Tutorial: How to Track a Phone Number That Clicks on a Link Embedded in an SMS?

Want to know who clicked on the link in your rich SMS campaign? Find out how to track and monitor clicks on links embedded in your SMS messages. More and more of you are integrating hyperlinks into your SMS message content. Adding this type of link (also known as rich SMS) through your SMS sending provider allows you to enrich the user experience and incorporate additional information and opportunities into your SMS campaign.

Why track recipients who clicked on the link?

As part of your SMS prospecting, the ability to track numbers that click on a link allows you to better follow up with recipients who clicked — and who have therefore shown interest in your message. You can then reach out to them directly through other channels (phone, email, SMS Pro, voice messages, etc.)

Just as traditional email campaigns allow you to set up follow-up campaigns, tracking recipients who clicked on your link opens up new possibilities for your SMS communications.

Link tracking embedded in SMS messages can be used with both Premium SMS and low-cost SMS. The type of SMS in no way affects how data is reported in Google Analytics.

How do you track who clicked?

You have two options:
1. Track your numbers with your SMS Partner platform
2.Track your numbers with URL creation tools

Tools you will need:

• Campaign URL Builder: This application lets you add a specific tag to your URL so you can track results in Analytics
• URL shortener: This tool offered by SMS Partner allows you to shorten a URL to prevent it from using too many characters in your message
• Google Analytics: This application lets you monitor your website traffic and analyze visits in detail.

Setting up click tracking by phone number requires a specific configuration. Here are the different steps to follow.

Step 1: Tag your URL

In order to track clicks on your URL, you need to tag it by adding UTM parameters. For your SMS campaign, you need to add two UTM parameters to your URL:

• Campaign source: add the source “SMS” so you can later find all visits related to SMS (utm_source=SMS)
• Campaign name: add the phone number so you can identify which numbers clicked on the link. (&utm_campaign=0610XXXXXX)

To learn more about UTM parameters: URL creation tools

Example of a URL with a UTM parameter:

www.smspartner.fr/?utm_source=SMS&utm_campaign=0610XXXXXX

It is important to note that:

• The UTM source is unique and must not be changed;
• The UTM campaign must be changed for each number. It must not contain any spaces.

Step 2: Integrate your tagged URL into your Excel database

Once you have your tagged URL template, you need to duplicate it across your entire Excel file. To do this, we recommend using a CONCATENATE formula that will combine all the required elements.

Example of a CONCATENATE formula:

=CONCATENATE(A2,B2)

A2: is the column with the fixed URL

B2: is the column with the phone number to be added

Once you have completed this step for each of your phone numbers, you can import the list of numbers into your SMS Partner account.

Step 3: Import your database and your list of URLs

To import your contact file containing your URLs, go to the contacts database tab and then click on import contacts. Your file must meet certain requirements, including format requirements (only Excel or CSV files are accepted), and your URLs must be in http or https format to be valid. To guide you through each step of the process, we have created a tutorial video on importing a contact database, which you can find here.

Step 4: Shorten all your URLs

When creating your campaign, select your contact list and click the “generate short URLs” button. Choose the format for your short URLs. Click on generate short URLs to activate the click tracking feature. You will then get your short URL, which you can insert into your SMS message. Simply click on the blue tag to insert the link into your message.

Find all the details about the click tracking feature offered by SMS Partner here.

Step 5: Analyze the results

Once your campaign has been sent, you can see the numbers that clicked appearing in your Google Analytics account.

Export: from this interface, you can export this data for the time period of your choice.

To view the numbers that clicked:

Acquisition => All Traffic => Channels

Then select the channel:

Other => SMS

Once you have clicked on SMS, select the “landing page” filter. Results may take up to 24 hours to appear in Google Analytics.

Please note! Some users find that phone numbers do not appear even though they have followed our tutorial correctly. In this case, incorrect Analytics settings are often the cause of the data not being reported. If this happens, feel free to contact us to speak with our team, who can guide you through the correct Google Analytics configuration.
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