A launch-day checklist for campaign links

On launch day a broken link is found by customers first. The fixes are easy, but only if someone looks before the email is sent, the ad is live and the flyers are printed. This list is in the order to work through it.

The week before

• Publish the destination. Every link needs a real page to point at. If the page is not ready, point the link at a holding page now and change the destination on the day. The short link stays the same.
• Create one link per channel. Use Campaigns & UTM to make a tagged short link for each place you will share: the newsletter, each social network, ads, print. One link for everything means one number for everything.
• Choose back-halves people can read. On paid plans, lnki.io/autumn is easier to trust and to type than a random code.
• Make the QR codes from the print channel's link, and send artwork to the printer only after a test scan. QR codes that scan first time has the print checks.
• File everything together. One folder for the campaign, so that on the day nobody is searching.

The day before

1. Click every link yourself, on a phone and on a computer. Check that it opens the right page and that the address bar shows the UTM parameters you expect.
2. Check expiry dates. A link that was given a 7-day expiry while you were testing will stop working mid-campaign.
3. Check passwords. A password-protected link in a public post stops everyone. Only the links meant for a closed audience should have one.
4. Load the landing page on mobile data. The short link only gets people to the page. A heavy page still loses them.
5. Check your plan's click allowance if this campaign is much larger than usual. Plans include up to 10,000 clicks a month on Starter, 100,000 on Pro and 1,000,000 on Business.

Launch day

• Paste, do not retype. Copy each link from the Tagged links tab into the tool that sends it.
• Match link to channel. The newsletter link in a social post files those clicks under the wrong channel, and nothing will tell you.
• Send yourself the email first and click the links in the real message, not the draft.

An hour after

Open Analytics. A click shows up within about a minute, so by now there should be numbers.

• Clicks are arriving on every channel. The Campaigns & UTM overview shows clicks per campaign and per channel. A channel at zero an hour after its post usually means a wrong or missing link.
• Nothing is broken. The Needs attention card on the Analytics overview lists links that point to a broken page.
• Filtered out looks normal. Previews and bots are counted separately from clicks. A rise there right after posting is usually apps fetching previews of the link, not a problem.

The week after

Compare the channels while the campaign is fresh, and write down what you would change: a channel that did nothing, a name that confused people, a link somebody had to fix. Then give time-limited links an expiry date, or point them at whatever comes next, so that late clicks do not land on a finished offer.

The campaign links tutorial covers the Builder, and UTM parameters explained the naming scheme behind it.