Short links and UTM: measure campaign results

A short link tells you how often that address was opened. UTM tags tell the analytics tool on your website which campaign sent a visit. A finished order or signup is a third number. Keeping them apart helps you answer the useful question: which placement brought people who did what you hoped?

This guide uses a made-up pottery workshop promoted through an email, a social profile and a printed poster. The names and numbers are examples, not real results or a promise of performance.

Choose one outcome and a naming plan

Write down the outcome first: a completed workshop booking. Check that your booking system records finished bookings and that you can see campaign details in your website analytics. Short-link statistics alone can’t show whether someone booked.

Use one campaign name across all placements and a separate short link for each placement. That way you can compare placements even when an app doesn’t say where the visitor came from. Keep a small list:

These are your own reporting labels. A custom medium such as qr may not land in a particular default channel group in your analytics tool. Stick to one spelling in lowercase, and don’t rename the campaign halfway through. Keep names free of email addresses, customer names and other personal details.

Tag the destination before shortening it

Google’s campaign URL guidance explains how UTM fields describe incoming campaign traffic. Build the full destination address yourself or with a URL builder.

For the newsletter, the example destination is:

https://example.com/workshop?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pottery_workshop&utm_content=main_button

Replace example.com/workshop with your real booking page. The first parameter starts with ?, and each one after it with &. Keep any parameters already in the address, don’t repeat a UTM key, and put the parameters before a # part if there is one. A builder handles spaces and non-Latin characters for you.

Create a link in Links with this whole address as its destination. Give it a title that names the placement, such as “Workshop · newsletter”. Add the short link to your list.

Links sends visitors to the saved destination. Anything added to the end of the short link isn’t passed on to that destination. If you use destination rules, put the right UTM fields in every rule’s destination too, as well as in the main destination.

Test the complete journey

Do one test run for each placement before you share it widely:

1. Open the real short link, not the destination copied from the editor.
2. Check that the final page’s address has the right campaign fields.
3. Go through the booking steps and check that the right workshop stays selected.
4. Look at your analytics tool’s real-time or acquisition report once it has caught up.
5. Check the finished booking using the booking system’s test mode.
6. Note the test time and any test bookings so nobody mistakes them for real demand.

If you have rules, test each route and a visitor who matches none. Another redirect, a booking provider or a change of domain can drop the campaign tags. A working short link only proves the first step. For print, also follow the QR code testing checklist.

Read Links statistics without overinterpreting them

Links shows counted clicks, a daily chart and breakdowns by destination, country, language, device, platform, browser and the site visitors came from. The 7-, 30- and 90-day views include today, which isn’t over yet, and the all-time total covers a different period. Compare matching periods, and keep in mind that tools can start and end their days at different times.

The breakdowns show the top categories, not always every one, so they may not add up to the total. Clicks with no referring site show as direct. That includes many messaging apps and privacy settings, so it doesn’t mean somebody typed the address.

One person opening the link several times counts several times. Links leaves out the bots, link previews and prefetches it recognizes, but that doesn’t make every remaining click a different person. Links doesn’t count unique visitors, track purchases or know how many people saw your profile, so it can’t give you a click-through rate.

The redirect sets no cookies and runs no scripts, and Links doesn’t store IP addresses or full browser strings. Your website has its own data collection, though. Cookie-free short-link statistics don’t make the whole campaign tracking-free.

Investigate differences before changing the campaign

Say your records show 120 counted clicks, 90 visits with campaign tags and 6 bookings. These made-up numbers count different things. Repeat visits, blocked analytics, pages that didn’t fully load, attribution rules and different day boundaries can all explain the gaps.

6 ÷ 90 gives a visit-to-booking rate of about 6.7%, but only if those bookings belong to the same campaign and period by your own rules. 6 ÷ 120 gives a different rate. Neither is a conversion rate per unique person.

If a placement gets clicks but no bookings, open that route on a phone first. Check availability, language, the form and the payment steps. If visits arrive without campaign labels, check the saved destination and any redirects in between. Change one important thing at a time and keep a dated note; a handful of visits can’t tell you which version is better.

Budget and review the next run

Creating a link is free; each counted click costs credits. At 0.05 credits per click, for example, 400 clicks cost 20 credits. Check current pricing before you plan.

Links shares its credits with Mono and Studio. When the paying account runs out, links pause until you add credits. Check the balance as part of your campaign routine, especially before printing.

Keep the placement, short link, saved destination, owner and review date together. If a booking page moves, update its destination and test again. Links by Reunified gives you the redirect and click counts; combine them with the confirmed results on your website to decide what to improve next.