Overview
Roster's Smart Links feature let brands create branded, elegant, and data-rich referral links for ambassadors, and are available as a direct replacement to Roster's traditional referral links.
Unlike traditional referral links that are long, complex, and difficult to manage, Smart Links streamline the referral process by offering a shorter, cleaner, and more customizable option. This enables brands to create dynamic links that are not only visually appealing but also packed with features that enhance tracking, discount management, and program-specific configurations.
By leveraging Smart Links, brands can offer ambassadors a more intuitive experience with fewer steps for sharing links, while gathering critical performance data on each link variant. Whether used at a program level, Smart Links empower both brands and ambassadors to make data-driven decisions and maximize their impact.
Key Benefits of Smart Links
Program-Specific Referral Links: Smart links can be customized per-program, giving brands more flexibility with landing pages, customer discounts, and referral tracking capabilities.
Branded and Shortened URLs: Smart links use the rstr.co short link, creating clean, easy-to-share links that put the focus on your brand.
Leakproof Discount Codes: Prevent the misuse of discount codes by automatically applying unique codes tied to the smart link itself. This keeps codes secure and prevents potential revenue loss from leaked or shared codes.
Dynamic Link Management: Smart links can be updated at any time without requiring ambassadors to change the URLs they’ve already shared. This ensures seamless updates for promotional campaigns or changes in tracking parameters.
Advanced Tracking and Reporting: Smart links automatically integrate UTM parameters and custom fields, giving brands powerful insights into where traffic is coming from, how different channels are performing, and the impact of each ambassador.
Increased Sharing Options for Ambassadors: Ambassadors can generate their own channel-specific and product-specific referral links from the Ambassador Portal, allowing them to track and optimize performance on each platform they use (e.g., Instagram, TikTok).
Before Smart Links
Prior to smart links, an ambassador's referral link might look like:
🤨 bellenutrition.com/?rstr=janeskiis
Which although isn't terrible, the ?rstr=janeskiis is ugly, and the link lacks any UTM parameters, limiting a brand's ability to gain a richer set of website analytics.
If a brand enables UTM params in Roster, an ambassador's referral link now looks like:
🤮 bellenutrition.com/?rstr=janeskiis&utm_source=organic-referral&utm_campaign=jane-345312&utm_medium=ambassador
Yuck ! Nobody wants to put that link on their Instagram bio.
Smart Link Example
With smart links, that same ambassador's referral link now looks like:
🤩 rstr.co/bellenutrition/janeskiis
This new link appearance keeps both the brand and the ambassador front-and-center.
Upon clicking an ambassador's smart link, a customer would be seamlessly redirected to the destination URL, packed with valuable info, like UTM parameters, link variants, and optional customer discounts.
How Smart Links Work
Smart Links are created on a per-program basis and are comprised of three main parts: the destination URL, link appearance, and customer discount. These three components are crucial because they determine where customers land, how the link looks, and whether any incentives are offered—providing brands with control over the entire customer journey.
Destination URL. This is the website that loads when somebody clicks an ambassador's smart link. This is often the brand's website, but can also be dynamic, like an ambassador-specific landing page.
Link Appearance. The link appearance determines how ambassadors' links appear in their bio, their LinkTree, or when shared via text or messenger apps. By default they appear like the example above, but you can select different options as well.
Customer Discount. Shopify brands are able to optionally apply a discount to an order placed from an ambassador's smart link. We recommend the leakproof code option, but brands can opt to have ambassadors' shareable code automatically applied to the order as well.
For ambassadors, smart links give them the ability to create channel and product-specific variants, such as for posting on Instagram or TikTok, or to direct followers to their favorite product, while being able to see detailed metrics about each variant.
Next Steps
With a foundational understanding of smart links, check out our guide on Adding a Smart Link to a Program to learn how to set up and manage smart links for your ambassador programs.