Setting up URL Shortener
Updated
The URL Shortener Management capability standardises URL shortening across survey distribution channels by enabling centralised configuration and management of survey URL shorteners. Users can configure URL shorteners at Survey and Account levels and automatically apply shortened survey and unsubscription links across supported distribution channels, eliminating fragmented channel-specific configurations and ensuring a consistent respondent experience. Supported channels include Anonymous links, SMS, Personalised Links, Social Posts and Social DMs Distributions.
Business Use Cases
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With a centralized URL shortener management experience, you can configure and manage URL shorteners for survey distributions from a single location, reducing operational effort and administrative overhead. The capability delivers cleaner, more trustworthy survey and unsubscription links across supported distribution channels, helping enhance the respondent experience. It also supports both Survey-level and Account-level URL shortener configurations, providing the flexibility to meet specific survey needs while maintaining consistency across survey programs.
Prerequisite
You would need Platform URL shortener permissions and you would need Survey Settings permissions.
Setting Up URL Shortener
Follow the below steps to access URL Shortener:
Configure the required URL shortener in Platform URL Shortener Settings.
Access the desired survey, and go to the Survey Settings tab.
Select URL Shortener in the Response Settings section and click Configure.
Go to URL Shortener section where you can configure URL shorteners. Select the preferred URL shortener from the available options. Save the configuration.
URL Shortener: Go to URL Shortener section and select URL Shortener from the drop-down or click + Shortener to Shortener the URL.
Configure a default URL shortener at the Account level to override survey-level settings when required (Optional).
How to use it?
Create a new survey distribution using a supported channel.
Configure the distribution as usual.
When survey invitations are generated, the configured URL shortener will automatically be applied to survey and unsubscription links.
How URL Shortening Is Applied and which are the supported channels?
URL shortening is automatically enabled for supported survey distribution channels. The channels are:
SMS
Personalized Links (Audience-Based)
Personalized Links (Transaction-Based)
Trigger-Based Personalized Links
Social Post
Social DM - Reddit
Once a URL shortener is configured, it is applied to survey and unsubscribe links across these channels to provide a consistent respondent experience.
Note:
URL shortening support is available for Reddit distributions; however, Reddit applies strict spam filtering policies to shortened URLs. As a result, the deliverability and acceptance of shortened links on Reddit may vary depending on the URL shortener being used.
Bitly URL shorteners cannot be used for Reddit due to Reddit's spam filtering rules on shortened links, messages containing Bitly URLs may fail to send or get blocked.
How to test it?
Configure a URL shortener in Platform Settings.
Select the configured URL shortener in Survey Settings.
Create a new distribution using a supported channel (SMS, Anonymous link, Personalised Links, Social Posts, Social DMs, or Reddit).
Trigger the distribution.
Verify that both survey and unsubscription links use the configured shortener.
If Account-level URL shortener configuration is enabled, verify that it is applied according to the configured precedence.
URL Shortener Failure Handling
For supported distribution channels other than SMS, if URL shortening is unavailable during invite generation, the invitation is still sent using the original survey URL.
This fallback mechanism helps ensure uninterrupted survey delivery even when the configured URL shortener encounters an issue.
SMS distributions follow a separate validation process due to SMS character length limitations.
SMS-Specific Behavior
- A valid URL shortener configuration is required before creating an SMS distribution.
- If no URL shortener is configured, SMS distribution creation is blocked and you are prompted to configure one.
- Because of character length constraints, long survey URLs are not supported in SMS messages.
If URL shortening fails during SMS invite generation, the invite is not sent and the distribution report displays:
- "Invite failed as configured URL shortener failed".
If the configured URL shortener has been deleted, SMS invites fail and the distribution report displays:
- "Invite failed as configured URL shortener is deleted".
- These validations help ensure that SMS invitations are delivered using shortened, customer-friendly links and provide clear visibility into any delivery issues.
Best Practices
Configure and govern URL shorteners centrally to ensure a consistent respondent experience across all survey channels.
Use Account-level URL shorteners when standardisation across multiple surveys is required.
Validate URL shortening behaviour after introducing a new URL shortener provider.
Monitor distribution failures and warnings if URL shortener configurations are modified or removed.
For Reddit distributions, verify shortened-link behaviour before launching large-scale programs. Reddit applies spam filtering policies to shortened URLs, and the reliability of shortened links, including both Sprinklr and custom URL shorteners, cannot be guaranteed.