Link categories group different links. This makes a coordinated response to link clicks and centralized evaluation of the various links possible.

Link categories are accessed in the  ​Categories area. Link categories are created and managed in the  ​Categories Overview window (see ​Link Category Overview (tab)​).

Categories can be assigned in different ways:

  • Manual Assignment (before sendout): To manually assign link categories, the name of the link category needs to be created. Afterward, link categories can be manually assigned to each message in the message editor (see ​Select Message Channel Type​).

  • Manual Assignment (after sendout): To assign link categories after a message is sent, the name of the link category needs to be created. Afterward, the link category can be edited in the Outbox. Links that were assigned to the category before the manual assignment are no longer associated with the category after the manual assignment (see  ​Manual Assignment of Link Categories​).

  • Automatic Assignment:  There are two ways to automatically assign link categories:

    • Key Word:
      A term is entered that must appear in the link address to automatically assign the link category. This simple form of automation does not require any programming knowledge. If Engage identifies the defined expression in the URL, it is assigned to the corresponding link category.

    • Regular expression (Regex):
      Regex defines the criteria for determining when a link is assigned to a particular link category. In this way, particular character sequences or numbers in the link are detected. Engage searches the URLs of all the links that are contained in the messages during message sendout. If Engage identifies a defined expression in one of the URLs, the URL is assigned to the corresponding link category.

  • Link Categories in CMS:  When the Content Management System (CMS) is used, the CMS template defines the link categories assignment. Contact your customer service representative for information about how the individual link categories are configured in your system.

Application of link categories​

Link categories are used in different areas of Engage:

  1. Statistical Analysis
    The ‘Link Category Analysis’ tab summarizes which link categories were used in a message and how the recipients responded to the link categories. See ​Link Category Analysis (tab)​).
    Example:  A travel agency wants to identify which offers their customers find particularly interesting. Different links are assigned to the different offers: Cruises, resorts, adventure travel, spa vacations, etc. The travel agency can see which types of offers their recipients liked best in the  ​Statistics area of ​​Engage.

  2. Automation
    You can use a link category in some event-based automations. For example, use the event Message Link Clicked (C)​ +  Store Data in Profile Attribute (C)​ to record every time a contact clicks on a link in a certain category. See  ​Event-Based Automation.
    Example: A travel agency sells different holiday packages. Automations track how many times a recipient clicks on a link in the category Cruises. The agency can send more messages focusing on cruise holidays in the future. For more information, see  ​Product Interest Mapping.

  3. Selections
    Link categories can be used in selections to choose specific recipients. In selections, link categories are primarily used to generate targeted recipient lists. When a message-based selection is created, it is possible to define whether clicking or not clicking a particular link category is the condition for a selection (see ​Message-Based Conditions​).
    Example:   Example: A travel agency sends a newsletter that contains offers targeted to people interested in cruises. The newsletter contains special deals as incentives for providing additional information about personal preferences. Recipients who are Interested in cruises are identified by each link they click and the corresponding link category. Every recipient who clicks a link in the newsletter that has the link category Cruises​ is sent an appropriate offer (se (see ​Group-Based Conditions).