What Are Link Categories?
A link category is a label you attach to one or more links. Engage then reports on all links in a category together and can act on a click of any of them. A category must be created before it can be used.
What You Can Use Them For
Statistics: The Link Category Analysis tab shows which categories were used in a message and how recipients responded (see Link Category Analysis (tab)). Example: a travel agency labels offers as Cruises, Resorts, and Spa, then sees which offer types recipients prefer.
Automation: Use a category in event-based automations — for example, Message Link Clicked (C) + Store Data in Profile Attribute (C) records each time a contact clicks a link in a category (see Event-Based Automation and Product Interest Mapping).
Selections: Build targeted recipient lists — for example, everyone who clicked a link in the Cruises category receives a matching follow-up offer.
How Categories Are Assigned
Manually, before sendout: Assign categories to a message's links in the message editor (see Manual Assignment of Link Categories).
Manually, after sendout: Change the category of a sent message in the Outbox. The change takes effect from that point and is not applied retroactively.
Automatically: By keyword or regular expression, evaluated at sendout (see Automatic Assignment of Link Categories).
Via a CMS: When a Content Management System is used, the CMS template defines the assignment. Contact your customer representative for details.
For landing pages, only automatic assignment works: the message holds an Engage Variable, not a link, and the variable becomes a link address only when the message is processed.
Warning
Manual assignment of a link category is lost when the message is saved as a draft.
Create a Link Category
Create categories and choose how they are assigned (manually, by keyword, or by Regex) in the New Link Category (window). New categories get the lowest priority by default; change this in the Link Category Overview (tab).