Item: Bitly
Rating: 9
Author: Ben Caplan

Overall Satisfaction with Bitly

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

At my current organization, we use Bitly to shorten links so we can drill down on the success of our marketing and advertising efforts to see which is the best and most successful. We include shortened links in our communications with customers so we can determine if they are clicking through to the proposal/file/etc. This program allows us to track the success of our efforts whereas before it was just a guess.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Link shortening with custom endings.
Geography and device specific data.
Detailed info on dates of link clicks.
Ease of use/setup.

Cons

Expanded info on link clicks such as duration of time spent on site.
Link sorting on the dashboard.
Expanded list of endings.

Return on Investment

Increased awareness of link success.
Detailed info on when we get clicks and where (geographically and on what types of platforms).

Alternatives Considered

We looked at other platforms such as Google link shortener, but then they discontinued that. We haven't looked at alternatives in a little while because we have found good success and are comfortable with the platform that Bitly offers.

Support Rating

We like the functions of Bitly even on the free plan. There is indeed limited functions available on the free plan, but there is still a great level of benefit to any organization. The increased functions of the upgraded plan such as the dashboard, custom links, and many other benefits are well worth the added cost.

Key Insights

Do you think Bitly delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Bitly's feature set?

Yes

Did Bitly live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Bitly go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Bitly again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Applied TAM, Evernote, GoDaddy, Microsoft Office 2016, Microsoft 365 Business, HubSpot, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign

Likelihood to Recommend

Bitly is great for times when you want to track the success of a link or a campaign of links. It might not be well suited if you want to set up a link for a one-off communication. It could work for these situations, but if you are sending a proposal, it's likely the customer is expecting it... so there might not be a need to shorten that link.

Comments

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Makes sense if you feel like you're in the dark with link tracking