Top 10 Ways to Use Short Links on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

When Every Second Is a Sale

Friday morning after Thanksgiving. A marketer at a major online store hits "send" — and in that instant, a million SMS messages fly out to subscribers. The sale kicks off at 6 AM, discounts up to 70%.

Then he notices: the link in the SMS looks like this:

store.com/sale/black-friday-2024/all-categories?utm_source=sms&utm_medium=bulk&utm_campaign=bf_nov2024&utm_content=promo_v2

184 characters. The SMS provider cut it off at 160. The link doesn't open. Customers see a broken URL tail and think — spam. The "report" button gets tapped more than the link itself.

Same message, different URL: store.cc/bf-deals. 13 characters. Opens instantly. Looks clean. One tap — and the customer is on the sale page.

The difference? Just the link. And this is only one of ten tactics covered below.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the most competitive days in e-commerce. Every detail of your communication matters. Teams that think about URLs in advance tend to outperform those who just "throw a link" at people.

The Scale You Should Understand

Before diving into tactics — a few numbers to set the stage.

These numbers tell two stories. First: Black Friday is no longer just American shopping malls — it's a global online sprint. Second: more than half of all traffic is mobile. A URL that looks fine on desktop can become a disaster on a phone screen.

1. A Separate Link for Each Channel — No More Analytics Confusion

Picture this: the campaign ran, sales came in, budget was spent. You open analytics and see traffic came in. From where? No idea. Email, SMS, Instagram, Facebook — all collapsed into one "source: unknown." This isn't hypothetical. It's what happens when every channel gets the same link.

What Google Analytics Shows You

You see: "1,200 referral clicks." From where — impossible to tell. You spent budget on four channels. Sales happened. Whether Facebook or Email drove them — nobody knows.

Short links fix this simply: one channel = one link. Each carries its own UTM parameters inside, but looks clean and compact on the outside.

What It Looks Like in Practice

After the campaign, you open the reports and see a clear breakdown by channel — how much traffic, what conversion rate, what paid off. Now you have a concrete answer for where to put the budget next year.

2. SMS Campaigns: Every Character Literally Costs Money

SMS has the highest open rate of any channel. 98% of messages get read, most within the first 3 minutes. But there's a piece of math that breaks the whole effect.

Let's Count the Characters

Standard SMS — 160 characters. Go over that — it splits into two messages. And you pay for two.

With a list of 50,000 subscribers, that's double the sending cost. Not because of the content, not the targeting — purely because of URL length.

One More Thing

A long URL in SMS gets cut off at character 160. The customer sees a broken string of characters with no end. Nothing to tap. Conversion: zero.

Walmart and Best Buy have traditionally used short branded-slug links in their Black Friday SMS campaigns. It's not just about aesthetics — at million-subscriber scale, it's direct budget savings.

3. One Link, Multiple Pages: The Magic of Redirect Editing

This is the least obvious tactic on the list. And one of the most valuable.

A Scenario That Happens Every Year

Monday before Black Friday. You've sent the email, published the posts, set up the ads. Everything is live and running.

Friday, 7 AM. Traffic is insane. Then the dev team says: there's a bug on the page, it needs to be fixed. Or marketing decides: that other product collection converts better, let's redirect there instead.

Problem: the links are already out. They live in the inboxes of millions of customers. You can't take them back.

With a Short Link — Different Story

All links point to store.cc/bf-deals. Behind the scenes — a redirect to the actual page. That actual page can be changed any time from the dashboard.

• Found a bug — changed the redirect without touching any sent messages
• Sale ended — redirected to "Cyber Monday" with no new campaigns needed
• Item sold out — redirect instantly to an alternative selection

Black Friday → Cyber Monday: One Link, Two Sales

You send an SMS on Thursday with the link store.cc/sale. On Friday it leads to the BF sale. Sunday night — you change the redirect. The same link in the same messages now leads to Cyber Monday deals.

A customer who didn't buy on Friday opens the message Monday morning — and sees fresh offers. No new campaign needed on your end.

4. QR Codes in the Physical World: From Storefront to Online Cart

Black Friday isn't only online. Even pure digital brands have offline touchpoints: flyers, banners, packaging, window displays, price tags. QR codes are the natural bridge between them and the online store.

Why a Short Link Inside a QR Is Technically Better

A QR code is just encoded text. The longer the text, the more complex the pattern. More complex QR — more scan errors, especially in poor lighting or on small print formats.

It's basic QR physics: less data = simpler pattern = fewer black-and-white modules in the same space. When printing on price tags, flyers, or window displays, this genuinely affects scan reliability — especially at a distance or at an angle.

• Simpler pattern → scans reliably at any size
• Tracking: see how many people scanned this specific QR, where, and when
• Redirect can be updated without reprinting materials

Best Buy and Walmart: QR as Standard Practice

Best Buy and Walmart have been placing QR codes on Black Friday printed materials for years — catalogs, price tags, window posters. Scan it — land directly on the product or sale page. The journey from "saw it in-store" to "bought online" becomes a single step.

If the sale ends or changes — the redirect gets updated in the dashboard. The printed materials stay the same, but they now point to current content.

By the way — QR-coded mailers in the US are experiencing a genuine revival before Black Friday. After the pandemic, people trust physical mail again. And QR turns an analog channel into a fully trackable digital one.

5. Anonymous Link vs. Readable Slug: Why Users Hesitate Before Clicking

Here's something that rarely gets said out loud: not all short links convert equally well. It's not about the technology — it's about what the user sees before they decide to click.

Why Anonymous Links Are a Problem on Black Friday

In November, phishing attacks and scam messages spike. According to Google Safe Browsing data, the number of new phishing pages increases significantly during the shopping season. People become more cautious.

"80% off — click the link" is a classic phishing hook. If your legitimate message looks similar, clicks drop and spam complaints rise.

Three Levels of Link Trust

Even without your own branded domain — the difference between bit.ly/3xK9mPq and clipr.cc/bf-sale already matters. In the first case, the reader has no idea where they'll land. In the second — the slug speaks for itself: "bf-sale", "cyber-monday-deals", "winter-promo." The person understands the context before they even click.

If You Want a Branded Domain

Most shortening services support custom domains. You buy a short domain and connect it to the service — a one-time technical step that takes a few hours. But if that's not a priority right now — at least choose readable slugs over random characters.

6. Influencer and Affiliate Tracking: Who Actually Drove Sales

If you work with influencers or affiliate partners — this section is about money. Literally.

The Classic No-Tracking Situation

You've partnered with ten influencers. Sent each a promo code and a link. Black Friday comes — sales are up. But which of the ten actually brought buyers? And who took the fee and delivered nothing?

If everyone has the same link — there's no answer. You pay everyone equally, even though results are distributed very unevenly — and you have no idea.

One Influencer = One Link

• store.cc/bf-sarah — for Sarah with 200K followers in fashion
• store.cc/bf-mike — for Mike the tech blogger
• store.cc/bf-coupon — for the coupon aggregator site

All three lead to the same page. But in analytics — each one is tracked separately. After the campaign, you see a clear breakdown: who drove real sales, who brought only clicks, and who didn't deliver at all. Decisions for next year become obvious without any debate.

Amazon Associates: The 25-Year Standard

Amazon launched its affiliate program in 1996 — and built it on unique tracking links from day one. Every partner gets a link with their own ID. Amazon knows exactly who sold what and how much. Partners see their own stats in real time. Over 25+ years, the program became one of the largest in the world — precisely because it's transparent for both sides.

That's the model: tracking links turn affiliate marketing from "pay and hope" into "pay for a specific result."

Timing Is Its Own Insight

Tracking links show not just who brought customers, but when. If a specific influencer's click peak happened 4 hours after their post — you now know what time their audience is most active. That's invaluable for planning future collaborations.

7. A/B Testing Offers: Two Links — One Answer in a Few Hours

Black Friday is a unique opportunity for A/B testing. Normally a statistically significant test takes weeks and enough traffic. On Black Friday, you get that traffic in hours.

The Mechanics Are Simple

Two versions of a landing page or offer — two short links. Send the first to half your audience, the second to the other half.

A few hours in, you see: Version A got more clicks, Version B got more purchases. The winner is the one that converts. Switch all traffic there. Test done.

What Else to Test This Way

• Different starting catalog pages (clothing vs. electronics)
• Different offers (free shipping vs. extra coupon)
• SMS at 6 AM vs. 9 AM — when do more conversions happen
• Different CTAs: "Buy now" vs. "Browse deals"

These findings are gold for future campaigns. You walk away from Black Friday with not just sales, but real knowledge of what works with your specific audience.

8. Real-Time Analytics: React During the Sale, Not After

Most marketers look at numbers on Monday after Black Friday. Open the report — see what happened. But by then, nothing can be changed.

Black Friday is one of those rare cases where real-time analytics gives you the ability to make decisions mid-game.

What You Can See — and What You Can Do

• Email went out at 6 AM — no clicks by 7. Something's off. Possible rendering issue in certain email clients. Check it. Send a test to yourself.
• SMS spiked at 8:30 AM. Traffic fades by 10. Ideal time for a second push wave — around 1 PM, when the first wave has settled.
• Instagram Stories driving more clicks than expected. Boost the Stories budget. Right now, while the sale is still running.
• 80% of clicks from mobile. But your landing page isn't mobile-optimized. You find out not from next week's analytics — but right now. And you have a chance to fix it.

Hourly Traffic Patterns on Black Friday

There are three traditional activity waves: morning (6–9 AM), midday (12–2 PM), and evening (after 7 PM). By tracking clicks hour by hour, you can sync new push messages or social posts with moments of peak engagement.

9. Email Campaigns: One Email — Five Tracking Points

Email remains one of the highest-converting channels during sales season. According to Salesforce, email generates more ROI per dollar spent than most other digital channels. But there's a nuance most people ignore.

A Single Email Can Have 5–10 Different Links

The "Browse deals" button, the category banner, top products, the footer link, the promo code... If all of them point to store.com/black-friday — you see the total number of clicks from email. But you don't know: which got clicked more — the big banner or the CTA button?

Solution: Each Email Element Gets Its Own Link

After the send, you have the full picture. It might turn out that the footer link converts best — that happens. People read the whole email and then click with intent. Or the mid-email teaser product outperforms the main banner. Without tracking individual elements, you'd never know.

10. After the Sale: 48 Hours Until Cyber Monday

Black Friday ends — Cyber Monday starts over the weekend. You have literally 48–72 hours to analyze the data and adjust your strategy.

Here's the thing: according to Adobe Analytics, Cyber Monday 2024 surpassed Black Friday in online sales — $13.3B vs. $10.8B. So the "big day" is actually Monday. The teams that prep between Friday and the weekend are the ones who win.

What to Analyze First

• Which channel drove the most traffic? Which drove the best conversion? (Not the same thing.)
• Which influencer brought real buyers, not just clicks?
• When was the peak? Did it align with your SMS/email send time?
• Which email element converted best?
• What's the click geography? Any unexpected regions?

Updating Redirects for Cyber Monday

If you used the editable redirect approach (tactic #3), this part is the simplest. Change the destination of each link. Links sitting in customers' inboxes, on social media, in influencer posts — they all now point to Cyber Monday.

Building Knowledge for Next Season

The most valuable thing — you're not collecting all this just for this one sale, but for the next one. When November comes around next year and someone asks "what worked last time?" — you'll have a specific answer. With numbers. By channel. With partner names attached.

Practical Checklist: Preparing for Black Friday in One Week

A concrete action plan if you have about a week until launch.

7 days before launch

3–4 days before launch

1 day before launch

During Black Friday

FAQ

Wrap-Up: The Short Version

Some marketers come out of every Black Friday knowing exactly what worked — which channel paid off, which influencer brought real buyers, what time the audience was most active. They go into Cyber Monday fully prepped — just flip the redirect and launch the next wave.

Others open Google Analytics on Monday and see a pile of traffic with no idea where it came from or why.

The difference isn't budget. It isn't team size. Often it's just a handful of short links set up a week before launch.

None of the tactics in this article requires weeks to implement. Most are 10–15 minutes of setup before launch. But without those 15 minutes, you simply won't know what happened. And knowing — that's the competitive edge going into the next season.

If you want to try it out — Clipr.cc is a good starting point: click tracking, QR generator, editable redirects after creation. Free to get started.