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gkrajeski
gkrajeski
Level 10
February 22, 2016
Question

Need URL shortener for ON24, suggestions?

  • February 22, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 7051 views

We are working on an integration with ON24 presently.

One issue we have run into is a long (apparently personalized) URL that we're currently using in tokens.

Therefore we cannot display the actual URL, but must use shortened link text and put the long URL in the HREF.

We would much rather use a URL shortener such as bit.ly or the like so that we can display the URL to the use without blowing our template out super wide.

Any suggestions or ON24 users doing something like this?

@Chelsea Kiko​

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2 replies

SanfordWhiteman
SanfordWhiteman
Level 10
February 22, 2016

I recommend linksense.io/ over Bitly here because it allows parameter forwarding (which I think you need Bitly $$$ edition for).

That is, if linksense.io/abc points to landing.example.com/mylandingpage.html?utm_source=linkedin and you go to linksense.io/abc?utm_medium=email, the final URL will be landing.example.com/mylandingpage.html?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=email.  If you are heavily tokenized you'll probably need this at some point.

A
Anonymous
February 22, 2016

Hi Geoffrey,

What token are you using for the URLs? If you are sending your confirmation/reminder emails from Marketo, they recommend using {{member.webinar url:default=edit me}}, but that doesn't really solve your problem. :/ Is there a reason you'd prefer to show the URL and not hyperlink a word or two?

On the event page in ON24 under links, there is a general audience link, one that is not personalized, but if you have selected the "Enable Login Only Option" in ON24, users can not access the webinar unless they already registered (and it has to be with the same email address). If you disable this, users can register with their information on this page, but unfortunately, this has to be enabled if you want Marketo and ON24 to talk to each other.

I've had experience with doing both and recommend that you talk to your account integration contact with ON24 - they may have a few ideas. At one point I was using Scribe (their integration service for custom fields/objects) and disabled the "Login Only Option" so that anyone could register on the lobby page in ON24 and map back to our instance.

I may have totally misunderstood your post..

Hope this helps!

Jackie

gkrajeski
gkrajeskiAuthor
Level 10
May 25, 2016

Thank you Jackie Joly​,

We are using the {{member.webinar url}} token.

However, what was discovered is that ON24 passes along the full html including the anchor tag <a> as part of the token.

In order to resolve there is an underlying URL that you can create from concatenation of a couple of (additional) tokens.

The construct goes as such for the Audience URL: event.on24.com/r.htm?e={{EVENT ID}}&s=1

With {{EVENT ID}} of course, being your proper token as defined in your Program.

Edward_Unthank_
Edward_Unthank_
Level 7
May 25, 2016

I don't believe that ON24 passes the full URL in {{member.webinar url}}, at least from just setting up a template a month ago using it.

What is wonky, though, is that any Calendar token includes the full <a href="[ICS file location]">Add to Calendar</a> value. That actual ICS file contains the {{member.webinar url}} in the description, so you need to extract the actual ICS file location and use that ICS file location to craft your own link. The personalization of that ICS file (giving each person a unique {{member.webinar url}}) happens by Marketo's shortening and personalizing that ICS link—it's actually the same fine location for the ICS, but the unique webinar URL comes in through parameters on that file.

Is that what you're talking about?

From a link shortening perspective, I think there's also a branding impact on link shorteners. People trust bit.ly and Hootsuite shorteners, but unknown shortened links look like spam and viruses. If you're going all-in on link shortening, you can create your own company-branded link shortener.

Edward

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