Connecting users to content should be simple, and your links should be something you’re excited to include in your campaigns. Whether you’re looking for clicks, conversions, or brand awareness, the links you use directly impact your success. That’s why you need a fast, reliable way to create short, branded links that work.
Branded short links are more than just aesthetically pleasing. They’re a strategic tool that can boost click-through rates (CTRs), improve engagement, and make it easier to track performance across channels.
What makes short links so powerful?
- Increased CTRs: Short links look cleaner and are easier to read, share, and trust. Plus, they take up less space.
- Stronger brand presence: With branded domains, every link reinforces your brand, whether it’s shared by your team, your users, or your influencers.
- Actionable insights: You can track and analyze short links, giving you visibility into which campaigns and channels are driving results.
- Improved user experience: When you use a short link solution with deep linking, your links intelligently direct users to the right place — whether it’s in your app or on the web.
Key use cases for short links
There are powerful, low-lift ways to bring short links into your marketing strategy. Let’s take a look at some of the channels where they can be most impactful.
SMS marketing
SMS offers unmatched access to users, with open rates averaging over 90%. But when every character counts (literally), there’s no room for long, clunky links. Short, branded links not only save space and reduce cost — they also improve CTRs.
Branch tip: With Branch, you can create branded short links that support deep linking and track performance from SMS. And because we support every customer relationship management (CRM) channel through Engagement, you can centralize and optimize all your messaging without hopping between tools.
Organic sharing
Peer-to-peer sharing is one of the most trusted and effective channels for app discovery. From influencer campaigns to everyday shares between friends, organic growth thrives when user-generated links are easy to create and distribute.
Branch tip: Branch supports native share sheets in your app or site, allowing users to create short, branded links in a tap — while giving you full visibility into how content spreads and tying downstream actions back to the original referrer.
Social media
Your social channels are often the front door to your brand, but linking on social media isn’t always straightforward. Character limits, mobile behaviors, and platform motives can make it tricky to get users to the right place. A short, branded URL not only looks better and saves space; it also builds trust, improves CTRs, and can provide insights into how links and posts are performing.
Branch tip: Top apps trust Branch for social links that handle every edge case and break out of walled gardens. Whether you’re deep linking into the app or just sharing content on the web, Branch lets you create short, branded links with social previews and rich analytics all in one platform.
QR codes
While branded short links are essential, the next step to elevate your strategy is integrating branded QR (quick response) codes connected to those links. QR codes are everywhere — on packaging, mailers, signage, and even TV screens — but branded, dynamic QR codes offer superior performance and flexibility. Tied to short links, they allow you to update destinations after printing, track scan activity in real time, and fully customize logos and colors to align with your brand.
Branch tip: Branch powers custom QR codes with the same reliable links you use across all channels, ensuring your QR codes always direct users to the right destination.
Linking to app, web, and beyond
Branch links can redirect users to a specified web page or dynamically route them to an in-app destination based on whether they already have the app installed. You can even specify custom routing behavior like going to different web pages depending on the user’s device type.
Branch tip: You can configure Branch short links and personalized QR codes to take your user to a custom Play or App Store listing, dial a phone number, or send a preconfigured text message like “SUBSCRIBE.”
Why Branch?
There are plenty of link shorteners out there, but Branch is more than that. We’re a robust growth platform with solutions for every linking use case and a focus on efficiency, scale, and performance.
Here’s what makes Branch different:
- All-in-one platform: Streamline your stack and simplify your workflows with a growth platform that covers all your linking needs for every use case.
- Link performance: Branch links work across edge cases and fallback scenarios. With software development kit (SDK) integration, every short link can also deep link directly into your app.
- Enterprise grade: Our link management tools improve efficiency and maintain consistency at scale. From link management tools and secure links to privacy compliance, Branch is built for scale, consistency, and protection.
- Unified analytics: Track short link and QR code performance across every channel in one place. Plus, when used alongside Engagement or Performance, you unlock full-funnel attribution for all of your short links too.
If you’re still using generic shorteners or still adding long, clunky URLs to your campaigns, it’s time to level up. Short links are one of the simplest, most effective ways to improve campaign performance across the board. Look no further than the leader in linking to centralize linking across all of your use cases.