URL Short links and Click-through tracking Reports

Want to know whether the link in your text campaign landed? Here's how to see how many contacts clicked it, find out exactly who they were, and turn those results into a contact list for your next campaign. This is for campaign managers who sent a shortened link in a Text Broadcasting or Peer to Peer Texting campaign.

Why check your link click reports

Every link you send is a question to your contacts: will you take the next step? Your click reports answer it. Instead of guessing whether a message worked, you can see how many people opened your donation page, event signup, or petition, and compare that across links and campaigns.

The bigger payoff is what you do next. Once you know who clicked, you don't have to send your next message to your whole list. You can thank the people who engaged and give them a clear next step. You can send a different message to the people who didn't click, or reach them on another channel, like a call. Smaller, better-targeted follow-ups tend to get a stronger response, and you spend credits only on the contacts that follow-up is meant for.

By the end of this guide, you'll be able to:

• See total and unique clicks for every link you've shortened, across all your campaigns.
• Check how each link performed inside a single campaign.
• Pull the exact contacts who clicked, or didn't click, a link.
• Export those contacts or save them as a new contact list, ready for a follow-up campaign.

Before you start

• Access: admin or collaborator access to the campaign that sent the link.
• A sent campaign: your campaign needs to have sent at least one shortened link.
• Contact Tracking on the link: to see which individual contacts clicked, the link must have had Contact Tracking turned on when you created it. See Understand click-through rate (CTR) and track who clicks your links to turn it on for your next link.

Check clicks across all your links

Use this report when you want a big-picture view: every shortened link in your account, how often each was clicked, and how many campaigns used it.

1. From the left menu bar, go to Reports > All Reports.
2. Select URL Shortener.

3. (Optional) To narrow the results to a specific URL, time period, or campaign type, set the filters, then click Apply Filter.
4. To see insights for one link, click the URL.

What the numbers mean

CTR is how CallHub measures a link's success, based on its unique clicks. For how CTR is calculated and how tracking works, see Understand click-through rate (CTR) and track who clicks your links.

Check clicks for one campaign

Use this view when you want to know how the links in a specific campaign performed.

1. Open the campaign that sent the link.
2. On the Overview page, scroll to the Campaign URL(s) tracking statistics section.
   This section shows Total Clicks, Unique Clicks (CTR), and Filtered Clicks for each URL you sent in the campaign.

Follow up with contacts who clicked (or didn't)

1. In the Results section, choose the URL you want to check.
2. Select Clicked to find contacts who opened the link, or Not clicked to find contacts who didn't.

3. Click Apply Filter.
   

   

4. Open the dropdown and choose Export to download the results, or Create a contact list to save the contacts as a new contact list.

Your list is ready to use. Link it to a follow-up campaign, such as a Text Broadcast, to reach just these contacts. If you'd rather clean up your account, you can also remove the contacts. 

ⓘ NOTE: CallHub measures a campaign's conversion rate by its clicks. A click shows a contact was interested enough to open your link. It doesn't confirm they finished the action on your page, like donating or signing up.

ⓘ NOTE: You can only see who clicked links that have Contact Tracking turned on. Next to each shortened URL, an icon with a slash across it means tracking is not enabled. The same icon without the slash means tracking is enabled. You can't turn tracking on for a link after you've confirmed it, so turn it on when you create the link.

ⓘ NOTE: Filtered Clicks is an estimate. CallHub detects automated clicks by matching them against known bots, scanners, and link previews, so the figure won't be exact. Older links show Not Available instead of a number. Filtered Clicks isn't included in exports, the Goals Dashboard, or Segments.

✓ TIP: Don't delete contacts just because they didn't click. Send them a different message or try another channel instead. To skip them in future Call Center or Peer to Peer Texting campaigns while keeping their data, add them to a Suppression List.

FAQs

Why are my click numbers higher than the number of people who engaged?

Total Clicks and Unique Clicks count every visit to your link, including visits from bots, security scanners, and automatic link previews that open links before a person sees the message. Check the Filtered Clicks column for CallHub's estimate of clicks from real people.

What's the difference between Total Clicks and Unique Clicks?

Total Clicks counts every visit, so a contact who clicks three times adds three clicks. Unique Clicks counts each contact once, no matter how many times they clicked.

Why can't I see which contacts clicked my link?

The link was created without Contact Tracking. Look for the icon with a slash next to the URL. Tracking can't be added to a link after you confirm it, so turn on Contact Tracking the next time you shorten a link.

Can I follow up with clickers without building a list by hand?

Yes. Use a Segment with an Action on Link condition to target contacts based on link clicks in your next campaign, or set up a Workflow with the Link clicked trigger to follow up automatically. See the links below.