Create a New Link Category

Goal​

To create a new Link Category.

Background Information​

Link categories can be manually or automatically assigned. Grouping links is sometimes useful for statistics, activities, or selections. The link category must be created before it is used for these purposes (see ​Link Categories​).

For landing pages, only the automatic assignment of link categories is possible. This is because the message contains an ​Engage Variable​ rather than a link. The  ​Engage Variable in the message is not converted into a link address until the message is processed. To assign a link manually, it must be possible to identify the link during message creation. To assign the link category automatically, the landing page URL or a word from the URL is designated as a keyword to make the assignment.

Manual assignment of a link category is lost when the message is saved as a draft.

Procedure

1. In the  ​Main Navigation, click ​Administration​ > ​Categories​ > Link.
   

2. Click the ​New Link Category button.
3. In the ​Name​ input field, enter the link category name that is displayed to users.
4. If many link categories are in use on the system, information entered in the ​Description input field facilitates the identification of the link categories.

5. Choose how link categories are assigned and enter the appropriate information.
   The following options are available:

   Setting	Description
   Manually assign link category	The link category is assigned manually during message creation. Once the individual link categories are created in the  ​New Link Category window, they can be selected for use in messages (see ​Manually Assign Link Categories (before sendout)​).
   Automatically assign link category with keyword	This option opens an input field to define a keyword. Whenever a message is created with a link that contains the keyword, it is automatically assigned to the link category. Keyword:  This input field defines the term that must be present in the link address to assign the link category. Only the link address/URL is searched. The link text that is displayed in the message is not searched. Automatic assignment of link categories can be changed manually for individual messages. When a manual change is made, the manual assignment overrides the automatic assignment (see ​Automatic Assignment of Link Categories​).
   Automatically assign link category with Regex	This option opens an input field to define a regular expression (Regex). Whenever a message is created that contains the phrase that Regex defines, it is automatically assigned to the link category. The definition of a regular expression requires programming knowledge. Regex:  This input field defines the regular expression. Whenever a message is created, Engage searches the URLs (not the link text) of all links in the message based on the Regex. Automatic assignment of link categories can be changed manually for individual messages. When a manual change is made, the manual assignment overrides the automatic assignment. The maximum length for the regular expression is 200 characters (see ​Automatic Assignment of Link Categories​).

6. Click the ​Save​ button. A system message confirms that the new link category has been created.

By default, newly created link categories are automatically assigned the lowest priority. Assigning a higher or lower priority to an existing link category in the Link Category Overview window is possible. For more information, see ​Link Category Overview (tab) .