Reaching your audience across multiple platforms takes more than just great content—it takes the right tools to connect, engage, and measure success. Bitly provides an all-in-one solution to help you do just that.
With features like branded short links and QR Codes, customizable landing pages, and engagement analytics, Bitly helps you create seamless customer experiences and build meaningful connections. Plus, you can track every click, scan, and interaction to optimize your campaigns in real time.
Ready to unlock the full potential of your digital marketing strategy? Let’s get started!
Note: The brands and examples discussed below were found during our online research for this article.
Why Bitly is a must-have for digital marketing
Bitly is a must-have for digital marketing because it gives you one platform to create, share, and track every link, QR Code, and landing page across your campaigns. Whether you’re running social media ads, email sequences, SMS campaigns, or out-of-home placements, Bitly connects every touchpoint to real-time performance data.
The benefits of digital marketing for small businesses are undeniable—but managing campaigns across multiple channels can quickly become complicated. Bitly simplifies that complexity with tools that are straightforward, adaptable, and built to integrate seamlessly into your marketing workflow.
The Bitly Connections Platform brings together four core tools for digital marketers:
- Bitly Links: Convert long URLs into branded short links that build recognition and fit any channel—social, email, SMS, or print. Create them with the Bitly URL shortener.
- Bitly QR Codes: Generate dynamic, on-brand QR Codes that connect offline marketing materials to online destinations—and update the destination anytime. Learn more about Bitly Codes.
- Bitly Pages: Build mobile-friendly landing pages without writing a single line of code—ideal for campaigns, events, and product launches. Explore Bitly Pages.
- Bitly Analytics: Measure clicks, scans, and engagement across every asset from one centralized view. Dig into the data with Bitly Analytics.
|
Product |
What it does |
Best for |
|---|---|---|
|
Bitly Links |
Shorten, brand, and track URLs |
Social media, email, SMS, print |
|
Bitly Codes |
Create and manage dynamic QR Codes |
Packaging, events, and out-of-home |
|
Bitly Pages |
Build no-code campaign landing pages |
Promotions, bios, and event sign-ups |
|
Bitly Analytics |
Track clicks, scans, and engagement |
Campaign measurement and reporting |
Together, these tools give you full visibility into how your audience moves from discovery to action—and which marketing strategies generate the strongest ROI.
How to get started with Bitly
Setting up a Bitly account takes just a few minutes—and you can start building marketing assets right away.
Step 1: Create a free account
You can create an account using your email address or by logging in with your existing Google account. Bitly offers a variety of free marketing tools, so you can immediately start creating short links and QR Codes for your digital marketing campaigns.
Step 2: Choose the right plan for your marketing goals
The Free plan is a great starting point—but growing businesses often need more. Here’s a quick look at what each tier unlocks:
|
Feature |
Free plan |
Paid plans |
|---|---|---|
|
Short links |
✓ (monthly limit applies) |
✓ (higher monthly limits) |
|
QR Codes |
✓ (monthly limit applies) |
✓ (higher monthly limits) |
|
Custom back-halves |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Custom domains |
✗ |
✓ |
|
Advanced analytics |
Limited |
✓ Full access |
|
Bitly Pages |
✓ (monthly limit applies) |
✓ (higher monthly limits) |
Compare our plans to find the right fit for your team’s digital marketing needs.
A step-by-step guide to using Bitly for digital marketing
Ready to incorporate Bitly into your digital marketing campaigns? Here’s a step-by-step guide to get you started.
Step 1: Shorten and brand your first link
Now that you’ve created an account, it’s time to create your first short link. The process is straightforward—just copy the URL you want to shorten and paste it into the URL shortening box. Bitly will automatically generate the short link, which you can use in your marketing campaigns right away.
You can also personalize your link by adding a custom back-half. Subscribers on certain paid plans can add a custom domain as well, rather than using the bit.ly domain.
In the Links list, you’ll see all your short links in one place. You can redirect these URLs at any time and even add UTM parameters for detailed tracking. When launching a new marketing campaign, you can shorten links in bulk to save time.
Step 2: Generate your first QR Code
Bitly offers QR Codes for marketers to use on physical and digital assets. With your Bitly account, you can generate custom QR Codes for everything from store signage to product packaging to magazine ads.
To create a QR Code with Bitly, start by pasting your destination URL into the generator. Then, you’ll be able to customize your QR Code’s appearance by changing the patterns, colors, frame, and CTA. Paid plans offer advanced customization options and even allow you to add your logo to the QR Code.
Once you’ve finalized your QR Code, you can copy and paste it directly into your marketing assets or download it in PNG, SVG, or JPEG file formats. All Bitly QR Codes are dynamic, so you’ll be able to redirect the linked URLs at any time.
Step 3: Build a campaign landing page
Fast-loading, mobile-friendly landing pages play an essential role in the sales funnel. A well-crafted landing page encourages interested visitors to take action, whether that’s making a purchase, signing up for an event, or following your brand on social media.
It’s crucial to optimize your landing pages for smartphones and tablets, as mobile browsing has become a daily habit for many consumers. A study found that 75% of consumers browse the web on mobile devices at least twice daily.
Creating landing pages from scratch can be time-consuming, but Bitly Pages makes it easy. To create a Bitly Page, simply select a template from the extensive library or create your own from scratch. Then, customize the colors, fonts, and copy to align with your branding.
You can also add visual assets like your logo, photos, and graphics, as well as links to other website pages. The final page is automatically optimized for mobile devices, with fast loading times across browsers and operating systems.
Step 4: Track and optimize your performance
Once you’ve created your marketing campaign, it’s time to start tracking performance. Tracking key marketing metrics helps prevent your campaigns from stagnating.
Monitor engagement levels through Bitly Analytics, adjusting your strategy as needed to reach your customers. You can also redirect your short links or QR Codes at any time.
Additionally, consider tapping into Bitly’s extensive marketplace of integrations for even more insights. Bitly integrates with popular CRM software, social media schedulers, email newsletter platforms, and more for ongoing campaign optimization.
How to use Bitly short links for digital marketing
Bitly makes it easy to shorten long URLs in just a few clicks. Here’s how to use short links in your digital marketing strategy and why they’re so effective.
Simplify and optimize links for sharing
Short links fit everywhere a long URL won’t. Use the Bitly URL shortener to create clean, shareable links across every marketing channel:
- Social media: Beat character limits in posts, captions, and bios without sacrificing your message.
- Email and SMS: Leave more room for engaging copy by replacing long URLs with concise short links.
- Offline materials: Short links are easier to remember—so a link on a poster or billboard is more likely to drive traffic than a long URL.
Strengthen brand identity with branded links
Bitly Links are customizable, allowing you to create links that align with your brand identity. Using branded links helps create a sense of cohesion and professionalism across your marketing campaigns.
All Bitly users can create links with custom back-halves, regardless of which plan they sign up for. By customizing the back-half of the link, you can create a descriptive indicator so your audience understands exactly which page they’re visiting. For example, if you’re linking a holiday sale page, your link might read ”bit.ly/holiday-sale.”
Some paid plans also allow users to personalize short links with custom domains. Instead of the ”bit.ly” domain, you can use your brand’s domain, so the link above might look like ”your.brand/holiday-sale.”
This approach makes your link instantly recognizable to your audience, which helps strengthen your brand identity and encourages users to click and start their shopping experience.
Track link performance in real time
Bitly’s link management tools keep all your URLs organized and measurable from one place. In the Links list, you can see every active link, identify top performers, and track clicks, geolocation, and referral sources—so you always know where to focus your efforts.
Leveraging Bitly QR Codes in your strategy
Bitly QR Codes bridge the gap between offline and online marketing by turning any physical surface into a trackable digital touchpoint. Here’s how to use QR Codes for omnichannel marketing with Bitly.
Connect offline and online experiences
The popularity of digital advertising has skyrocketed as consumers spend more and more time online. However, offline marketing hasn’t disappeared—tools like billboards, flyers, and print ads are still very effective ways to reach your audience. A 2024 study found that 76% of consumers had recently taken action after seeing a digital billboard or other out-of-home ads.
QR Codes are one of the easiest ways to connect these two types of marketing strategies. Your audience can scan a QR Code on your offline ads with their smartphone cameras, directing them to more information online.
A simple scan could result in a new social media follower or even a new customer. It’s also a great way of providing your customers with more information than you can reasonably fit on your print marketing materials or product packaging.
QR Codes pair naturally with offline marketing materials across industries. Here are a few examples:
- Restaurants: Place QR Codes on menus to link customers to a loyalty program sign-up page.
- Events: Add QR Codes to flyers or signage that link directly to an RSVP or registration page.
- Retail and CPG: Include QR Codes on product packaging to share ingredient details, how-to videos, or promotional offers.
Enhance customer engagement
Using QR Codes strategically improves the customer experience and builds online engagement with your brand. Instead of typing a URL into a browser, your audience can scan a QR Code with their smartphone to access online content in seconds.
Using QR Codes to offer exclusive experiences is a powerful way to set your brand apart. By linking to special online content or unique discounts, QR Codes can generate excitement and engagement among your audience.
For example, retailers might consider adding QR Codes to product packaging that lead to exclusive how-to videos or influencer-created content, creating a memorable and interactive customer experience.
To boost engagement, pair your QR Codes with a clear call to action (CTA) like ”Scan for exclusive deals!” While a recent poll found that 68% of consumers used QR Codes in the past year, a compelling CTA can help capture the attention of the remaining 32% who may not be as familiar with them.
Use dynamic QR Codes for flexibility
All Bitly QR Codes are dynamic, meaning you can edit their target URL after publishing. This allows you to update your online marketing materials without having to create new QR Codes or reprint content.
For example, a local boutique could use flyers to promote an upcoming product launch event. Each flyer contains a QR Code that links to the event sign-up page online. After the event is over, you can update the QR Code to link to another page on your website, such as a product page or a page for another event.
This way, if someone finds the flyer and is interested in the brand, they’ll be redirected to an active page instead of a broken link.
Building custom landing pages with Bitly Pages
With Bitly Pages, you can create mobile-friendly landing pages for each marketing campaign—no web design or coding experience required. Bitly Pages offers a variety of templates, all of which are fully optimized for mobile devices, and you can add your brand logo, colors, images, and copy to make it your own.
Creating landing pages for each campaign improves the user experience by delivering a focused brand experience. By linking to a landing page rather than your brand’s homepage, you can prevent confusion and streamline the customer experience. Your customers get the exact information they’re looking for without needing to navigate your website to find it.
Here are some ways you can use Bitly Pages in digital marketing campaigns:
- Product launches: When launching a new product, you could create a custom webpage, linking to it directly from corresponding digital ads, emails, and social media posts.
- Events: When hosting an event, you could create a landing page with the date, time, and location, as well as a form to RSVP.
- Sales: When launching a seasonal sale, create a landing page featuring all discounted products, so customers know exactly which items are included.
- Promotions: If you offer a free trial for your product or service, create a landing page where customers can sign up quickly and easily.
Customize for specific campaigns
A major benefit of Bitly Pages is that they’re easy to customize. You can adjust the layout, colors, and features of each page to match your campaign objectives and branding.
It’s easy to create new landing pages each time you launch a campaign instead of editing existing web pages. To maximize engagement and results, take the time to tailor each page to the product, service, or event you are promoting.
For example, if you’re launching a holiday campaign, you can customize your landing pages with a bold holiday color scheme, and add fun fonts, images, and web copy that reflect the fun energy of the season.
Drive measurable results
Bitly Analytics allows you to track the performance of each landing page as part of your data-driven marketing strategy.
Specifically, you’ll see how many visitors engage with your Bitly Links or QR Codes, when, where they come from, and what type of devices they use. This helps you map how traffic flows to your landing pages.
Over time, you’ll see which of your landing pages are driving the most engagement and conversions. With this information, you can optimize your landing pages for future campaigns by using formats that have proven effective in the past.
Analyzing performance with Bitly Analytics
Bitly Analytics is a centralized performance dashboard that tracks clicks, QR Code scans, and landing page engagement across all your campaigns. From one view, you can monitor what’s working, identify top-performing assets, and make data-driven decisions to improve future campaigns.
Measure what matters
Bitly Analytics gives you a wealth of marketing data at your fingertips. The platform provides actionable insights to help you identify behavioral trends among your audience and determine which marketing assets are most effective.
Metrics you can measure with Bitly Analytics include:
- Clicks, scans, and views over time: Measure engagement with your custom links, QR Codes, and landing pages as it happens.
- Top performing clicks and scans: Identify which marketing assets resonate most with your audience.
- Clicks, scans, and views by location: Discover the countries and cities where your audience is located.
- Clicks by referrer: See which websites your clicks are coming from to visualize the sales funnel.
- Clicks by device: See which devices your audience uses to interact with your links and codes.
- Scans by browser and operating system: Learn which types of technology your audience uses when interacting with your QR Codes.
- Link activity within Bitly Pages: Every link in Bitly Pages is trackable, so you can see how visitors interact with the page.
Refine strategies with data-driven decisions
Create unique short links or QR Codes for each component of your campaign, then use Bitly Analytics to compare performance across channels in real time. Here’s what you can track:
- Social media vs. email vs. paid ads: Assign unique Bitly Links to each channel to see which drives the most clicks.
- Offline campaigns: Place unique QR Codes on billboards, flyers, or print ads and measure offline marketing with Bitly Analytics through scan data.
- Global campaigns: Track QR Code scans by location to identify which regions are driving the most engagement.
Over time, this data shows you where to invest more—for example, if your Bitly Links consistently get the most clicks from email newsletters, that’s a clear signal to prioritize that channel for a stronger ROI.
Visualize ROI and customer engagement
Monitoring Bitly Analytics can tell you a lot about your marketing campaigns’ performance and inform future spending decisions. You can also integrate Bitly with other marketing tools like Google Analytics to collect more granular data and calculate conversion rates. Developers can even create their own integrations with the Bitly API for a holistic look at marketing data across different channels.
Say you create a landing page for a new product launch. You can track link clicks within the landing page via Bitly Analytics, then use Google Analytics to determine how many of those visitors convert into customers. These metrics can help justify spending decisions to company leadership and other key stakeholders.
Connecting Bitly to your marketing tech stack
Bitly connects to the tools your team already uses—so your link data flows directly into your existing workflows.
Automate link tracking with Bitly integrations
The Bitly Marketplace offers integrations with platforms across your marketing tech stack:
- HubSpot: Sync Bitly link performance data with your CRM to connect engagement to contact records.
- Salesforce: Tie short link and QR Code click data to leads and opportunities in your pipeline.
- Zapier: Automate link creation, trigger workflows from click events, and connect Bitly to hundreds of apps without writing code.
- Google Analytics: Use UTM parameters with Bitly Links to pass click data into your analytics reports for full campaign attribution.
Scale your campaigns with the Bitly API
For teams running large-scale campaigns, the Bitly API lets you programmatically generate thousands of short links and QR Codes. Your branding stays consistent across global SMS, email, and social media campaigns—while every interaction captures real-time metrics automatically.
Empower the future of your digital marketing strategies with Bitly
With Bitly in your toolkit, you can create engaging, seamless campaigns that connect with your audience across platforms. Short links, QR Codes, and customizable landing pages work together to unify your marketing efforts and deliver measurable results.
Gain deeper insights with Bitly’s detailed analytics to optimize campaigns and capture your audience’s attention wherever they are. Whether you’re looking to boost engagement, track performance, or simplify your strategy, Bitly gives you the tools to take your digital marketing to the next level.
Sign up for Bitly today to supercharge your digital marketing campaigns.
Frequently Asked Questions about using Bitly for digital marketing
Is Bitly good for digital marketing?
Yes—Bitly is purpose-built for digital marketing, giving you one platform to create branded short links, dynamic QR Codes, and campaign landing pages, with real-time analytics to measure performance across every channel.
Is Bitly free to use?
Yes, Bitly offers a Free plan that includes basic link shortening, QR Code generation, and a link-in-bio page. For advanced features like custom domains, higher monthly limits, and comprehensive analytics, you can upgrade to one of our paid plans.
Can I use Bitly for affiliate marketing?
Yes—Bitly lets you generate clean, branded affiliate links at scale and track clicks for each link in Bitly Analytics, so you can see exactly which channels drive the most traffic to your offers.
How do I use Bitly if I’m just getting started?
Create a free Bitly account, paste a destination URL into the Bitly web app to generate your first short link, and then explore QR Codes and Bitly Pages as your campaigns grow.
