{"id":1454,"date":"2021-03-25T10:09:13","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T10:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/piar.io\/blog\/?p=1454"},"modified":"2021-03-25T14:02:58","modified_gmt":"2021-03-25T14:02:58","slug":"12-ways-to-increase-ctr-using-link-shorteners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/piar.io\/blog\/12-ways-to-increase-ctr-using-link-shorteners\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Ways to Increase CTR Using Link Shorteners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

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Link shorteners turn long Internet addresses into short and manageable ones. We’ll show you how to use a link shortener to increase your CTR. Further in the article, we\u2019ll share a case of increasing the CTR of links in LinkedIn cold messages by more than 500% with a link shortener.<\/span><\/p>\n

CTR is an indicator of clickability: the ratio of the number of clicks to the number of views. It’s expressed as a percentage. It measures how well your link or ad attracts users to your site.<\/span><\/p>\n

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For example, your link was seen by 20 people and clicked on by five. This means that the click-through rate of this link is 25%. 

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Why is this metric important?<\/b><\/p>\n

CTR will show which marketing efforts are working and which are not. A high CTR means your target audience saw your link and they showed interest. A low CTR could mean that you haven’t guessed your audience or need to work on your copy, keywords, or images. To understand how good your CTR is, you can compare it to the industry average.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, here’s a <\/span>chart from Wordsmith<\/span><\/a> with average CTR numbers for ads.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you add a link to your ad, a high CTR will help it appear earlier in search results. That way you can save money on advertising.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to increase the CTR of links?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Keep your links short. <\/strong>A short link is easier to share and looks better in your post. Marketer Neil Patel believes that the shorter the link, the better: People are more likely to remember the link and share it on social media. For a marketing campaign, you often have to add dynamic parameters, like UTM tags. They make links look long and spam-like. Link shorteners help hide all the technical information in the link without losing the ability to track traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A link with UTM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Use branded links.<\/strong> If you use a link shortener, you can choose their domain, and then the link will look like bit.ly\/akjhfisu, which is already better than a long link with technical parameters, but your readers will remember the service-shortener, not the name of your business. According to Bit.ly’s research, custom links increase CTR by 34%<\/a> compared to links using a link shortener domain. This study echoes Rebrandly’s data; they were able to get 39% more clicks. To use a branded link, you must purchase a custom personal domain and connect it to the link shortener. For example, when you connect a custom domain, Bitly replaces “bit.ly” in the links with your chosen name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cond\u00e9 Nast Traveler uses branded links created via Rebrandly.
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Another disadvantage of using a link shortener’s domain is that you’re not the only one using it. If your user has clicked on a short link that led to a fraudulent site, they are unlikely to trust that link again. If bit.ly is used for hacking, providers and email clients can add it to a blacklist; then your links will be affected as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s our guide on using branded links<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Add the specific keyword. <\/strong>The link is followed by a URL slug in which you can include a keyword that describes where the link goes: \/my-latest-post or \/our-special-offer. It’s great if the user knows right away where the link will lead.<\/gwmw><\/p>\n\n\n\n