social media campaigns with data driven insights.
This article will teach you how to track and shorten your links using UTM codes and your chosen link shortener. For more information on how to create and manage link previews take a look at this help center article.
Tracking a link
Our link-shortening feature is embedded in the link-tracking feature. This allows our users measure the impact of their work with ease. For more information on how Agorapulse helps users do that, you can look at our: How to measure the impact of your work with Agorapulse article or our video tutorial on how to track UTM codes.
Insert a Link
After inserting a link in the Publisher the clickable link tracking settings will appear.
Create or Choose a Campaign
Select the (+) icon within the link tracking settings to create a new campaign. You can also select/edit any existing campaigns from the menu.
Insert UTM parameters
The campaign name will automatically generate a related UTM parameter for tracking purposes. You can use pre-populated Types to fill the Source and Medium fields, or you can create your own custom text fields (which will generate a custom parameter).
If you want these tracking/shortening settings to apply to all inserted links, check the 'Apply as default for tracking all links'
What are UTM parameters?
UTM parameters (or UTM codes) are a way to track the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns. This is be done by by adding specific parameters to URLs. Once a link is clicked on, these parameters provide valuable information to analytics platforms, like Google Analytics, regarding the chosen characteristics of the unique link. Here are the UTM parameters available in Agorapulse and some typical use cases:
utm_source - to track the source of traffic (i.e. social media network or profile)
utm_medium - to track the medium delivering traffic (i.e. social or email campaign)
utm_campaign - to track a campaign or custom group (i.e. Black Friday or 2 4 1)
Shortening a Link
After entering the tracking information for your campaign you can choose the composition of your link using the Shortening tool. You will have the following option:
Shorten and display the website's domain with Pulse.ly
Utilize Agorapulse's built-in link shortener in coordination with your website domain
e.g. websitedomain.pulse.ly/F2mH47
Shorten with Pulse.ly
Utilize Agorapulse's built-in link shortener
e.g. pulse.ly/3tZdSFO
Shorten with Bit.ly
If selected you will be prompted to log in to your Bit.ly account
Once you authorize Agorapulse your Bit.ly account will be integratedShow full link (with UTMs)
Show the entire link including UTMs and other parameters
e.g. https://www.websitedomain.com/?utm_source=Facebook&utm...
Once all changes have bee made you will select 'Apply' for new campaigns or 'Update' for existing campaigns.
Please Note: LinkedIn will automatically apply their own link shortener if the URL is longer than 26 characters and the preview in Agorapulse will reflect this.
Link Preview
The final shortened link (with the defined campaign tracking) will be visible once the post has been published. A shortened link is unique to each post on each platform.
Below is how the shortened link will look once it has been published:
Note: The link will not appear as shortened in the text field of the Publisher.
How to delete link shortening and tracking
Once you've shortened a link, if you no longer want it to be shortened, click on the link tracking setting:
If a default tracking has been activated for all links, whenever you add a link to your post, the link will automatically be shortened (and tracked).
If you want to disable default link, you will need to edit to the attached campaign:
Moving forward, links will no longer be shortened or tracked.