When to Use Automatic Assignment
Link categories can be assigned by hand or automatically. Automatic assignment is the better choice when:
A message has many links: Instead of editing each link, the system checks every sendout and assigns the matching category automatically.
Links come from attributes or related data sets: These links are inserted only at sendout, so they can be assigned only automatically.
When only part of a link comes from an attribute, the placeholder name drives the assignment — for example, a link built from ${user.CustomAttribute['hotel']} can be matched on the string hotel. To evaluate personalized links, enable link tracking for the group (see Activate Link Tracking for a Group).
How Automatic Assignment Works
Categories are created in the Administration area; the assignment runs on a keyword or a regular expression (Regex) at sendout. For landing pages inserted through an Engage Variable, assignment must be automatic, because the variable becomes a link address only at sendout — a word from the URL, or the full landing-page URL, serves as the keyword or Regex.
By Keyword
A keyword is a single word that must appear in the link address; no programming knowledge is needed. Keywords are case-sensitive, and only the link address is searched — not the visible link text.
Example: links containing hotel are assigned to the Travel category.
Matches:
www.hotel.com,www.reallynicehotels.com,www.travelagency.com/hotels.No match:
www.Hotel.com(case-sensitive); or a link whose visible text is "hotel" but whose URL iswww.bookings.com(only the URL is searched).
By Regex
A regular expression matches patterns in the link address, allowing more precise rules than a single keyword.
.*Resort.*– any link containing "Resort".(?=.*Cruise)(?=.*Bahamas).*– links containing both "Cruise" and "Bahamas"..*Cruise|Bahamas.*– links containing either "Cruise" or "Bahamas".
Add a Keyword to a Link to Trigger Assignment
Often the destination URL does not contain the string needed for assignment. Add it as a parameter so the assignment can trigger. Example: www.myhotel.com/resortpeter becomes www.myhotel.com/resortpeter?linkcategory=Wellness. If you use a CMS template, ask your customer representative to add the placeholder to the master template.
By Hand
Insert the value manually, using a flag the destination site ignores so it triggers no unintended action (for example, linkcategory=Wellness).
With a Placeholder or Personalization
Drag an Engage Variable or personalization placeholder into the link; it is replaced with the real value at sendout. The category is determined from the placeholder name before the value is resolved, so every variant maps to the same category — for example, www.myhotel.com/resortpeter?linkcategory=<%Wellness%>.
Note
If the whole link is inserted through a placeholder, it is not recognized as a link during processing and receives no category.
Save as a Personalization for Reuse
In the personalization builder, store a value from the code view (for example, linkcategory=Wellness) and drag it into any message. Prefix it with ? or & — for example, www.myhotel.com/resortpeter?language=de&linkcategory=Wellness.
Set the Priority of Link Categories
A link can belong to only one category. If it matches several categories, the one with the highest priority (the smallest number) wins — this stops a link being counted more than once in the statistics.
Procedure
In the main navigation menu, go to Administration > Categories > Link. The Category Overview opens; the Priority column shows the current ranking.
In the Action column, select Change Priority.
Enter the rank in the New priority field (the smaller the number, the higher the priority).
Click Change Priority. The other categories shift up or down accordingly.
Automatic vs. Manual Assignment
If both are used, manual assignment wins. Once the Assign Link Categories window is closed, automatic assignment no longer affects that message, even if the Regex changes later (see Assign Link Categories). Changing a link's category takes effect from the date entered; statistics already collected are not adjusted. Changing a category's name takes effect immediately and system-wide.