Affordable Ways to Gather Data From Your Online Audience

Companies these days will try any scheme to gather information. From something as simple as survey pamphlets to sneakier ways like raffle promos that require you to write down your data, all these strategic ways are all in the name of data gathering.

They do these because they know just how valuable relevant information is. Accurate information in the right hands can make or break the biggest brands. Fortunately, there are ways to gather information online without breaking the bank—short links!

Let's check three ways short links can get you the information you need on your road to success.

3 Effective Ways to Online Data Gathering

Surveys, raffles, and interviews are some of the most known ways to collect data. Although helpful, these ways are quite old-fashioned and costly as you will need to hire a person to facilitate these. Online data gathering through short links is far more convenient and nuanced.

Not only are short links more affordable, but there is also no limit to how many users they can extract information from. They can also collect information from thousands at a time. Here are three ways you can use online gathering.

Campaign Tracking

UTM Tracking is perhaps one of the most impressive and valuable features short links have. They tell you which platforms on the internet bring in the most traffic or revenue to your site.

This is accomplished by placing UTM tags on short links. As you paste these short links across the internet, the campaign tracking feature counts how many users each tag brings. It then notes which source directs the most (and least) users to your site.

This feature is especially effective with social media. If you're planning on gaining exposure or advertising through social media, then investing in campaign tracking will help. It can show the effectiveness of every platform through numbers.

For example, you can place a tag on the links you post on Instagram. You would then give different tags to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tiktok, emails, etc. As people start clicking the links you paste, the campaign tracking feature will soon tell you which social media platforms or sites are most effective.

When data on which platforms are succeeding or failing reaches you, you can adjust budgets and change tactics accordingly. You would know which platforms need more attention, which to invest in, and, in some cases, which platforms to cut off eventually.

Setting up campaign tracking can be difficult for people who aren’t fluent in online links. If you are clueless when it comes to these things, then URL shortening services like Short.io can assist you and make the process much simpler. Here is a quick tutorial on how to set it up.

How to Set Up Campaign Tracking:

1. Log in to your Short.io account.
2. Shorten a link and click on the campaign tracking feature (it’s the price tag symbol).
3. Fill in the necessary fields for the UTM tags.
4. Save.

You can check out our in-depth tutorial to figure out how to set up your UTM parameters.

A/B Testing

A/B Testing is a method of comparing or contrasting two variants of a website. It helps you figure out if a web element or a combination of web elements will click or not. This is accomplished by posting one link and having clickers directed to either version A or B.

Version A could be the original version of the site, whereas version B can look exactly like version A, but with one web element changed. If version B gets a better reaction, you would know that your users prefer the web element in version B.

Or, it could be that both versions are completely different—right down to the website's fonts. You could get a general idea of which type of content your users prefer. The goal is to determine users' tastes and preferences and determine which web elements find the most successful.

Short.io also provides services to make setting up A/B testing easier. Here is another quick and easy tutorial on how to set it up with Short.io.

How to Set Up A/B Testing:

1. Log in to your Short.io account.
2. Shorten a link and click “Customize”.
3. Click the “A/B testing” option.
4. Fill in the link to the variation page (the primary URL is set in default).
5. Adjust the distributed percentage to your desire and save.

To know more, you can read our detailed guide on setting up A/B testing here.

Detailed Statistics

Detailed statistics are undoubtedly a significant reason experienced online marketers invest in short links. This feature's advantages and the buttload of data it delivers cannot be overstated.

It can tell you how many clicks your link gets in total or at a certain date. This will tell you if your marketing strategies are effective. If you happened to drop a sale or a big launch on a certain date, you would be able to distinguish if it garnered enough exposure.

If detailed statistics show a significant increase in clicks, but your revenue stays the same or barely increases, you would know that your sale grabbed attention but wasn't enough to produce sales.

You could also find out which browsers your clickers are using and if they're accessing it through their phone or computer. Browsers are also crucial for online businesses. Different browsers display your websites differently.

They have different rendering engines (software used for converting and presenting content through web browsers) that affect how fast or slow your site loads. There are even cases where browsers cannot load sites completely.

Knowing which browsers your users are from will help you adjust to these problems and decrease the risk of losing a percentage of viewers.

Your users' location is another valuable piece of data that matters. Detailed statistics will tell you how many clicks come from every country. This data could be instrumental to your brand's success—especially if you've opened up your services to an international clientele.

Imagine owning a digital card company. You make several different cards. You've spent a lot of time designing Christmas cards, Valentine's Day cards, etc. However, you notice that there is barely any increase in sales, and it's the height of the Christmas season.

You start using short links and finally figure out that most of your clickers come from Muslim countries. You could've spent more time and energy accommodating your actual viewers by creating Eid al-Fitr or Ramadan-themed cards. Still, the opportunity has passed, and you'll be lucky if you have the same amount of viewership from that country next year.

This is why accurate and relevant information is instrumental to a brand's success. Detailed statistics provide you with just that—accurate and relevant information. And if you've invested in reputable link shortening services, all these data will be presented to you in easy-to-process charts and graphs.

There are several tutorials online on how to set up detailed statistics. But if you want a hassle-free and quick process, you can use set up the Short.io clickstream in six easy steps.

Short.io for Your Convenience

The features mentioned above have helped thousands of online companies flourish. However, setting up campaign tracking, detailed statistics, and A/B testing can be complex for those who aren't link experts.

Luckily, Short.io is a link shortening service with all these features and much more. With Short.io, gathering data in an easy-to-read and organized manner becomes a piece of cake.