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How to track and shorten links

Measure campaign performance by tracking and shortening links.

Updated today

Tracking and shortening links is essential for measuring campaign performance and optimizing social media ROI. Shortened links are easier to share, and UTM parameters enable detailed traffic attribution in tools like Google Analytics.
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In Agorapulse, link shortening is built into the tracking process. UTM codes and shorteners are applied together in the Publishing Composer, allowing you to define campaign data and control how the link appears once published.
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This article explains how to configure UTM parameters and apply a shortener. For information on configuring link previews, see How to create and manage link previews.
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To learn more about campaign tracking, visit How to measure the impact of your work with Agorapulse or watch our UTM tracking tutorial.


How to shorten and track links in the Publishing Composer

To access link tracking and shortening options, a link must first be added to the Your post field when creating a post. This activates the link tracking icon below the composer, where you can define UTM parameters and select a shortening method

To shorten and track a link when creating a post in the Publishing Composer:

  1. Insert a link into the Your post field of the Publishing Composer
    ​This will activate the link tracking icon below the text box

  2. Click the link tracking icon to open the configuration panel
    ​It will display as Tracked or Untracked depending on default link tracking configuration

  3. Click the + icon to create a new campaign, or select an existing one from the list
    ​To edit a campaign, click the pencil icon next to its name

  4. If creating a new campaign, enter a campaign name to populate the utm_campaign parameter

  5. Fill in the utm_source and utm_medium fields by selecting from predefined values or entering custom text

  6. (Optional) Enable Apply as default for tracking all links to apply the selected parameters and shortening method to all future links automatically

  7. Choose a shortening method:

    • Select Shorten and display the website’s domain with Pulse.ly to generate a branded short link using your verified domain (e.g. http://yourdomain.pulse.ly/xyz123)

    • Select Shorten with Pulse.ly to use Agorapulse’s default shortener (e.g. http://pulse.ly/abc456)

    • Select Shorten with Bit.ly to authenticate and connect your Bit.ly account, then generate a short link

    • Select Show full link (with UTMs) to publish the full un-shortened URL with all parameters visible

  8. Click Apply to save a new campaign, or Update to confirm changes to an existing one
    ​Tracking parameters and link shortening will be applied at the same time

Once applied, the shortened version of the link will appear in the Social Media Preview. It will not display in the Your post field. You may follow these instructions to complete the post creation process.

Please Note: If a link exceeds 26 characters, LinkedIn will override the selected shortener and apply its own. This is reflected in the Social Media Preview and cannot be modified.

How to remove link tracking

If tracking has been applied to a link manually or by default, you can remove it from an individual post or delete the associated campaign. The steps below explain both options.
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To remove link tracking in the Publishing Composer:

  1. Click the link tracking (Tracked) icon to open the configuration panel

  2. Click the link icon next to the Edit option

  3. Choose one of the following:
    ​Remove once to remove tracking from the link in this post only
    ​Edit then click the Delete icon to permanently remove the campaign from the saved list

  4. If Delete is chosen and confirmed the campaign will not longer appear in the link tracking configuration list
    ​Deleting campaign tracking will not affect previously tracked links

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