SMS marketing campaigns differ from one company to another. Text messages can be adjusted according to the needs of the business, whether as a primary communication platform, promotional tool, or simply as a complementary method to other marketing strategies. Whatever type of message your company needs, a URL shortener is necessary to ensure a successful SMS campaign.
A URL shortener is a straightforward tool that converts long URLs into more concise ones. Link shortening is crucial in SMS marketing, where space is at a premium due to the 160-character limit of SMS messages. As an SMS marketer, you certainly don’t want the bulk of your message consumed by a lengthy URL, highlighting the necessity of a link shortener.
All SMS links share a common purpose: directing your subscribers to a specific location where they can take action, whether placing an order on your online store or rescheduling a dentist appointment. The challenge with long URLs is that they occupy too many valuable characters in text messages, appear unprofessional, and may even be flagged as spam. This article will give us the 10 best URL shorteners to shorten links for your SMS marketing campaign.
1. Bitly
Bitly is a comprehensive, business-grade URL shortener that’s simple to use and packed with features. It allows you to create shortened links quickly and offers a robust dashboard to track the performance of your social links and campaigns. Additionally, you can generate QR codes for all your short links and utilize a link-in-bio feature, making it a one-stop solution for link management.
While Bitly once offered a valuable free account, the current free plan is less appealing. It limits you to 10 monthly links with only five custom URL suffixes (e.g., bit.ly/CUSTOM). Older free accounts, like mine, still benefit from up to 10,000 links per month, a figure that exceeds most of the standard paid plans.
The $35-per-month Growth plan includes a free custom domain, lets you create 1,500 links monthly, and provides more detailed data on link clicks. For more significant needs, the Premium plan at $50 per month offers 3,000 links monthly and detailed analytics down to city-level data and device types, among other features. A Core plan offers 100 links per month for an upfront payment of $96, which averages out to $8 per month over the year.
Bitly is an excellent choice for large online businesses that share numerous links and wish to brand and track them. It’s also suitable for small businesses that must generate short URLs and monitor their campaign stats. With its longstanding reputation and reliability, Bitly is a safe choice. While a thorough comparison with other apps might reveal better deals for specific features, Bitly’s comprehensive service is unlikely to disappoint.
Moreover, Bitly integrates with Zapier, allowing for automated tasks like generating short links from an RSS feed or adding new links to a spreadsheet.
Pros:
- Offers a comprehensive suite of URL-shortening features in a single app
- Has been reliably shortening links for over 15 years
- Provides a broad range of standard and customized plans to suit a variety of needs
Cons:
- The free tier is less generous than before
Pricing: Bitly plans start at $35 per month for the Growth plan, which includes 1,500 links monthly. For more significant needs, you can opt for the Premium or Core plan.
2. Rebrandly
Rebrandly is a robust link management platform designed to brand, track, and share short URLs using custom domain names. A link connects every piece of valuable information you share online, and each link is an asset for your company. Why highlight another brand’s name? At Rebrandly, your brand always comes first, putting the control over your links back into your hands.
This tool excels in creating and managing links for SMS marketing campaigns and stands out as one of the best in the market. If you’re seeking a powerful alternative to Bitly, Rebrandly is worth exploring. Despite recently reducing its free plan like Bitly did a few years ago, Rebrandly offers compelling paid options. The Essentials plan provides 250 branded links per month for $14 or 500 branded links for $19, without requiring an annual commitment upfront, unlike Bitly’s cheapest plan. This flexibility makes it an excellent choice if you anticipate exceeding the free plan but don’t want a long-term contract.
Upgrading to the $39-per-month Essentials plan or the $399-per-month Enterprise plan grants you even greater control over your links and their destinations, advanced analytics, and, with the Enterprise plan, support for five or more users.
Additionally, Rebrandly offers a delightful user experience. The web app is fast and minimalist and includes tools for tracking link popularity, data on who’s clicking your links, and automatic QR code generation. Like Bitly, it also features a link-in-bio tool called LinkGallery. It integrates seamlessly with Zapier, enabling automation for tasks such as creating links from Google Sheets or adding new links to Buffer.
Pros:
- A sleek, straightforward web app with all features easily accessible
- An affordable entry-level plan without the need for upfront annual payment
- User-friendly and intuitive interface
Cons:
- Some advanced features may require technical knowledge to be utilized fully.
Pricing: Rebrandly plans start at $14 per month for the Essentials plan.
3. Ow.ly
If you’re seeking a simple and free URL shortener, Ow.ly by Hootsuite could be the one for you. Although it only has three plans (including a Basic free plan), Ow.ly is undoubtedly a powerful tool for managing your links.
Ow.ly’s URLs are shared under the ‘Hootsuite’ domain, but custom link management is available in paid plans. The Premium plan offers features like UTM tracking and link retargeting to reach your target audience effectively.
However, Ow.ly is less comprehensive in terms of analytics than Bitly or Rebrandly. It also lacks advanced features such as QR code generation or integration with other apps through Zapier. But if you’re looking for simplicity, Ow.ly may be the perfect choice for your SMS marketing campaign.
Pros:
- Simple and easy to use
- Free basic plan without any limitations on the number of links created
Cons:
- Limited analytics and features compared to other URL shorteners
Pricing: Ow.ly plans start at $29 monthly for the Premium plans.
4. TinyURL
TinyURL, a free link shortener established in 2002, is still popular because of its simplicity and reliability. It’s an invaluable tool to create a short link that never expires quickly. You can paste your long URL into the provided field, optionally customize the second half of the URL, and click Shorten URL. The resulting link can be used indefinitely without any concerns about becoming inactive.
While TinyURL doesn’t require an account for primary use, signing up allows you to view a history of all your shortened links. A paid subscription is available for those seeking advanced features like tracking and analytics, branded domains, and editing TinyURLs post-creation. For straightforward link-shortening needs, TinyURL delivers effortlessly.
Pros:
- Free and easy to use
- There are no expiration dates for shortened links
Cons:
- Limited features and analytics compared to other URL shorteners
Pricing: A paid subscription starts at $9.99 per month.
5. Shorby
Shorby is a unique URL shortener that does more than shorten links. It also drives traffic to your social media profiles and online stores by creating a landing page for your Instagram bio link. With Shorby, you can create multiple links for different destinations, customize the look of your landing pages, and track engagement with detailed analytics.
While Shorby has a free trial period, it’s generally more expensive than other URL shorteners. Its Basic plan starts at $12 per month (billed annually) and offers features like custom domains and QR codes. The Pro and Agency plans to provide additional features, such as deeper analytics and unlimited links, but at a higher cost.
Pros:
- Creates landing pages for social media profiles and online stores
- Customizable designs for landing pages
Cons:
- Higher cost compared to other URL shorteners
Pricing: Paid plans start at $12 per month for the Basic plan.
6. Short.io
Short.io is one of the few comprehensive link shorteners that offers a generous free plan, making it an excellent choice for beginners. You can start with the free plan and later upgrade to more feature-rich paid options.
When adding a link, you can click the Apple, Android, or Globe icon to select how you want to target your audience and which link to serve them. While it’s possible to send different content to iOS users versus desktop users, this can be confusing for all involved—yourself included. It’s best to use this feature strategically only when you have a specific reason to direct different types of visitors to slightly varied web pages.
Short.io stands out as a fantastic URL shortener. Unlike most alternatives, it requires you to use your custom domain. However, even on the free plan, you receive five custom domains, an offer unmatched by other apps on this list. You can set a default domain for any non-functional short link and delve deep into analytics within the Statistics and Clicks Stream sections.
Additionally, Short.io integrates with Zapier, allowing you to automate tasks like creating new short links from an RSS feed or Shopify products.
Pros:
- Its cheapest plan includes advanced targeting and analytics.
- Offers a superior free plan.
Cons:
- Custom domains require technical knowledge to set up.
Pricing: The free plan includes 1,000 branded links, 50,000 tracked clicks, and device targeting. The personal plan starts at $19/month and offers unlimited branded links and geo-targeting.
7. Sniply
Sniply isn’t your typical URL shortener. Instead of shortening links, you can add a call-to-action button or banner to any webpage you share. It allows you to promote your content while sharing others’ articles and blog posts on social media.
While Sniply offers a free plan with limited features, its paid plans provide more customization options, such as adding custom domains and removing the Sniply branding. It also integrates with apps like Buffer, Hootsuite, and Zapier for easy link sharing across platforms.
However, some users may find Sniply’s added call to action intrusive or annoying when trying to access the original content shared by someone else.
Pros:
- Ability to add call-to-action buttons or banners to shared content
- Integrates with popular social media management apps
Cons:
- Added call-to-action may be viewed as intrusive by some users
Pricing: The free plan offers limited features, while the paid plans start at $29 monthly.
8. BL.INK
BL.INK is a comprehensive URL shortener service for small businesses and enterprises. It transforms lengthy URLs into concise ones and tracks the traffic from these links. The dashboard reveals trending links and overall statistics. You can also explore the analytics page, which offers detailed insights into traffic based on device, location, and referrers. BL.INK also allows you to analyze clicks by the time of day. Tags can be added to shortened links to monitor traffic from specific campaigns. Dynamic Links will enable you to direct users to different destinations based on location, device, and time of day.
BL.INK provides four tiers of paid plans starting at $48/month, catering to the needs of small businesses, teams, and larger enterprises, depending on the number of links you need to generate and track. Free accounts can create up to 1,000 active links, track up to 1,000 clicks per link, and set up a custom domain for branded links. If your business requires a robust URL shortener that is accessible to the entire team, BL.INK is an excellent choice. It offers features like multi-user access for less than $50 a month, which can cost hundreds of dollars monthly with other link shorteners.
Additionally, BL.INK integrates with Zapier, enabling automated actions such as creating short links from new WordPress posts or spreadsheet entries.
Pros:
- The free plan allows for the use of a custom domain.
- The Pro plan includes extra features including, team member access at a fraction of the cost of other apps.
Cons:
- More expensive than other URL shorteners
Pricing: The basic plan starts at $48/month and includes 5,000 active links and tracking up to 50,000 clicks per link. Enterprise’s highest tier starts at $1,500/month and offers unlimited links and clicks.
9. Zapier URL Shortener
Zapier URL Shortener is ideal for users who wish to create and save shortened links across over 6,000 apps automatically. You can do this when you share a photo to Instagram or add a new product to Shopify—Zapier’s URL Shortener is your solution.
With Zapier, you can set up a Zap (an automated workflow) that triggers whenever you upload a post, create a product, or perform another action in your favorite apps. Zapier can then save the shortened URL to a Google Sheet or send it directly to another app. It makes sharing links quick and easy, as you don’t have to manually copy and paste them into each platform.
However, Zapier’s URL Shortener is not a standalone service, unlike other URL shorteners on this list. To access its features, you need a Zapier account and an active subscription starting at $20/month.
Pros:
- Automated link creation across multiple apps
- Integrates with over 6,000 apps
Cons:
- Requires an active Zapier subscription
Pricing: The basic plan costs $20/month for up to 750 monthly tasks; the highest tier is $600/month for up to 50,000 monthly functions.
10. JotURL
JotURL is a comprehensive link management platform with URL shortening, tracking, and optimization features. It allows you to create short links with custom domains and track clicks in real-time, with data on referrers, locations, devices, and more.
One unique feature of JotURL is its social media tracker, which tracks the performance of your links across different social media platforms. It also offers advanced targeting options like geolocation redirection and device-based redirects.
Additionally, JotURL integrates with popular apps like Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel to enhance its analytics capabilities. However, it can be expensive compared to other URL shorteners on this list.
Pros:
- Advanced targeting options
- Integrates with popular apps for enhanced analytics
Cons:
- Expensive compared to other URL shorteners
Pricing: The starter plan starts at $49/month for up to 10,000 clicks and goes up to $199/month for 100,000 clicks. Custom plans are also available for higher volumes of clicks.
Why Use Short Links on SMS Marketing?
Using short links in SMS marketing offers several key advantages. First, short links make your messages appear cleaner and more professional, enhancing the overall presentation. With limited character counts, short links help you convey your message concisely without overwhelming recipients. Short links also provide better tracking and analytics, allowing you to measure campaign performance effectively. Integrating short links ensures your audience receives a neat, targeted message that drives engagement and conversions.
Shortening links in SMS marketing is crucial due to the 160-character limit per message. Short links save space, look cleaner, and appear more trustworthy, enhancing engagement. They also prevent messages from looking spammy and ensure tracking parameters stay intact, making gathering insights and maintaining functionality easier.
Recipients view shortened links positively, seeing them as more streamlined and professional. Short links instill trust, appearing intentional and well-constructed, unlike long URLs that may look suspicious or like spam. This trust leads to higher click-through rates and better engagement. Using short links, marketers can enhance the effectiveness of their SMS campaigns, ensuring their message resonates with the target audience.
How are URL Shorteners Possible in SMS Marketing?
URL shorteners convert a long URL into a much shorter one, typically consisting of a domain name followed by a unique identifier. This process involves creating a redirect link that points to the original, longer URL. Users who click the shortened link are quickly redirected to the intended destination.
How it works:
- User Input: The user provides the long URL they wish to shorten.
- Storage: The URL shortener service generates a unique identifier for the given URL and stores this identifier along with the original URL in its database.
- Link Creation: The service then concatenates this unique identifier to its domain name, creating a shortened link.
- Access: When someone clicks on the shortened link, the service looks up the unique identifier in its database, retrieves the original URL, and redirects the user to it.
- Tracking: The service can also track clicks and provide analytics on the shortened link’s performance, giving marketers valuable insights into their campaigns.
In SMS marketing, a URL shortener allows marketers to include links to websites, landing pages, or other online resources without exceeding the character count limit. It also enables them to track click-through rates and optimize their campaigns for better results.
What are the Benefits of Using Link Shortening Services in SMS Campaigns?
Shortening links for SMS campaigns has several advantages. Here are some of the benefits of using link-shortening services for your campaigns.
- Space-saving: The 160-character limit in SMS marketing means that every character counts. Short links help save space and allow marketers to include more information in their messages.
- Professional appearance: Long, complicated URLs can appear messy and unprofessional when included in an SMS. Short links are cleaner and more concise, giving a professional impression to recipients.
- Trackability: By tracking clicks and gathering analytics from shortened links, marketers can gain valuable insights into their campaigns’ performance and make necessary adjustments for better results.
- Improved engagement: Recipients view short links positively as they appear more trustworthy and intentional. This trust leads to higher click-through rates and better engagement with the campaign.
- Easy to remember: Short links are more accessible for recipients, making it more likely for them to visit the link later, even if they don’t click on it immediately after receiving the message.
You can also read more about the SMS marketing benefits to know how to leverage this platform for your marketing strategy.
How to Shorten your URLs?
Now that you understand how to use SMS short links, it’s time to learn how to create one. Follow this step-by-step guide to shorten URLs and send them via text:
- Select a Link-Shortening Service: Begin by choosing a link-shortening website to condense your long URL. Many options, such as Bitly, Rebrandly, and TinyURL, offer this service. Select the one that best meets your needs and create an account.
- Generate a Shortened Link: Enter the URL you wish to shorten after setting up your account. Press enter, and the service will produce a concise link for you.
- Craft Your Message: Begin drafting your SMS message, ensuring it’s clear and concise. Remember, SMS messages have a 160-character limit, so every character counts. If you’re unsure where to start, we offer a curated library of SMS templates to meet virtually all your needs.
- Compose Your SMS: Select an SMS service provider to send your message along with the shortened link. After choosing a platform, add your message and the short SMS link. For instance, JookSMS is an excellent choice. JookSMS provides a simple, secure, and reliable messaging platform suitable for businesses of all sizes. This bulk SMS service enables you to send personalized messages to customers via text, chat, and audio and also supports two-way messaging. You can use JookSMS to send your message with shortened links to your customers efficiently.
- Sending Your SMS: Review it carefully after composing your message on a bulk SMS platform like JookSMS. Make sure the shortened link functions correctly. Once everything is in order, click send, and your audience will receive the SMS with the shortened link.
What are the Best Practices for Using Shortened Links in SMS Campaigns?
To ensure the success of your SMS campaigns using shortened links, here are some best practices to keep in mind:
- Create Short Links with a Branded Domain: People are more likely to remember a branded domain over a generic one. Ensure that your shortened URL reflects your branded domain.
- Utilize Customized URLs: Be specific by further customizing your URLs. Each URL segment can be tailored, allowing you to use your branded domain as the base for multiple URLs, each representing different products, features, categories, etc.
- Use Shorter Links for Social Profiles: Branded, customized, shorter URLs are excellent for boosting social engagement, as they help convey and promote your brand effectively.
- Leverage Short Links for Podcasts and Radio: Long URLs can be complex and challenging to remember. When marketing on the radio or podcasts, short links make it easier for people to recall and access the links you share. Shorter URLs drive more traffic!
- Use Short Links for Print: When printing URLs, it’s crucial that people easily remember the link to visit later. Short links in printed marketing materials make this much more accessible.
- Validate Data: When you publish shortened links across partner websites, your site, ads, and social media platforms, you’ll gather data from all these sources. Don’t rely solely on this data to measure ROI; validate it yourself for more accurate insights.
- Utilize UTM Tracking Codes: UTM codes are essential for shortening URLs. Properly use UTM parameters to identify your direct traffic sources accurately.
- Collaborate with Influencers Using Short Links: Employ short links when working with influencers to determine which marketing efforts yield your expected ROI.
- Maximize ROI with Short Links in Paid Ads: Investing in social media marketing requires focusing on return on investment (ROI). Utilizing short, customized links for paid ads drives more traffic and ensures better results.
- Enhance Your Brand with Custom Short Links: URLs are part of your brand’s first impression. Creating custom short links with relevant keywords enhances your brand’s presence and leaves a lasting positive impression.
With these best practices for using URL shorteners, avoiding common pitfalls is essential.
What are the Challenges of URL Shorteners?
While using URL shorteners can bring many benefits to SMS marketing campaigns, it is essential to be aware of potential challenges that may arise:
- Link rot: Shortened URLs have an expiration date, and if the link isn’t updated or renewed, it will no longer work. This can lead to a negative user experience and impact campaign success.
- Risk of phishing and malware attacks: Since shortened links hide the original destination, malicious actors may use them to redirect users to harmful websites. As such, it’s crucial only to use reputable link-shortening services.
- Limited tracking data: While shortened links provide valuable data on clicks and conversions, they do not offer as much information as direct website visits. This limited tracking data can make it more challenging to measure the effectiveness of an SMS campaign.
Despite these challenges, by carefully choosing a trusted link-shortening service and regularly monitoring your shortened links’ expiration dates, you can mitigate potential issues and reap the many benefits of using shortened URLs in your SMS marketing campaigns.
How to Ensure Security When Using Shortened URLs in SMS Messages?
To ensure the security of using shortened URLs in SMS messages, here are some additional measures you can take:
- Use HTTPS: Make sure the link-shortening service uses secure HTTPS connections to encrypt data and protect it from being intercepted.
- Avoid sharing sensitive information through shortened links: It’s best to avoid sending sensitive information such as passwords or account details, as these can be vulnerable to phishing attacks.
- Regularly check your links for spam: Monitor your shortened links to ensure they have not been flagged for spam or suspicious activity. It is imperative if you are using a link-shortening service that allows users to create their custom URLs.
- Educate your audience: Inform your customers about the potential risks of clicking on shortened links and how to identify a safe link. It can help prevent them from falling victim to phishing or malware attacks.
By following these precautions, you can ensure the security and safety of using shortened URLs in your SMS marketing campaigns. With the proper practices, shortened links can be a highly effective tool for driving engagement and conversions with your audience.
How to Track Engagement with Short URLs in SMS Marketing?
It is imperative to employ robust tracking mechanisms to track engagement with short URLs in SMS marketing effectively. Tracking the performance of short URLs helps marketers understand how their audience interacts with the links, allowing for better campaign optimization and targeting.
One of the best ways to track engagement is through URL-shortening services that offer built-in analytics. These services typically provide detailed reports on metrics such as click-through rates, geographical location, device types, and access time. This granular data helps measure each campaign’s effectiveness and makes identifying which strategies work best easier.
Two of the leading tracking tools that excel in these capacities are Bitly and Google Analytics:
- Bitly – This popular link-shortening service offers comprehensive analytics, including real-time data and detailed insights into engagement.
- Google Analytics – By using UTM tracking codes in shortened URLs, marketers can easily track traffic from SMS campaigns to their website or landing page through Google Analytics. This allows for a more in-depth understanding of the customer journey and helps measure overall campaign success.
By leveraging these tracking tools, marketers can gain valuable insights into how audiences engage with shortened URLs in their SMS marketing campaigns and make informed decisions for future strategies. Read and discover more of the best conversion tracking tools for your business.
Do URL Shorteners Increase Conversion Rate?
Yes. URL shorteners boost SMS conversion rates by compressing long URLs, freeing up space in the 160-character limit for essential content, which intrigues recipients and encourages clicks. Long URLs can make SMS messages appear cluttered and unattractive. Visual appeal is crucial for capturing attention and encouraging engagement. Shortened URLs are more visually pleasing and enhance readability, increasing the likelihood of attracting the recipient’s attention. The clarity and neatness of a shortened URL can lend an SMS message a more polished and trustworthy appearance.
Short URLs address this issue by maintaining their compact form, making messages more straightforward to read. Recipients can quickly grasp the link’s purpose and decide whether to click on it. URL shorteners enhance SMS marketing by providing tracking and analytics to monitor clicks and conversions. This data helps marketers evaluate success and optimize future strategies. Shortened URLs make messages concise, visually appealing, and easier to read, improving click-through rates and maximizing character limits.
Are Links Included in SMS Call-to-Action Messages?
Yes. Including links in SMS and call-to-action messages can significantly enhance the campaign’s effectiveness. Links provide an immediate path for recipients to act, whether purchasing, signing up for a newsletter, or accessing more information about a product or service. This direct access increases the likelihood of engagement, as recipients don’t have to remember to visit a website or follow up later—they can take action instantly.
Moreover, including links allows marketers to leverage analytics tools in tracking click-through rates and user behavior and offers valuable insights into campaign performance. This data can refine marketing strategies, ensuring better targeting and relevance in future messages. In addition, using shortened URLs makes the SMS message cleaner and more professional, enhancing readability and user experience. Therefore, links in SMS call-to-action messages boost engagement and provide actionable metrics for continuous campaign improvement. You may also read more about CTA in SMS Marketing to understand more about compelling call-to-actions in text marketing.