Short links & branded domain

When you add a link to a message, Instasent shortens it. Short links save characters — which matters most in SMS — and they're what lets us track who clicked, so your campaign and conversion stats know which links drove results. Every project comes with a shared default short-link domain, and you can add your own branded domain so the links carry your name instead.

You'll find this under Settings → Tools → Short links.

The default short-link domain

Out of the box, your shortened links use a shared Instasent domain assigned to your organization, with nothing to configure. If you don't add a domain of your own, this is what your links use, and the panel shows it on the Short links screen.

The default domain is fully functional. Your links are shortened, they resolve, and clicks are tracked exactly as they would be on a branded domain. Adding a branded domain changes what the recipient reads in the URL, and nothing else: it is not a prerequisite for click tracking, for click attribution, or for any other feature. A project with no domain of its own measures clicks just like a project with one.

Adding your own domain

When you add a link domain, you pick one of two types:

• Subdomain — a subdomain of Instasent's default tracking domain (3–20 characters, letters, numbers and hyphens). It's configured automatically, with no DNS to set up: your shortened links use this subdomain right away.
• Branded domain / subdomain — a domain you own, such as sms.myshop.com. It must be a domain or subdomain you own and that isn't already in use. This is the one that needs DNS records, below.

Setting up a branded domain

A branded domain has two setup modes:

• Automatically (recommended) — Instasent manages the SSL certificate for you and renews it automatically. You only create the DNS records.
• Self-Managed (advanced) — you run your own vhost that redirects to our link tracker, and you handle the SSL certificate yourself. This needs an IT team.

DNS records (Automatically mode)

In the Automatically mode you create a DNS record pointing your domain at Instasent. The panel shows the exact values to use; the shape is:

Record type	Hostname	Points to
CNAME	@ for an apex domain, or the subdomain prefix (e.g. sms)	The CNAME target Instasent gives you
A (alternative)	The apex domain	The IP address Instasent gives you

• Use the CNAME record by default.
• Use the A record only if your DNS provider doesn't support CNAME flattening at the apex.
• If you also want the www. subdomain to work, add it as another domain so both are available.

Verifying the domain

Once the records are in place, click Check domain. DNS changes take a few hours to propagate — up to 24 — and Instasent re-checks automatically every few minutes until the domain verifies. When it's done, the domain's status shows its DNS, hosting and SSL certificate, with the certificate auto-renewed.

Default redirect

Each link domain has a Default redirect URL — your business's main webpage. If someone reaches the domain without a specific short link, they're forwarded here by default.

Short links and SMS

To save characters in SMS messages, Instasent doesn't add the http:// scheme to short links. For uncommon top-level domains where the link might not be recognised without it — .me, .gg, .club, .online and similar — you can force the scheme to be included.

Why short links matter for tracking

Shortening is what makes a click measurable. When Instasent shortens a link, the click is registered as the recipient is forwarded to your page, and that is what feeds the click figures in campaign analytics, what the Click on link or button attribution window is counted from, and what ties a conversion back to the message.

What decides whether a click is measured is shortened or not, never which domain does the shortening:

• A shortened link is measured, on the default domain and on a branded domain alike.
• A plain, untracked URL pasted as text is sent exactly as written, and its clicks are not measured.

Limits

The number of subdomains and branded domains you can add depends on your plan. When you reach the limit, the panel shows a notice with an upgrade option. Adding, setting a default, archiving and changing the mode all require the project-write permission.

Archiving a domain doesn't delete it: it's no longer used for new short links, but links already sent keep working.