How URL tracking impacts links within Campaigns

I.	What is a tracking URL and what does it do?
II.	What is the difference between a source URL and a tracking URL?
III.	Implications of linking incorrectly to a tracking URL
IV.	Making sure your recipients always reach the right content

Inserting links into a Campaign allows you to direct your recipients to external areas such as websites, surveys, mailto email addresses and iCalendars. 

You can add links in a variety of ways including typing the text into the content area or by highlighting either text or an image and using the link button in the formatting toolbar to add in the URL. For a step by step guide on adding links to your Campaign, please read this article.

If you find that you are using the same links for different Campaigns, you may feel it is easier to copy the link from one Campaign to another. However easy it is to do, we strongly advise against doing this as it causes a lot more problems than it solves. It's always best to copy the URL directly from its source.

What is a tracking URL and what does it do?

A tracking URL allows us to track whether your recipients click one of the links in your Campaign. This is how we determine the "links clicked" metrics in your Campaign reports. The tracking URLs are unique to each link in each Campaign.

When a recipient clicks on a link, the tracking URL will open in their browser before they are quickly redirected to the intended destination: the source URL.

What is the difference between a source URL and a tracking URL?

There's an easy way to tell if a link in your Campaign is linked to the source URL or an old tracking URL. If you hover over the link in an in-progress Campaign, you should be able to see the source URL like so:

If the link is attached to a tracking URL, you'll be able to easily tell because it'll look something like this:

Another tell-tale sign is if the link starts with your sending domain. With the exception of links to Surveys and previously sent Campaigns, if the link begins with your sending domain, it's likely that it's linked to a tracking URL rather than the source URL.

If you are linking to an external website and the link begins with your sending domain, you will need to re-create the link by copying the URL from its source.

Implications of linking incorrectly to a tracking URL

There are 3 main implications:

• "Unable to Locate Campaign" Error - When a recipient clicks on the link in the Campaign, the tracking URL will open in their browser but it will not be able to successfully re-direct them to the source URL. This will throw out an "Unable to Locate Campaign" error and the recipient will not be able to access the material they are trying to.
  
  
• Unable to Redirect Links - In most cases where the links break, we are able to successfully redirect them via the Campaign report. In this scenario, we are unable to since the tracking URL is linked to another Campaign report. 
  
  
• Campaign Reports will be Skewed - As mentioned above, the tracking URLs would be linked to another report. This means that if a recipient clicks the link, their click will be registered in another Campaign report.

Making sure your recipients always reach the right content

Always stick to these best practice guidelines to make sure your links work every time:

• Create your links by copying the URL directly from the source. Never copy links from a Campaign
• If you need to create a link to a previously sent Campaign, use the generic URL which can be found by viewing the sent Campaign online
• Make sure that if you're sending externally, you're not linking to any internal intranets or sites that are only accessible to your organisation
• Only link to websites that have an SSL certificate (i.e URLs that start with "https://")

If you have any additional questions or need assistance regarding your Campaign links, please feel free to contact our support team.