Campaigns

What Is a Campaign?

A campaign is a tag you assign to one or more shortened links. For example, if you're running a summer promotion, you might create links for Instagram, Facebook, and email — all tagged with the campaign name "summer-2026."

This lets you answer questions like:

• Which platform drove the most clicks for this promotion?
• How did my summer campaign compare to my winter one?
• Which listing gets the most engagement from social media?

Step-by-Step: Create a Campaign Link

1. Click Link Shortener in the sidebar
2. In the Destination URL field, paste the URL you want to track
3. In the Campaign (optional) field, type your campaign name (e.g., "summer-promo"). Autocomplete suggestions appear based on existing campaigns.
4. Optionally expand Campaign Builder (UTM Parameters) to set custom UTM source, medium, and other fields
5. Click Shorten URL

The campaign tag is attached to the link and appears in all reporting.

Tip: Use consistent naming conventions. For example: season-year (summer-2026), platform-purpose (ig-listing-push), or event-name (memorial-day-sale).

Viewing Campaign Performance

1. In the sidebar, click Insights to expand the menu
2. Under Advanced Analytics, click Campaigns (requires Weekend Host or higher — a lock icon appears if unavailable)

For a deeper guide to the analytics page itself — what each column means, how to compare campaigns, and what to look for — see the Campaigns insight article.

You can also see campaign data on the Link Performance page (under Insights → Core Analytics → Link Performance). Links with the same campaign tag are grouped together showing:

• Total clicks — Combined clicks for all links in the campaign
• Unique visitors — Deduplicated across the campaign
• Click breakdown — Per-link performance within the campaign
• QR vs. direct — Channel split for the campaign

UTM Parameters

When you assign a campaign name, Hostmatic automatically appends standard UTM parameters:

• utm_source — Set to "hostmatic"
• utm_medium — Set based on the link type
• utm_campaign — Your campaign name

This means your campaign data also flows into Google Analytics, giving you a unified view across both platforms.

Campaign Best Practices

1. One campaign per promotion — Create a new campaign for each distinct marketing push
2. Multiple links per campaign — Create separate links for each platform or channel
3. Consistent naming — Use a convention you'll remember when reviewing reports later
4. Add notes — Use the Notes field when creating each link to record its specific purpose within the campaign