Add a Tracked Link

You can add links that are tracked and reported on for statistical purposes.

The number of times a link was clicked through is reported when editing the mailing or survey and through analytics. See View Mailing Results.

After you have added tracked links to your system, they can be inserted in documents, templates, or snippets. See Insert a Tracked Link. Tracked links can also be inserted in several of the standard system-generated contact email messages. See How You Customize Messages. Adding tracked links to your contact emails are especially useful in tracking your customer-facing incident responses. See Incident Response Tracking.

Note: Due to the volume of tracked links that accumulate as new content is created, the Agedatabase utility regularly purges the database of orphaned tracked links. That is, links that have been defined but not used in any campaign, document, or mailing. The PURGE_TRACKED_LINK_DAYS configuration setting specifies the number of days after which an orphaned tracked link is removed from the database. The default value is 30 days. To turn off tracked link purging, set the value to 0.

1. Click Content Library on the navigation pane.
2. Double-click Tracked Links Explorer.
   The Tracked Links explorer opens on the content pane.
3. Click New.
   Tip: You can also create a tracked link from an open tracked link by clicking New. Additionally, if your navigation set is configured to add tracked links from the file menu, click File > Content Library > Tracked Link. See Overview of Navigation Sets.
   A new tracked link opens on the content pane.
4. Enter field information.

   Tracked Links Explorer

   Field	Description
   URL	Enter the full URL of the tracked link in this field.
   Open URL	Click this icon to open the URL.
   Merge Field	Click this icon to add a contact, incident, opportunity, or tracked link merge field to the URL.
   Menu Access Disabled	Select this check box to make the tracked link unavailable. Staff members cannot insert the link in a document.
   Unsubscribe	Select this check box to increment the unsubscribed count when this link is clicked in a mailing or survey. Note: Clicking the link does not change the contact’s opt-in status. Select this check box if you want to manage opt-in information outside of B2C Service.
   Category	Click this drop-down list and select a category to associate with the link. See Add or Edit a Tracked Link Category.
   Description	Enter a description for the tracked link in this field. The description is for internal use only and is not seen by contacts who receive a mailing or survey with the link.

5. To add a merge field to the URL, click the Merge Field icon.
   1. Select the database field you want to merge. Merge fields are populated with data from the contact record, account data or an associated incident, asset, opportunity, organization, or tracked link. You can also use the special fields that are available. The value of this field is appended to the URL as a parameter. For example, if you wanted to pass the login field value from the contact record, specifying http://www.global.example/regform.php?user=$contacts.login would return a URL such as http://www.global.example/regform.php?user=jsmith.
   2. Click OK to append the field to the URL.
6. To spell check the tracked link description, click Spelling on the ribbon.
7. Click Save.
   The Save As window opens.
8. Select the folder you want to save the tracked link in and enter the name of the tracked link in the Name field.
9. Click Save.