Smartlinks

A short link. One slug, one destination, and a record of who followed it.

https://your-domain.com/s/spring

For the link in a bio, in a chat message, or in an ad that will not accept a long URL.

#Tagging it with a traffic source

Choose a traffic source on the smartlink and it behaves like that source's links:

• The copy button hands you the full link, with the source's macros on it, ready to paste into the ad:

  https://your-domain.com/s/x989uc?campaignid={campaignid}&adgroupid={adgroupid}&keyword={keyword}&src_clid={gclid}
  

• Each follow records what the macros carry — the sub slots, the platform's own click id and the cost — the same way a campaign click does.

• The destination's tokens are filled in. An offer URL written with ?s1={sub1} receives the value, not the six characters.

#What it records

Every follow is described like a campaign click: country, ISP and network, device, operating system and browser, connection type and mobile operator, bot score and reason, proxies, the ten sub slots and the cost.

The table shows, for each link, visitors, first-time visitors, bots and the bot rate, proxies, cost, countries, destinations, and the commonest value of every field. Six columns show by default; the rest are a tick away in the column picker. Totals run over the link's whole life, to match its click count.

#What it deliberately does not do

There is no rule, no path, no rotation and no offer here. That is not a missing feature — it is the line that keeps this from becoming a second, weaker way of doing what campaigns already do properly.

A sale cannot attach to a follow. A smartlink issues no click id, so {utmcap_id} in its destination is left empty on purpose, and a network's postback has nothing to find. If you want to know which creative earned the conversion, build a campaign.

#Why it lives under /s/

A bare path segment on a tracking domain is how a campaign alias is addressed. Sharing that namespace would let a short link shadow a campaign, or a campaign shadow a short link — silently, and only for the one whose name collided.

The /s/ prefix keeps them apart, which is why a smartlink slug can be any word you like without checking it against your campaigns first.

#When to use one instead of a campaign

A smartlink is right when the destination is the point and the sale is not tracked through it: a link to your own site in a profile, a support article in a chat, a URL too long for a character limit, a quick test of a new source.

The moment you want to know which of two things earned the money, you want a campaign.