Scaleo's Smartlink: What Is It And How To Use It

Scaleo has added SmartLink functionality for its clients, and we are excited to share the news and tell you more about SmartLinks in affiliate marketing so that you, too, can increase your ROI with a SmartLink, the smart way.

Smartlink URLs and redirects are essential tools for affiliates who want to maximize their earnings and streamline their marketing efforts. In this blog post, we’ll explore what SmartLink URLs are, how they work, and how you can use them in your affiliate marketing campaigns.

In an ideal affiliate marketing environment, we would love to monetize every click. What if I told you it’s already possible? What if I showed you how to do it?

This tool is known as a ‘Smartlink.’

So, without further ado, let’s dive right in!

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What is a Smartlink URL?

A SmartLink URL is a specialized URL that redirects users to a list of relevant offers. SmartLink uses algorithms to select the most appropriate offer for the user based on factors such as the user’s location, device type, and browsing history.

Smartlink URLs are often used in affiliate marketing to promote a wide range of products or services. Instead of promoting a single offer, affiliates can use a SmartLink URL to promote a group of relevant offers. This allows affiliates to diversify their earnings and increase their sales chances.

Typically, affiliates select one offer from a list of offers to promote. However, thanks to this functionality, Scaleo provides a SmartLink that allows affiliates to promote a set of offers.

In other words, affiliates can select a number of offers from a specific offer list using what is known as a ‘direct link.’

Scaleo's Smartlink: What Is It and How To Use It - Smartlink

The optimal number of links in one direct link is roughly 20, though some affiliates choose many more. The optimization procedure begins once the offers have been chosen.

How do Smartlink URLs Work?

To use a SmartLink URL, affiliates must sign up for an affiliate network offering SmartLink technology. Once they have signed up, affiliates can generate a SmartLink URL for a specific offer or a group of offers. They can then use this URL in their marketing efforts, such as in email campaigns or on their website.

Users are redirected to the most relevant offer when they click on the SmartLink URL. The SmartLink algorithms take into account the user’s location, device type, and browsing history to select the most appropriate offer.

A typical structure of a URL redirect

A typical structure of a URL redirect may include the following elements:

Protocol: The protocol specifies how the redirect should be processed. Common protocols for URL redirects include HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and HTTPS (HTTP Secure).
Domain name: The domain name identifies the website or server that the redirect is pointing to.
Path: The path specifies the specific page or resource that the redirect is pointing to.
Query string: The query string is a set of key-value pairs that are appended to the end of the URL and used to pass additional information to the server.
Fragment identifier: The fragment identifier is a fragment of text that is appended to the end of the URL and used to specify a specific location within a webpage.

For example, a typical URL redirect might look something like this:

https://www.example.com/redirect?offer=123&utm_source=email&utm_medium=banner#top

In this example, the protocol is HTTPS, the domain name is http://www.example.com, the path is /redirect, the query string includes the key-value pairs offer=123 and utm_source=email&utm_medium=banner, and the fragment identifier is top.

It’s important to note that the structure of a URL redirect may vary depending on the specific requirements of the website or server that the redirect is pointing to.

The Benefits of Using Smartlink URLs

Smartlinks will try to optimize each visitor to the best of its ability. This means you may send all your traffic to a single link instead of creating different campaigns.

Smartlink Aspect	Description
Definition	A smartlink is a dynamic, intelligent URL that automatically redirects users to the most relevant offer based on various parameters.
Key Components	– Algorithm: Uses machine learning to analyze user behavior and optimize redirects.
	– Offers Pool: A collection of multiple offers that the smartlink can choose from.
	– Traffic Segmentation: Categorizes traffic based on factors like geo-location, device type, time of day, etc.
Functionality	– Real-time Optimization: Continuously adjusts the redirect to maximize conversions.
	– User Profiling: Gathers data on user preferences and browsing habits.
	– Multi-Device Support: Ensures compatibility across desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
Benefits for Affiliates	– Maximized Earnings: Increases the chances of conversion by matching users with the most relevant offers.
	– Simplicity: Reduces the need to manage multiple links for different offers.
	– Time-saving: Automates the optimization process, freeing up time for other tasks.
Benefits for Advertisers	– Enhanced Targeting: Ensures their offers are shown to the right audience, improving conversion rates.
	– Increased Reach: Expands the potential user base by catering to a wide range of user profiles.
	– Data Insights: Provides detailed analytics on user behavior and preferences.
Implementation Steps	1. Sign Up with a Network: Choose an affiliate network that offers smartlinks.
	2. Generate Smartlink: Create the smartlink through the network’s platform.
	3. Add to Campaigns: Integrate the smartlink into your marketing campaigns (blogs, ads, emails, etc.).
	4. Monitor Performance: Use the provided analytics to track the smartlink’s performance and adjust strategies accordingly.
Use Cases	– Global Campaigns: Ideal for campaigns targeting multiple regions, as it can dynamically redirect users based on their location.
	– Mobile Traffic: Efficiently handles traffic from various mobile devices, ensuring users land on mobile-optimized offers.
	– Niche Markets: Helps in segmenting traffic to niche markets, increasing the relevance and conversion rates of the offers shown.
Common Misconceptions	– Limited Control: Some believe smartlinks limit control over specific offer selection, but they can be customized to include preferred offers.
	– Complex Setup: While they seem complex, most affiliate networks provide easy-to-use interfaces for setting up and managing smartlinks.
Challenges	– Dependence on Network: Effectiveness depends on the quality of the affiliate network’s algorithm and offer pool.
	– Transparency: Affiliates may feel they lack insight into how offers are prioritized within the smartlink.

Using a Smartlink can help you save time by allowing you to test and launch new campaigns swiftly. While also allowing easy access to some of the best-converting offers and landing pages for your traffic.

When you’re new to CPA affiliate marketing, smartlinks are a terrific way to get your feet wet by allowing you to focus solely on the traffic acquisition aspect of running a campaign.

There are several benefits to using SmartLink URLs in your affiliate marketing campaigns:

Increased conversion rate: By redirecting users to offers that are relevant to them. This means that users are more likely to be interested in the offer and more likely to make a purchase.
Diversified earnings: Promote a wide range of offers, which can help diversify their earnings. This is especially useful for affiliates who want to avoid relying on a single offer.
Streamlined marketing efforts: Smartlink allows affiliates to promote multiple offers with a single URL. This can help to streamline their marketing efforts and save time.
Ease of use: Since it requires minimal setup, affiliates simply need to sign up for an affiliate network that offers smartlink technology and generate a Smartlink URL.

The Risks of Using Smartlink URLs

You may be wondering why anyone would run anything other than a Smartlink at this point. While Smartlinks is an excellent approach to monetizing low-cost traffic, it does have certain drawbacks.

Most offers and landing page combinations found by Smartlinks have a substantially smaller reward than if you ran the campaign manually. Because you have no control over how your Smartlink optimizes your traffic, monitoring the quality of the traffic you send is difficult. Affiliate networks are aware of this and, as a result, sometimes reduce payouts.

One of the most significant disadvantages of sending traffic to a Smartlink is the difficulty in having campaigns approved. The primary objective of a Smartlink is to generate the highest earnings per click (EPC) for every visitor delivered to it, which frequently leads to a lot of the landing page and offers combos inside the Smartlink, becoming incredibly competitive.

Even if a SmartLink does not use dynamic combinations, it is tough to ensure that every landing page and offer adheres to the ad quality criteria of most traffic providers.

Although SmartLink URLs can be an effective tool for affiliates, there are some risks to consider:

Lack of control: Smartlink URLs rely on algorithms to select the most appropriate offer for the user. This means that affiliates have less control over which offer the user is redirected to.
Relevance: It’s important to ensure that the offers promoted through the SmartLink URL are relevant and valuable to the user. If the user is not interested in the offer, they are less likely to make a purchase.
Disclosure: Affiliates should always disclose any affiliate relationships to their users and only promote offers that are relevant and valuable to their audience. Failing to do so could result in a loss of trust and credibility.

How to Use Smartlink URLs in Affiliate Marketing

There are several ways that affiliates can use SmartLink URLs in their marketing efforts:

Email campaigns: You can include the Smartlink URL in the body of an email that you send to your subscribers. When users click on the link, they will be redirected to the most relevant offer.
Social media posts: You can share the SmartLink URL on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. When a user clicks on the link, they will be redirected to the most relevant offer.
Website banners: You can include the smartlink URL in a banner ad on your website, and they will be redirected to the most relevant offer.
Blog posts: You can include the Smartlink URL in a blog post about a specific topic. When readers click on the link, they will be redirected to the offer that is most relevant to them.
Landing pages: You can create a landing page on your website that includes the smartlink URL. When the user lands on the page and clicks on the link, they will be redirected to the most relevant offer.

It’s important to note that you should always disclose any affiliate relationships to your users and only promote offers that are relevant and valuable to your audience.

What’s the difference between S2S redirection and SmartLink redirection?

Server-to-server (S2S) redirection and SmartLink redirection are both methods that affiliates can use to redirect users to a specific offer or group of offers. However, there are some key differences between the two:

Method of redirection: S2S redirection uses a server-to-server connection to redirect users, while smartlink redirection uses a specialized URL that redirects users to a list of offers.
Target audience: S2S redirection redirects users who are already in the sales funnel, while SmartLink redirection redirects users who are not yet in the sales funnel.
Relevance: S2S redirection typically redirects users to a specific offer that has been pre-determined by the affiliate, while SmartLink redirection uses algorithms to select the most relevant offer for the user based on factors such as their location, device type, and browsing history.
Control: S2S redirection gives affiliates more control over which offer the user is redirected to, while smartlink redirection relies on algorithms to select the most appropriate offer.
Ease of use: S2S redirection requires more technical setup and maintenance, while SmartLink redirection is typically easier to use and requires minimal setup.

Ultimately, which redirection method is best for you will depend on your specific goals and needs as an affiliate. S2S redirection may be a better option if you want to redirect users who are already in the sales funnel to a specific offer, while smartlink redirection may be a better choice if you want to redirect users who are not yet in the sales funnel to a relevant offer.

Make the most of every click with Smartlink

When traffic is directed to a SmartLink, the user will be redirected to rotate in the background. In other words, there is only one link that a user can click on, but it might take them to a variety of various locations (offers).

The automatic optimization process often leads the user to “the best offer,” which is determined by the chosen optimization type – the offer with the highest conversion rate, maximum profit, maximum income, and so on.

Regular Affiliate Link vs. Smartlink

Smartlink employs an “automatic optimization” technique to direct users to the “best offer.”

It is specified by the optimization type chosen – the offer with the highest conversion rate, maximum revenue, and maximum profit, for example.

A typical affiliate offer URL looks like this:

All visitors are directed to the same offer page.
The affiliate network may re-route them to alternative offers based on a visitor’s IP address.

In the case of a Smartlink URL, however:

A visitor clicks on the affiliate URL.
This visitor is directed to the Smartlink server, which recognizes visitors’ information and sends them to the best converting landing page + offer combo.

A Smartlink uses the following parameters:

Which GEO (country) is the visitor from?
Which device does the visitor use?
What is the device’s operating system?
What type of connection is the user using? (Wi-Fi, 3G, and 4G are all options).

It will direct the visitor to the best converting (Landing Page + Offer) for that segment based on this information set.

The Smartlinks network algorithm will automatically select your user’s best (Landing Page + offer) combination. It sends them based on historical data. Its optimized algorithm automatically redirects traffic segments to the most profitable (Landing Page + Offer) combinations.

The best fact is that you don’t have to understand how it performs its analysis.

In fact, it is continually learning and becoming smarter as it accumulates more data. As a result, it eliminates non-converting offers while keeping the best ones in the cycle.

When you set up a Smartlink, it can become a constant revenue stream. This is because it enables you to monetize every traffic portion.

It’s a fantastic tool to make your life easier as an affiliate marketer. You are not required to use several offer links in separate campaigns. You can only create one Smartlink and use it for all of your campaigns.

It intelligently detects where your traffic comes from and then displays the best-performing offer to each user. As a result, Smartlink ensures that you earn the most money possible.

Easy Smartlink Optimization

To begin with, the offers will be scrutinized for targeting requirements. The offers that pass the screening process will then move on to the next step: searching for approved affiliates and offers. The final filter the offers go through considers capping limitations, which are how frequently a specific user can see the same offer.

Following that, each offer that fulfills the conditions of the incoming traffic type is routed to the optimization algorithm. Affiliate marketing software such as Scaleo will then determine each offer’s distribution factor and distribute the offer accordingly.

Another useful tip is the ability to select direct offers and categories. When a new offer is added to or withdrawn from a category, it is automatically added to or deleted from SmartLink.

When To Use A Smartlink?

Direct links work great when you’re starting out and don’t know which offer works better because offer rotation reflects A/B testing, which is done in the background by automatic algorithms to determine the top-performing offers.

Next time you want to split A/B test an offer without changing the tracking link, take one offer you know works well and test the other two.

It’s ideal for improving overall traffic monetization.

Smartlink Is Changing the Game of Affiliate Software

Scaleo’s affiliate software is not the first tracking software to provide smartlinks, but it is the finest, and here’s why.

Our technology optimizes the monetization of clicks, or, to put it another way, the system optimizes a specific goal. For example, the goal could be to maximize the conversion rate. If your affiliates are media buyers, they can place a direct link to the media buying tool they use.

Simply create a link, copy it, and put it into your traffic source. The SmartLink will only display the highest conversion offers for your selected factors like location, carrier, or operating system. For example, supposed affiliates do not utilize other tools and instead send traffic from a network to our affiliate marketing software. In that case, they can place the link directly in the ad server as a destination.

What is the best URL redirection method in affiliate marketing?

There is no ultimate URL redirection technique in affiliate marketing as different measures may have more or less relevance, depending on your aspirations and needs of an affiliate.

Well, that being said SmartLink redirection is widely used by many affiliates because it helps increase conversion rates by redirecting users to relevant offers. In addition, Smartlink redirection is user-friendly and requires minimal setup thus making it popular among affiliates who would want to make their marketing process more efficient.

On the other hand, server-to-server (S2S) redirection might be a good option if you want to send users already in your sales funnel directly to one offer. S2S redirection gives more control over where the user will be redirected but requires greater technical setup and maintenance.

Thus, the best URL redirection method for you will depend on your specific goals and needs as an affiliate. Trying out different methods and identifying which one works best for your campaigns can be useful.

How to add a SmartLink redirect in Scaleo.io affiliate software?

To add a SmartLink redirect in Scaleo.io affiliate software, you will need to follow these steps:

Log in to your Scaleo.io account and
Go to the “Offers” tab.
Click the “Add Offer” button.
In the “Offer URL” field, enter the SmartLink URL that you obtained in step 1.
Fill out the remaining fields in the “Add Offer” form, including the offer name, description, and payout.
Click the “Save” button to save the offer.
You can use the Smartlink URL in your marketing efforts to promote the offer, such as through email campaigns or your website. Users who click on the SmartLink URL will be redirected to the most relevant offer.

It’s important to note that you should always disclose affiliate relationships to your users and only promote relevant and valuable offers to your audience.

Conclusion

This is where Affiliate Software like Scaleo comes in handy. The program picks a direct link that would choose the offer to which the internet user shall be sent, based on the kind of optimization and filters set by the affiliate. Among others, this offer may have the highest conversion rate, highest profit or highest revenue but one sure thing is that partnering with SmartLink will increase your chances of making money out of your click.

With the use of SmartLinks, it ensures that all your links are well monetized (so you do not waste traffic) and you will see better ROI as you go along with good performance too.