bit.ly -- short on links, BIG on ROI
June 01, 2016
bit.ly -- short on links, BIG on ROI
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Bitly
Currently I use bit.ly to track clicks and in-bound marketing leads for a few freelance jobs I'm leading. One is to track clicks to a website that is selling books (directly from author) - another is my wife's business (small clothing company, Etsy store), and for a music streaming company that hasn't launched yet -- to generate more names for our email listserv. I used it to show click trends over time and to review referrers.
- Ease of use. It's so simple it needs almost no explanation as to what info it delivers or how to use it.
- Accessible information. I love that you can see the info about any link by simply including a "+" at the end of the link.
- Personalized/custom links. Creation of these makes it super easy to remember the most important links -- and doubles as branding as well!
- It used to be that the app was not as user friendly as the desktop version, but that was remedied last year. It's great now.
- Although fully transparent info for all links is good, it might be nice if you could make a link's info private. Note: this may be accessible at the enterprise level of service, which I am not currently subscribed to.
- TIME SAVER. Although at past jobs, I 've had access to robust analytics platforms - like omniture - they often take significant time, energy and effort to pull and analyze those metrics. Bitly is simple, real time and actionable.
- Showing referrers is extremely important - so that with one shortened link you can still see where clickers came from - without having to create an individual link per platform.
I used to use tinyURL - they had no analytics, and no customization options. Also, the link generated after the / was longer and took up more room. Bit.ly is better than Hootsuite's OW.LY because it's free. :)
Using Bitly
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Generating a shortened link
- Creating a custom link
- Accessing the metrics associated with links
- Reviewing analytics associated with links
- I find no problems at all in the bitly platform.
Yes - Very well. There was a time wherein the mobile app lagged behind from a functionality perspective versus the desktop experience - however that has been augmented to be in line across the experiences.