Use BL.INK's Dynamic Link feature to intelligently route clicks by day, date, time, language, device, and geography. One click, endless outcomes.
What is a Dynamic Link?
BL.INK's dynamic link feature allows users to create links that route visitors to different destinations based on the selected variable(s).
For example, let’s say a company has a mobile app for iOS and Android devices. Rather than taking the visitor to an intermediary page that has iOS and Android buttons or links, users can set up a Dynamic Link to detect the device type and then dynamically route the visitor to the appropriate destination link. In addition, users can see detailed analytics about exactly which device type is most popular.
BL.INK supports dynamic link routing for the following variables:
1. Day of Week
2. Time of Day
3. Date/Time
4. Device
5. Language
6. Geography (by US States or by Country)
Users may use any combination or multiple of the above variables to create incredibly simple or complex routes.
The dynamic link feature is designed in an “If, Then” format.
A dynamic link allows users to create a rule that looks something like this:
If the click comes from the United States, then route it to the U.S. home page. If the click comes from Canada, then route them to the Canadian home page.
Creating Dynamic Links from a Template
BLINK offers the ability to create a dynamic link from a Rules Template. The Rules Templates include Desktop vs. Mobile, Operating System, and Language for dynamic links.
Start by selecting the template for your dynamic link, and the form will automatically update with the required fields.
For a Desktop vs. Mobile link, select the dial at the top of the New Dynamic Link form.
Fill in the fields for Desktop URL and Mobile URL, customize your keyword, and save the link. BLINK will automatically create the associated rule links and they can be viewed on your My Links page or by clicking on the Graph icon to the right of the rule link to view the Expanded Stats and Link Details.
To create an Operating System dynamic link, click the dial for Operating System. BLINK offers the following options for operating system:
- iOS
- Android
- MacOS
- Windows
Enter the destination URLs for each operating system and then click Save.
Language template dynamic links can include up to two languages. To create a Language dynamic link, click on the Language dial, select the language, and enter the destination URL. To support more than two languages, you may create a Custom dynamic link, covered in the section below.
Creating Custom Dynamic Links
In order to start creating Dynamic Links, users must first add a custom domain to the BL.INK account. If a custom domain has not been added to the account, the Dynamic Links will not appear in the dashboard.
To get started, first users will need to set up branded links for each of the destinations.
NOTE:
Users cannot route to a link that does not yet exist in BL.INK. Creating the branded short links first will streamline the process of setting up a Dynamic Link.
TIP:
As a best practice, it can be easier to work backward in the process. As a first step, define all of the potential outcomes and the associated short links before setting up the Dynamic Link.
For example, if the rule is based on "Device", users will need to set up a branded link for each device type.
yourdomain.com/ios , yourdomain.com/android
Keep in mind that every Dynamic Link will also need a "catch-all" address, which will serve as the destination if none of the rules are met.
For the example above, if someone clicks on the link and their "Device" is not iOS or Android, they will be routed to the "catch-all" destination.
For the "catchall-link", you will create something like
yourdomain.com/catchall
Here's more information on creating branded links.
Once the branded links have been created, then users may create a new Dynamic Link.
To create the dynamic link, make sure the correct domain is selected in the drop-down menu at the top of the dashboard, then click New Link > Dynamic Link.
Select the rules template for the dynamic link. BL.INK offers templates for:
- Desktop vs. Mobile
- Operating System
- Language
If you wish to use another variable, select the dial for Custom.
NOTE:
The custom dial allows users to choose from Day of Week, Time of Day, Date/Time, Device/Desktop, Language, and Country.
Below, we'll walk through the example of Device from above.
Enter the keyword (the word or string of characters that comes after the / ), for the new Dynamic Link. Enter any additional options (ex. description, tags, groups, etc.). Then click Save.
On the next screen, click + Assign link to enable and click on the short link that was created for the "catch-all" link.
Once the catchall has been selected, then set the rules. Click the plus sign in the upper right to create a new rule.
Select the variable set from the first drop-down. For this example, we'll select Device/Desktop.
In the second drop-down, select Is or Is Not (depending on the specific rule being added).
NOTE:
The second drop-down creates the condition. For most of the variables, Is or Is Not will show here.
For time/date rules, users will have the option to choose from Before or After.
From the third drop-down, select the first variable option for the ruleset. So if you're creating a time-of-day, based rule, enter the specific time. If you're setting up a rule based on country, select the specific country from the third drop-down.
In our example, we're using Device/Desktop, so we'll choose iPhone.
Then click Select Link in the upper right.
Find the link in the list, and click on the link's keyword to select the link. Once the link is selected, you'll be taken back to the Rules page, where you may click the plus sign (on the upper-right side) button to add additional rules.
Follow the same steps to set the rule, conditions, and links for each variable.
Keep in mind that the Dynamic Link rules process from the top to the bottom, and the processing stops when the first matching rule is found.
Users may rearrange the sort-order by entering numeric values on the Rules page and clicking Reorder and the rules will re-sort according to the numbers entered.
Once your rules have been added, the Dynamic Link is in place and can be shared.
Analytics for Dynamic Links
Statistics are not reported at the Dynamic Link level. All detailed analytics are stored within the branded short links.
To record analytics about the traffic originated for a Dynamic Link, it is recommended that users create a new short link and point it to the Dynamic Link as the destination. This will enable users to collect full analytics for inbound and outbound traffic.
Still have questions? We are here to help. Feel free to reach out!