Bitly

On the Bitly dashboard, I can not only monitor the links I've created, but I can actually see how many times a link has been clicked as well as who may have referred my link to get clicks which is great if you're into gathering stats like that.

From doing in depth research, it seems as though I am better off buying my own domain for the price I am paying on their Basic plan. I could set up Google Analytics to gain all those reports they give me and still walk away with a bit of a saving to be quite honest. So maybe the subscription fee shouldn't be too high.

I use Bitly software to shorten product and category links which have Google Analytics tracking tags appended to them. So, when the marketing team includes those links in chatbot, customers see a shortened version of the links with the tags hidden. This strategy ensures links are user friendly. And at the same time, enabled for tracking so I can report on which link drove the most clicks as well as who those engaged customers were. Ultimately, using Bitly allows my marketing team to improve customer engagement and retarget those customers to drive higher conversions - a simple recipe for success. I also use Bitly analytics if for some reason Google Analytics UTM tags don't work. So, a nice backup plan.

Couple of Bitly features are needing improvement. First, the ability to customize the landing page website link I am trying to shorten and include in chatbot. So, instead of showing a random string of characters in the shortened link, I would like to show a name of the page title clarifying what product or category that page is about. I feel this feature would drive higher click-through rate from customers who see that custom link. Secondly, the ability to integrate Bitly click analytics with UTM session activity and customer id. So, I can see an end-to-end experience of customers from link click to landing to buying a product or researching it. These holistic insights would help my marketing team to improve design and content.

If you're trying to develop a brand through a social media campaign, it's critical that all your links are the same length and seem comparable. In Instagram biographies, as well as Twitter bios, shorter links seem better. So, it is more streamlined in appearance. If someone has chosen to share long URL, there's far too much space for error, and a potential sharer may become annoyed and give up before sharing your link with anyone. So Bitly is easier to replicate. Really, Bitly Shortened URL is working for my running business.

It has some security issues. You have no idea what this link is for, and if someone provided it to you without any context, you would either block it or distrust it and refuse to click on it. Sometimes i face this problem to run my business.