A link short enough to say out loud.
TV, radio, podcast reads and billboards. A short, branded link people can remember and type, counted per show or spot, that opens the app on the offer.
- Who runs it
- Marketers, paid ads
- Time to set up
- Minutes, after the SDK
- Plan
- Starter for slugs, Growth for your domain
Your domain, a word people remember.
Your own domain (Growth) gives you go.yourapp.com. A custom slug (Starter) gives you /run or /tv. Each one is a full smart link underneath: where it opens, the offer, the source.
- One slug per show or spot, so each is counted on its own.
- Pick slugs that survive being heard: short, one word, no hyphens.
The listener lands on the offer they heard.
They type go.stride.app/run on their phone. With the app, it opens on the offer. Without it, the store, then the same offer after install.
- Works on iPhone and Android.
- The offer from the read is applied, no code needed.
Users per show or spot.
Installs per placement are the direct effect. Look at the lift in organic installs around the spot too; for broadcast, that halo can be bigger than the link's own count.
- Clicks, installs and events per slug.
- Compare shows, stations and dates.
One-time setup, then it's all yours.
Your developer adds the LinkTrail SDK once and reads the offer when the app opens. After that, every new slug works without a release.
LinkTrail.onLink(link => {
// link.customData = { show: "the-daily-run", offer: "RUN20" }
showWelcome(link.customData.offer);
});The full walkthrough: Branded short links: a URL short enough to say on a podcast
A podcast host reads your ad and says the URL. A billboard shows it in letters a metre high. A radio spot has three seconds for it. In every one of these, the URL has to be short, memorable and yours — and it still has to route, deep link and attribute like any other. Long URLs and tracking parameters are not an option. 'Direct' traffic in your analytics is what happens when you use them anyway.
What problem does this solve?
A short, branded link per placement — one per podcast, one per TV creative, one per billboard site — that routes to the right store, lands on the right screen, and attributes the install to the placement. Spoken and printed media stop being a black hole labelled 'direct'.
How do you set the links up?
A custom domain, which is a Growth-plan capability, gives you go.yourapp.com. Custom slugs give you /tv, /pod, /nyc. Each slug is a full smart link underneath: destination, payload, source tag. The person types eleven characters; the link does everything else.
{
"deepLinkPath": "/welcome",
"customData": {"src": "podcast", "show": "the-daily-run", "offer": "RUN20", "read": "host-read-sep"}
}What makes a slug work when spoken?
| Works | Doesn't | Why |
|---|---|---|
| go.app.com/run | app.com/campaigns/podcast-q3 | Short beats descriptive; the listener is driving |
| /nyc | /new-york-billboard-1 | One word, one meaning |
| /pod | /podcast?src=pod | No punctuation you have to say aloud |
| A word | A number | Numbers are misheard; words are guessed correctly |
Test slugs by saying them to someone and asking them to type what they heard. The ones that survive that are the ones to use.
What about the people who search instead of typing?
Many will. They hear the ad, later search the app name, and install from the store — which attributes as organic. The short link captures the people who did what the ad asked; the organic lift in the days after a placement captures the rest. Read both, and compare the organic baseline before and after the spot.
Which metric should you watch?
Attributed installs per placement, plus the organic lift in the placement's geography and window. The first is the direct effect; the second is the halo. For broadcast, the halo is often bigger — which is exactly the kind of thing you can only learn by having a link for the direct part.
Which teams own a branded short link?
- Growth marketers
- Performance & paid
Which LinkTrail features does a branded short link need?
- Custom domain
- Custom short slugs
- Smart routing
- Per-link source and placement tagging
- Deferred deep linking
Short link questions.
How do you track installs from podcasts, TV and billboards?
Give each placement its own short, branded link — one per podcast, TV creative or billboard site. Each slug is a full smart link that routes to the store, lands on the right screen and attributes the install to that placement.
What makes a short link work when it's spoken aloud?
Short beats descriptive: one word, no punctuation to pronounce, and words rather than numbers, which get misheard. Test a slug by saying it to someone and asking them to type what they heard.
What about listeners who search for the app instead?
They install from the store and show up as organic. The short link captures people who did what the ad asked; compare organic installs in the placement's geography and window before and after to read the halo.
If you're doing this, you'll probably want these.
Posters, receipts and packaging
QR codes that open the right screen after install, and tell you which poster or product did it.
SMS campaigns
Short links that fit in a text and open the app, not the browser.
Onboarding that matches the ad
If the ad promised 20% off, the first screen shows 20% off. Nobody has to find the code again.
Make your first short link.
Free for your first 5,000 users. No card, no sales call.