Tracking URL or Not?

Tracking URLs allow you to determine the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns by enabling you to track click activity. Services like Google Shortener, let you paste in the long URL string and provide you with a short, ‘trackable’ URL. You now have a shortened link that’s more appealing to the eye and also helps you in situations when character counts are limited – like Twitter.

Is there a time to NOT use a tracking URL? That question is up to the marketing manager creating the content. There are a couple of ways we can look at this question. If you want to showcase the URL, then avoid using the tracking URL. For example, www.uprightcommunications.com/blog/ may generate more clicks than the tracking URL, http://goo.gl/Ujodo0. With all of the spam and phishing issues we are having on the internet, the tracking URL may be intimidating for someone to click. Those in the online marketing industry may recognize goo.gl as a Google URL, bt.ly as-Bitly or owl.y as a Hootsuite URL that is shortened and know it is not as a threat. Someone who isn’t acclimated, however, might not have the same recognition and may not want to click on the shortened URL out of fear of the link being a virus.

At the end of the day, it is 100% up to the marketing manager or the person writing the content to decide which they think is best. When analyzing your data, don’t forget that if a user clicks on the URL multiple times from the same IP, this can dramatically skew your results!

Whatever it is that you are shortening, simply ask yourself if you want to expose the full URL or not. The decision should be based upon on the objectives the online marketing individual is trying to achieve. It is a good idea to refer to the drawing board and the basic goals of your online campaign to make the decision.

If you need assistance with using tracking URLs or using shortened URLs, give us a call!