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Short links and campaigns

A short link is a redirect that SnipForm records. Because the redirect stamps the destination URL with a click id, the session that lands on your site is tied to the exact link that sent it, and from there to the group it belongs to, the UTM tags it carried, and any conversion you attach.

https://snipl.it/k3v9q
-> 302 -> https://example.com/spring?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring_sale&_slc=<click id>

Links live in groups. A group is a campaign, an affiliate program, a newsletter, a partner or a set of social posts: the thing you want to report on as a whole.

PurposeUse it forDefault UTM tags
campaign CampaignGeneral marketing campaign - newsletters, ads, one-off pushessnipform / shortlink / group slug
affiliate AffiliateOne link per affiliate. utm_source carries the affiliate identitysnipform / affiliate / group slug
newsletter NewsletterEmail newsletter linksnewsletter / email / group slug
partner PartnerCo-marketing or content partner placements(source you set) / partner / group slug
social SocialSocial posts. One link per network or post(source you set) / social / group slug

Columns are utm_source / utm_medium / utm_campaign. For every purpose except campaign the UTM toggle is on by default, because for those the tags are the point: they are how a session gets pegged to an affiliate, a newsletter issue or a partner.

A group also has:

  • track_clicks: whether redirects are recorded as clicks
  • state: active or archived
  • count_links and count_clicks, maintained as links are created and clicked
  1. Open Short links on your property and create a group with a purpose.

  2. Add a link: a friendly name, the destination URL, the domain, and the UTM tags (pre-filled from the purpose).

  3. Copy the short URL. The code is generated for you.

DomainShort URL
snipl-ithttps://snipl.it/<code> (default)
tinysnip-linkhttps://tinysnip.link/<code>

Links can be toggled inactive without deleting them. An inactive or unknown code redirects to snipform.io instead of the destination.

Every redirect through a tracked group records a click with the same request classification Signals gives a session: referrer, country, region, city, device, browser, OS, and bot detection (type is user or bot, with the bot name and category when known). Clicks are written asynchronously so the redirect is never slowed down.

The group page shows clicks over time, a geo click map, and the per-link table.

The redirect appends _slc=<click id> to the destination. When a session starts on that page, SnipForm reads the parameter from the landing URL, looks up the click, and stores three things on the session: short_link_click_id, short_link_id and short_link_group_id. These are first-class filter fields, so “sessions from this campaign” is a query, and they are what the Short Link conversion trigger matches on.

Keep the _slc parameter intact if your landing page rewrites URLs.

A group can own a conversion. From the group page, Track a conversion opens a mini-wizard:

  1. Name the conversion and pick its type.
  2. Choose the goal: a form submit, a page visit, or an event.

SnipForm creates and publishes a two-step conversion: Clicked a [group name] link (short link trigger, group scope) followed by your goal. The group page then shows the campaign summary and a per-link breakdown, so you can see which affiliate or which post actually converted. A group can track one conversion; deleting that conversion detaches it from the group.

Groups, links and clicks are all available under /v2/property/link-groups, /v2/property/links and /v2/property/clicks with the shortlinks:read and shortlinks:write scopes. See the Short Links API. The short_link_id segment dimension in conversion segments and the Campaign Links and Campaign Click Map dashboard widgets read the same data.