Link Library

Cheetah Digital will track links that are included within the message content of a marketing Campaign. The platform will capture when consumers click these links, and then make that information available in reports and Filters. The Link Library screen allows you to manage all of the links that you use in your marketing Campaigns.

From the Link Library, you can define the URL for each link, and also assign friendly names to these links. Marigold's best practice is to provide friendly names to make the reports and Filters easier to read. For example, instead of viewing a URL like "http://www.mycompany.com/homepage.aspx," a friendly name of Home Page can be assigned.

In addition to improving report readability, the use of friendly names allows you to keep links distinct from each other, even if they go to the same destination URL. For example, you might have two links to your company's home page within your email message content -- one within the email header and one within the footer. By giving these two links different friendly names (Home Header and Home Footer for example), you can track these two links separately.

The Link Library also allows you to globally exclude links from being tracked. For example, you may not want to track link clicks for your unsubscribe link or your Terms of Use link.

You can manually create links directly through the Link Library screen as described in the topics listed below. You can also define new links on the fly directly within your Campaign message content. If your Campaign content includes a new link that the system doesn't recognize, the system will automatically add that link to the Link Library when you launch the Campaign.

Note: As of June 2023, Link Authenticity has been made available in all regions and enabled by default for all clients worldwide. For campaigns launched AFTER Link Authenticity has been enabled in the account, tracked links inside emails from those campaigns will go through authentication by our redirect servers to ensure the tracked links have not been tampered with before forwarding readers to their final destination. If marketers want to take advantage of Link Authenticity for automated campaigns, such as Date Triggered and Event Triggered, that were launched prior to Link Authenticity being enabled for the account, use the Pick Up Changes option in these campaigns. Once the campaigns are updated, subsequent emails from those campaigns will be sent with authenticated tracked links. Link Authenticity does not protect links within emails sent before Link Authenticity is enabled. 

 

Access

The Link Library screen is accessible via the Main menu; select Assets > Links > Link Library

 

To create a new link:

  1. In the enter name field, enter a friendly name for your new link. As you type in this field, the system will search for and display any existing links with this text string in the Name field.

  2. In the enter url field, enter the website address for your new link. As you type in this field, the system will search for and display any existing links with this text string in the URL field.

  3. Click the Add button (plus sign icon). The system validates that the combination of friendly name and URL is unique. If your new link passes this validation step, the system displays the new link on the screen.

Note: Your new link can have the same URL has an existing link, as long as the friendly name is different. The system requires that the combination of friendly name and URL be unique. In this manner, you can have multiple links to the same URL, but with different friendly names, and the system will track these links separately.

  1. By default, new links are set to be tracked. Optionally, you can set a link to be globally excluded from all tracking by clicking the Not Tracked button.

 

To create a copy of an existing link:

  1. Search for the existing link by typing in all or part of the Name and / or the URL. As you type, the system will search for and display any existing links with this text string in the Name and / or URL field.

  2. Next to the desired link, click Save as. The system populates the Name field with the selected link's name, followed by Copy. The system also populates the URL field with the selected link's URL.

  3. Make any necessary changes to the link name and / or URL.

  4. Click the add button (plus sign icon). The system validates that the combination of friendly name and URL is unique. If your new link passes this validation step, the system displays the new link on the screen.

Note: Your new link can have the same URL has an existing link, as long as the friendly name is different. The system requires that the combination of friendly name and URL be unique. In this manner, you can have multiple links to the same URL, but with different friendly names, and the system will track these links separately.

  1. By default, new links are set to be tracked. Optionally, you can set a link to be globally excluded from all tracking by clicking the Not Tracked button.

 

Cheetah Digital allows you define new links either by typing them into the user interface (see Create a New Link above), or by importing a file that contains all of the necessary link information. This import file should be in comma-separated values (.csv) format, and must include a header row with the following column names:

  • LinkName
  • LinkURL
  • DoNotTrack

    • "1" = do not track this link

    • "0" = track this link

The system requires that the combination of friendly name and URL be unique. In this manner, you can have multiple links to the same URL, but with different friendly names, and the system will track these links separately.

Download a Sample Link File

Optionally, you can download a sample .csv file that contains the required columns. To download a sample link file:

  1. Click download sample File. A Download File dialog box is displayed.

  2. Click Open to view the sample file.

Import a Link File

To import a file of links:

  1. Click upload links. An Open File dialog box is displayed.

  2. Navigate to and select the desired file, then click Open.  

  3. The system imports the link file.

 

Export logs

Cheetah Digitaluses the concept of redirects for tracking link clicks within message content. When a recipient clicks a tracked link, the platform first directs the recipient to aMarigoldserver (where the click behavior is captured and tracked for reporting purposes), then redirects the recipient to the intended destination, such as your website or online store. We offer two anti-phishing measures in the platform to prevent unscrupulous individuals from exploiting tracked links to redirect your unsuspecting customers to nefarious destinations as part of a phishing attack. These measures are Link Authenticity, which protects new campaigns, and Registered Domains, which limits past link redirects to only use a list of approved domains that your organization has provided. This log will show you for the selected date range, if any redirected links were rejected by Registered Domains because they targeted a domain that is not registered.

Note: This option is available only if the RTS Domain Whitelist is enabled.

Download Log File (Blocked Domains)

To download the log file :

  1. Click download Log File (blocked domains). A Download blocked domain logs dialog box is displayed.

  2. Select the start and end dates for the logs to be downloaded, in the past 6 months.

  3. Click Download. A CSV file with the details of the blocked domains and the number of times they were blocked in the selected date range, is downloaded.  

 

Note: You can't modify an existing link's name or URL. If you need to modify or correct a link, you'll need to copy that link, enter the correct name and URL, then delete the old link.

To view a link:

  1. Search for the existing link by typing in all or part of the Name and / or the URL. As you type, the system will search for and display any existing links with this text string in the Name and / or URL field.  

  2. Optionally, you can change the link's tracking status. To set a link to be globally excluded from all tracking, click the Not Tracked button. To allow a link to be tracked, click the Tracked button.

 

To delete a link:

  1. Search for the existing link by typing in all or part of the Name and / or the URL. As you type, the system will search for and display any existing links with this text string in the Name and / or URL field.  

  2. Next to the desired link, click the delete button (X icon). A confirmation dialog box is displayed. Click Ok. The system deletes the selected link.  

Note: Deleted links are NOT moved to the Recycle Bin, and can't be restored.

 

Assign a Link to a Campaign

For a link to be used and tracked in a marketing Campaign, you must include the link within the message content or within a Looping Block. When the system identifies a text string as a link, it will add it to that Campaign, which then gives you the option to track and report on click activity for that link.

Message Content

When adding links to the message content, you can enter just the URL, or you can enter both the URL and the link friendly name. For example:

<a href="http://www.cheetahdigital.com">Cheetah Digital home page</a>

The system will look for this URL in the Link Library to see if it's been previously defined. If so, the system will display the URL and the friendly name in the Responses section of the Campaign screen.

If this URL has not been defined in the Link Library, then the system will display the URL and a default name (such as "Link 01 - http://www.cheetahdigital.com") in the Responses section of the Campaign screen. When you launch the Campaign, the system will automatically add all previously unknown links to the Link Library.

The system also allows you to define the friendly name within the Advanced Editor when you build the message content.

Within HTML content, add a name attribute (data-link-name) to the anchor tag. For example:

<a data-link-name="Cheetah Digital home" href="http://www.cheetahdigital.com" > Cheetah Digital Home Page</a>  

Within either HTML or Text content, use a new URL merge tag to specify the friendly name. For example:

{@Cheetah Digital home|http://www.cheetahdigital.com@}

Looping Blocks

Links can be defined within the Looping Block content as either an XSL Attribute element, or as an inline href attribute. The system will automatically recognize a link in either of these formats as a link intended for tracking within a Campaign.

Example XSL Attribute:

<a>
<xsl:attribute name="href">
http://www.google.com?user=<xsl:value-of select="Prop[@prop_name = 'transaction_amount']/@val" />
</xsl:attribute>
</a><br />

Example inline href:

<a> href="http://www.cheetahdigital.com?name=Cheetah Digital Home">Cheetah Digital Home Page</a>