Track campaign, route, and playbook links

Tracked links connect a click with the message that created it, the customer profile, a session, reporting, and later activity on your site.

Hellotext can create these links in campaign, journey, playbook, and Inbox messages. For the context to continue after the redirect, the destination site must preserve the session and track later activity correctly.

What Hellotext does when the customer clicks

When you add a link with the editor tool, Hellotext generates a short URL such as hello.link/XXXXXX or uses the custom domain configured by the business.

When the customer clicks, Hellotext:

Tracks the short_link.clicked action for the customer profile and corresponding message.
Updates the link click count and available reports.
Preserves the campaign, broadcast, journey, step, or playbook context that created the message.
Redirects the customer to the original URL.
Adds a session and UTM parameters to the destination URL.

Hellotext filters previews it identifies as bots so they are not counted as customer clicks. Even so, a recorded click represents an interaction, not a purchase or guaranteed conversion.

Do not send short_link.clicked manually from your integration. Hellotext creates it when processing the link click.

Parameters received by the destination site

The redirected URL can look like this:

https://shop.example.com/products/everyday-sneakers?hello_session=SESSION_ID&utm_source=hellotext&utm_medium=sms&utm_campaign=CAMPAIGN_ID

The parameters have different purposes:

hello_session preserves the session associated with the link and connects later activity.
utm_source identifies the traffic source; its value is normally hellotext.
utm_medium identifies the channel when available.
utm_campaign identifies the campaign, journey, or playbook when applicable.

The current parameter is hello_session. Do not use or look for hellotext_session.

If the original URL already contains parameters, Hellotext preserves them and adds its own. Do not remove hello_session or the UTM parameters in an intermediate redirect.

How the session continues on the site

Hellotext.js reads hello_session from the URL, retains the session in the browser, and includes it with later activity.

Initialize Hellotext.js before your router or storefront code removes URL parameters. In a single-page application, preserve the query string during the initial load.

You can inspect the session after the library initializes:

if (Hellotext.isInitialized) {
  console.log(Hellotext.session)
}

Hellotext.js automatically tracks page.viewed with the current URL. If the page represents a product, also track product.viewed and explicitly include the product. The URL alone does not provide all catalog information.

See Tracking unidentified customers for the complete session and identity lifecycle.

Context by message source

The same mechanism preserves different references depending on where the message was created:

Campaign: the click is related to the campaign, broadcast, and sent message.
Journey: the click is related to the journey, step, and executed message.
Playbook: the click is related to the playbook and generated or sent message.
Inbox: the click remains in customer and conversation activity even when there is no campaign or automation report.

Do not manually reuse a personalized message link for other customers or sends. Add the destination through the editor link tool and let Hellotext generate the correct context for each message.

How later events are connected

A click is only the beginning of the session. To understand what happened next, the site or backend must track the relevant actions:

Hellotext.js tracks navigation, product views, and cart changes.
Your backend tracks trusted orders, payments, cancellations, shipments, and deliveries.
When the customer becomes known, the session must be associated with the correct customer profile.

If checkout happens on another domain or application, send the Hellotext.session ID to your backend before losing the context. You can then track the order with the corresponding customer profile or session.

Do not send the same event from Hellotext.js and the backend. See Tracking events and External tracking.

Clicks, reporting, and attribution

Clicks can appear in customer profile activity and in campaign, journey, or playbook reports when that report is available.

An eligible click can provide active attribution evidence and normally opens a seven-day window from the click. An eligible delivery or another passive signal can apply within the default 24-hour window. These windows can be configured by account.

The click does not guarantee that a purchase will be attributed to that source. Hellotext also evaluates:

Whether the customer and order are identified correctly.
Whether the purchase occurs inside the applicable window.
Whether the campaign, journey, playbook, or delivery is eligible.
Whether another valid source has higher precedence.

See How we attribute sales for complete windows, precedence, and examples.

Verify the implementation

Test with a recognizable customer profile and message:

Create a tracked link through the editor.
Send the test message and open the link as the customer would.
Confirm that the destination URL includes hello_session and the expected UTM parameters.
Verify that Hellotext.session matches the received session.
Confirm that the click appears in customer profile activity.
Review the campaign, journey, or playbook report when available.
Track a test product view, cart, or order and confirm that it preserves the correct customer and source.
Confirm that the same activity was not tracked twice.

Troubleshoot common problems

The click appears, but later activity does not: confirm that the site preserves hello_session until Hellotext.js initializes.
The session changes when the customer reaches the site: review redirects, domains, cookies, and Hellotext.js initialization order.
The page view appears without a product: track product.viewed with the corresponding product.
The click does not appear in the report: verify that the link was created in the correct message and was not a preview detected as a bot.
The purchase is not attributed: review identity, order, timestamp, window, and source precedence.

If signals are missing, use Troubleshoot missing signals or activity.