Learn to track customer engagement of your SMS campaigns using shortened, trackable links and Google Analytics UTM tags.
Overview
Contacts read a massive 98% of text messages sent. This makes SMS unique to other forms of communication in terms of open-rate. But with its lack of customisation and 160-character limit, it can be tricky to track how your campaigns perform after your select send.
By including a link in your SMS message, you can direct contacts to specific online content and get detailed reports of who and how many people are interacting with your campaign and visiting your website.
Use link shortening to track an SMS
To make sure you use as few characters as possible and can track engagement with your SMS campaigns, you can turn on link shortening and tracking.
Add link shortening to a new SMS campaign
If you're creating a new SMS campaign, follow these steps:
- In the App menu, select SMS
- Create and name a new SMS campaign.
To learn more about creating and naming an SMS campaign, check out our Create, test, and send an SMS campaign article.
- In the Campaign details area, select Shorten in the Links field.
- Select Save & continue.
- Enter the link you want to shorten onto the SMS editor canvas.
Make sure your link begins with either https:// or http://. Links that don't begin with a protocol aren't shortened or tracked.
- Select Save.
SMS data fields in shortened links
To learn how to use contacts' SMS data fields to build unique shortened links, check out Use data fields in shortened links.
Add link shortening to an existing SMS campaign
If you're editing an existing SMS campaign, follow these steps:
- Go to SMS > SMS campaigns > All SMS campaigns.
- Select a campaign.
- Enter the link you want to shorten onto the SMS editor canvas.
Make sure your link begins with either https:// or http://. Links that don't begin with a protocol aren't shortened or tracked.
- Select Link shorten.
- In the Campaign options panel, select Shorten.
- Select Save.
We calculate every shortened link as exactly 22 characters. An example of the shortened link can be seen in the campaign preview area.
Track with UTM tags
If you use Google Analytics, you can add UTM tags to your SMS links to help you better understand your contacts. It’s also more convenient because you won’t have to create a new UTM tag each time you send a new link.
This only works if you have link shortening and tracking turned on.
Enable UTM tags
To enable UTM tags for your SMS message links:
- In the App menu, select SMS.
- Go to Campaigns > Advanced features.
- Go to Google Analytics tracking > Continue.
To change any default values, select the Pencil icon in the Edit column.
Disable UTM tags
To disable UTM tags for your SMS message links:
- In the App menu, select SMS.
- Go to Campaigns > Advanced features.
- Select Disable Google Analytics tracking.