Sometimes it’s easy to focus on creating and executing marketing strategies but challenging to evaluate the results. That’s why marketing teams need to find and use tools that simplify the process while returning finite, informative metrics.
A big part of this process is link tracking.
Link-tracking tools are vital components of measuring marketing campaigns and maximizing the return on investment (ROI). They give you meaty insights into which content performs well, what prompts prospects to take the next step, and where you can improve your initiatives.
But how do you know which link-tracking software to use?
To help you choose, below is our shortlist of the best tools available, including their top features and price points.
1. Bitly
Bitly is one of the most-recognized link-shortening tools on the market. But it’s so much more than that—which is why it earns the top spot on our list.
Bitly offers users a full suite of analytics that help companies manage their digital marketing efforts across multiple social media and other channels.
Organizations all over the world use us to build and track custom links and measure their multichannel campaign successes with deep-dive analytics. Coupled with the software’s security protocols (every link generated is encrypted), Bitly provides a solution that companies can be confident about.
Even though it’s chock-full of useful features, Bitly’s learning curve is minimal, helping you get up and running quickly.
Key features
- Creates branded links to optimize SEO and strengthen credibility.
- Tracks engagement metrics on organic shares, including links other Bitly users create for your content.
- Measures audience insight and helps track conversions to see which content resonates with your target audience.
- Allows you to export and review data in more depth for a granular view of marketing results.
- Integrates seamlessly with other popular marketing tools (Adobe, Khoros, Salesforce, Twilio, and Sprinklr).
Pricing options
- Free plan: Includes 10 bit.ly links per month, unlimited link clicks, and UTM builder.
- Core plan: Costs $8 per month and includes 100 bit.ly links per month, 30 days of click and scan data, and everything in the Free plan.
- Growth plan: Costs $29 per month and includes 500 branded short links per month, 4 months of click and scan data, and everything in the Core plan.
- Premium plan: Costs $199 per month and includes 3000 branded links per month, 1 year of click and scan data including city-level and device type, and everything in the Growth plan.
- Bitly for Enterprise: Custom-priced and tailored to each company’s needs, includes 10,000+ branded links per month, 2 years of click and scan data, and everything in the Premium plan.
2. ClickMagick
ClickMagick can track links and contribute to other important marketing initiatives like sales funnel optimization. Being able to track links across any platform from any device makes it a valuable tool for marketing teams, and its link management options are especially helpful for affiliate marketers.
Key features
- Advanced attribution modeling provides a way to accomplish accurate conversion tracking.
- Click Shield guards paid ad budgets from clicks that won’t lead to new business, like bots and competitors.
- Real-time stats help marketers see conversion rates faster and have access to more accurate trends.
- Over 100 affiliate integrations make it easier for affiliate marketers to grow their sales.
Pricing options
- Starter Package at $49 per month.
- Standard Package (which is the app’s most popular package) at $99 per month.
- Pro Package at $199 per month.
3. ClickMeter
ClickMeter is a URL shortener tool with robust metric gathering. This helps marketing teams track and translate performance into information that helps them make better decisions about their content and distribution. Marketing agencies especially benefit from ClickMeter’s ability to monitor cross-channel performance from a single platform.
Key features
- Keeps track of views, clicks, and conversions.
- Provides a way to perform A/B testing and determine which type of messaging works best.
- Uses tracking pixels for retargeting to help engage people who previously clicked one of your links.
- Monitors broken links, fraud, and blacklists.
Pricing options
- Free plan, which tracks 2500 clicks per month.
- Lite plan costs $12 per month.
- Essentials plan costs $28 per month.
- Professional plan, the company’s most popular, for $85 per month.
- Pro+ plan costs $359 per month.
- Enterprise plan that’s custom-priced based on a company’s needs.
4. Improvely
Improvely’s powerful link tracking helps organizations stay on top of where and how leads convert. The software builds a profile of every person who visits your site, giving you helpful insight into the clicks and visits that lead to customer conversions. Having these data points at your fingertips lets you make smart budget decisions and get the highest return on your investment.
Key features
- Tracks multiple link metrics on its clear, clean, unified dashboard for easy management.
- Monitors every click for real-time signs of fraud and sends alerts if it finds any suspicious activity.
- Provides instant email notifications when new conversions occur.
- Lets you A/B test your landing pages to find ways to improve their performance.
Pricing options
- Freelancer plan for $29 per month.
- Startup plan for $79 a month.
- Small Agency plan for $149 per month.
- Large Agency plan, starting at $299 a month (and up, depending on the company’s specific needs).
5. Snapt.io
Snapt.io gives marketers a quick way to create short links, understand their buyers better, gently retarget prospects, and increase customer conversions.
Snapt.io is built on the premise that to really drive success, companies need to understand buyer behavior. From there, they can create ways to increase engagement and conversions. The app gives users powerful ways to accomplish this while protecting their privacy with stringent permission controls.
Key features
- Lets you easily add branded domain names, create custom landing pages, and add custom pixels to track events.
- Optimizes the efforts that go into a marketing strategy with custom QR Codes to increase engagement and gather important data points.
- Provides geo-targeting to narrow down and attract specific buyer segments.
- Generates in-depth analytics that encompasses every link, giving you an accurate, cohesive picture of how your email marketing, content strategy, and paid ad campaigns are working.
Pricing options
- Price available via quote only.
6. Voluum
This tracker software gets high points in almost every category, especially for companies running affiliate programs. Track the links in all your ads like pay-per-click (PPC), banner ads, and anywhere else you’ve placed a link. Voluum collects a lot of high-quality data, which is key in determining where to allocate your spending to get the most out of your budget.
Voluum allows you to automate some of your tasks by creating rules. This feature saves time and increases your campaign efficiency.
Key features
- The Report feature is fast and allows you to monitor over 30 metrics about clicks, visits, and conversions. You can also auto-generate reports to share with partners and clients.
- Traffic Distribution AI takes the parts of the campaign performing the best and sends more of your traffic to these locations (which can be landing pages or offers).
- Affiliate Marketing Dashboard and Ad Tracker allow you to control your ad campaigns from one location.
- Bot filtering is easy with the software’s custom filtering rules, making it easy to block bot activity.
Pricing options
- Start-up plan, $499 per month and includes 12 months of chat support and data retention.
- Agency plan, $999 per month.
- Enterprise plan, $1,999 per month.
7. LinkTrackr
LinkTrackr provides a way to review campaigns and improve upon past success—and it lets you get granular. This software tracks conversions back to the first click, giving you insight into which source and content were successful at sparking engagement and interest.
You can customize every element of this software solution to fit into your processes and meet the goals you’re trying to accomplish.
Key features
- Avoids duplicate conversions with intelligent conversion rules that can easily be changed and modified to serve your purposes.
- Follows each conversion with its ROI and Profitability Reports to provide information on how much the conversion cost and how profitable it will be.
- Discovers which keywords perform best by tracking each conversion back to the referring keyword. This knowledge helps you tighten up your spending.
- Rotates traffic across URLs by employing a URL rotator through A/B split testing.
Pricing options
- Basic plan, $7 per month.
- Pro plan (which the website recommends), $17 per month
- Hyper plan, $27 per month.
- Extreme plan, $47 per month.
8. Pretty Links
Pretty Links is a bit different from the others on the list: It’s a WordPress plugin. That said, Pretty Links offers a powerful solution to affiliate marketers using the WordPress CMS who want an easy way to shorten, cloak, and track their links.
As the name suggests, the software takes long, unattractive affiliate links and gives them a makeover. That way, they’re more appealing to your audience to encourage a higher click volume. Pretty Links also serves as click tracker software and gives users a way to monitor their conversions.
Key features
- Brandable Bar (called the PrettyBar) lets users add their company name above the link to increase brand recognition.
- Redirection Tool provides a solution for advanced redirection. One link can redirect up to five different target URLs.
- Automations add links and post your content automatically (bloggers love this feature).
- Link Health scans your website for broken links and sends you an instant notification, so you can get them fixed fast.
Pricing options
- Beginner package, $99.50 per year.
- Marketer package (Pretty Links’ most popular plan), $149.50 per year.
- Super Affiliate package, $199.50 per year.
Track links easily with Bitly
Creating links from your custom domain, adding them to your organic and paid campaigns, and tracking clicks and conversions provides priceless intel. You can use it to discover which keywords and campaigns are working and which need to be improved—or scrapped altogether.
Bitly is your go-to link-tracking software tool to shorten and brand your links and provide powerful metrics to help guide your business strategies.
Check out our solutions for organizations of all sizes, from small startups to major enterprises, and get started for free!
