Social Planner - Link Shortener

Shorten long URLs and track link performance directly in HighLevel Social Planner. The Link Shortener helps you create cleaner social media posts, add campaign tracking parameters, and monitor link clicks. 

This guide explains how to generate shortened links and review their performance.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• What is the Link Shortener?
• Key Benefits of the Link Shortener
• How to Use the Link Shortener in Social Planner
• Important Considerations
• Link Tracking in Social Planner Statistics
  • Link Click Analytics
  • Campaign Tracking
  • Filters & Sorting
  • Quick URL Preview
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Related Articles

What is the Link Shortener?

The Link Shortener is a built-in Social Planner feature that converts long URLs into shorter links for published posts. It also supports UTM parameters and link-click tracking, helping you measure the performance of your social media campaigns.

This functionality helps improve the overall readability and visual appeal of your social content, especially when sharing URLs from blogs, landing pages, or external websites.

Key Benefits of the Link Shortener

Shortened links make social media posts easier to read while providing valuable insights into campaign performance.

• Clean posts: Keeps social posts uncluttered by shortening long URLs.
  
  
• Better experience: Improves user experience with concise, easy-to-read links.
  
  
• Auto-shortening: Automatically generates a shortened version of any long URL.
  
  
• Post preview: Shows how the final post will look with the shortened link.
  
  
• Cross-platform support: Works across all connected social platforms in Social Planner.

How to Use the Link Shortener in Social Planner

This step-by-step guide shows how to use the Link Shortener while composing social media posts:

1. Navigate to Marketing > Social Planner from the left-hand menu. Click on + New Post > + Create New Post button.
   
   
   
   
2. In the post composer, select the social media accounts where you’d like to publish the post.
   
   
   
   
   
3. In the Content input box, add your content.
   
   
4. Click the URL Shortener icon located next to the content editor.
   
   
   
   
5. Add Name of the Link & Target URL.
   
   
6. Setup Tracking Details:
   
   
   • UTM Campaign (utm_campaign) - select or create a campaign.
     
     
   • Add Custom UTM Parameters like source, campaign, etc.
     
     
7. Click on Generate and Insert Link button.
   
   
   
   
8. Once inserted: 
   
   
   • The preview pane will show a shortened version of the URL.
     
     
   • The input field will still display the original long URL.
     
     
9. Review your post, and then choose Publish or Schedule to send it out at a later time.
   
   

Important Considerations

Understanding how shortened links and tracking parameters work helps ensure accurate campaign reporting.

• Supported Links: Native URL Tracking is available for supported shortened links generated through Social Planner.
  
  

• UTM Parameters: UTM tags identify campaign traffic in compatible analytics tools. They are separate from Social Planner's click tracking.
  
  

• Automatic Short URLs: Shortened URLs are generated automatically and cannot currently be manually customized.
  
  

• Link Preview: The original URL remains in the editor, but the shortened link appears in the published post.
  
  

• External Shorteners: Third-party shortened links can be added manually, but they are not covered by Social Planner's native URL Tracking.
  
  

• Conversion Tracking: Link clicks do not automatically measure leads, purchases, or other website conversions.

Link Tracking in Social Planner Statistics

Social Planner provides Link level performance analytics directly inside the Statistics page. This means that in addition to shortening links inside your posts, you can now track how those links perform after publishing.

The Link Shortener continues to shorten long URLs in your post preview and final published post. With URL Tracking, you can:

• Shortened links and long URLs both appear in your performance analytics
  
  

• Every link you publish becomes trackable automatically
  
  

• You do not need to do anything extra for click tracking, it starts as soon as the post goes live
  
  

• Campaign Names help you group multiple posts that share the same link

Note: Only the link created via Social Planner will be displayed in the statistics page.

Link Click Analytics

Every URL you share through Social Planner is now measurable. You can track:

• Total clicks on each shortened or original URL
  
  

• Platform-wise performance (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.)
  
  

• Trends over time

Campaign Tracking

When composing a post, you can assign a Campaign Name to your link. All posts using that same link + campaign are grouped together in analytics, helping you compare and understand performance across posts and channels.

Filters & Sorting

Inside Marketing → Social Planner → Statistics → URL Tracking, you can now filter Top performing and low performing.

Quick URL Preview

Selecting any URL will show a preview panel so you can see exactly which link you are analysing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Will my social post show the long or short link?

The published post will display the shortened link. The long URL is only visible to you in the content editor.

Q: Why UTMs matter when using a shortener?

When you use a link shortener without UTMs:

• Analytics might just show traffic as “direct” or generic “referral”
  

• You can’t easily distinguish performance between:

  • Facebook ad vs. Facebook organic post

  • Email header link vs. footer link

  • One influencer vs. another

When you use a link shortener with UTMs:

• You can:

  • Track campaigns properly in GA/other tools

  • Compare performance of different channels and creatives

  • Prove which specific link/placement is working
    
    

The shortener makes the long UTM-heavy URL look clean and clickable, but the UTM tags do the important reporting work.

Q: Can I customize or rename the short link?

Not yet. The short links are currently auto-generated and not editable.

Q: Does the Link Shortener work on all social platforms?

Yes, the shortened link will appear across all social platforms supported in Social Planner, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more.

Q: Can I still use my own external link shorteners like Bitly?

Yes, you can manually add shortened links from third-party services if preferred.

Related Articles

• Getting Started - Setup Social Planner
  
  
• Best Time to Post Feature in Social Planner
  
  
• Social Planner - Track Social Performance Using Advance Analytics
  
  
• Social Planner - Discover Trends with Social Listening