Short links and click tracking

The link shortener turns long URLs in your outbound messages into short links served by your own instance. Each short link points at your instance's /l/{code} redirector: when someone taps it, the click is recorded and the visitor is sent straight on to the real destination. The Links analytics page then shows clicks over time per link.

What it does

Two things at once, from one redirect:

1. Shortens the URL. Long tracking-parameter URLs look untrustworthy in a chat and eat SMS characters. A short link is cleaner and cheaper.
2. Counts the click. The redirector logs the tap before forwarding, so you know a link was opened rather than guessing from replies.

The redirect is fast and invisible to the recipient — they tap, they land on your page.

Enable it

The shortener is feature-gated and off by default. Turn it on in settings; until you do, links go out exactly as typed and nothing is tracked. Once it's on, links in campaigns and in one-to-one messages can be shortened automatically as they're sent, so agents don't have to think about it.

See results

Open the Links analytics page in your instance. It lists your short links with clicks over time, which is enough to answer the questions that actually matter:

• Which campaign drove traffic, and which one only looked busy in the send report?
• Did the follow-up message get opened, or is the deal quieter than it seems?
• Which wording of the same offer gets tapped more?

Delivery and read receipts tell you a message arrived. Clicks tell you someone cared. Compare the two on the same campaign and you learn far more than either alone.

Why first-party matters

The redirect runs on your own instance, not on a public shortener. That has practical consequences:

• Your click data stays in your instance. You aren't donating an audience-behaviour dataset to a third party whose business model is data.
• The domain is yours. Recipients see a link related to your business, not a generic shortener domain that carriers and spam filters treat with suspicion — and that customers have been trained to distrust.
• No external dependency. If a third-party shortener goes down, deprecates, or starts charging, every link you've ever sent breaks. Yours doesn't.

Tracking clicks is still processing personal data. Your consent posture and privacy notice apply as normal — see consent and opt-in for the marketing permission side, and audit and evidence for what's recorded and how to evidence it.

Practical notes

• Watch SMS length. A short link can be the difference between one segment and two on every message in a campaign.
• One link per message where you can. Two competing links halve your ability to interpret the number.
• Name things so you can read the report later. A link you can't attribute to a campaign six weeks on is a number with no meaning.
• Don't shorten what doesn't need it. For a plain support reply, a raw link is often clearer and reassures the recipient about where they're going.

Billing

The shortener and click analytics are included in the flat $50/month instance connection and management fee — Arino charges no per-click or per-link fee. Messages containing links are billed as normal messages on their channel, on your own Infobip account. See billing and plans for rates.

Steps at a glance

1. Enable the shortenerTurn the URL shortener on in settings. It's feature-gated, so until it's enabled links go out exactly as written with no tracking.
2. Send a message or campaign with a linkOnce the shortener is on, links in campaigns and in one-to-one messages can be shortened to your instance's own /l/{code} address before they go out.
3. Open Links analyticsGo to the Links analytics page in your instance to see the short links that have been created and how they are performing.
4. Read clicks per linkReview clicks over time for each link so you can compare campaigns and individual messages, and see which offers and wordings actually get tapped.

Frequently asked