{"id":3075,"date":"2026-10-12T13:48:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T08:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/?p=3075"},"modified":"2026-10-12T13:48:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T08:18:28","slug":"sms-click-tracking-attribution-smart-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/sms-click-tracking-attribution-smart-links\/","title":{"rendered":"SMS Click Tracking and Attribution: Joining Smart Link Clicks to Messages and Recipients"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A click count on a dashboard isn’t attribution. This guide shows how to wire the four SMSApi\/linktrack<\/code> endpoints and the send-time trackLink<\/code> switch into a click ledger you own, join every click back to a message and a recipient, filter preview and scanner clicks, and compute a click rate you can defend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Abstract<\/a>
A click only becomes attribution once it joins back to a message and a recipient in a table you own.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Table of Contents<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. The Short Answer<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. TL;DR<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Two Ways to Get a Tracked Link<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. The Four Linktrack Endpoints at a Glance<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Creating a Link and Finding Its lcId<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Turning On Tracking at Send Time<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. What the Short URL Does to Message Length<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. DLT: Whitelist the Short Domain, Not Just Yours<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. Reading Clicks Back: The Visitor Report<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. Parsing the Sentinels: “0”, “NA” and “0%”<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  11. The Attribution Data Model<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  12. Joining a Click to a Message and a Recipient<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  13. Polling Without a Click Webhook<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  14. Bot and Preview Clicks<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  15. Computing a Click Rate You Can Defend<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  16. Clicks Are Personal Data<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  17. Deleting Links Safely<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  18. Decision Matrix<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  19. Pre-Launch Checklist<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  20. Unspecified Behaviour and How to Code Around It<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  21. FAQs<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The Short Answer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    You get tracked links<\/a> on SMS Gateway Center<\/strong> two ways. Either you turn on trackLink=true<\/code> when you call SMSApi\/send<\/code>, and the platform swaps the last URL in your message for a short link, or you create a link up front with SMSApi\/linktrack\/create<\/code> and put the short URL into the message yourself. Clicks come back through SMSApi\/linktrack\/report<\/code>, one row per visit, with a ciId<\/code>, a mobileNo<\/code>, device and network details and an epoch-millisecond timestamp<\/code>. There’s no click webhook, so you poll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The dashboard will happily show you totals. Attribution is a different job: it means every click row ends up joined to the message that carried the link and the recipient who got it, in a table you own. To get there you need four things. A link ledger keyed on the platform’s lcId<\/code>. A click ledger keyed on ciId<\/code>, deduplicated. A join from (lcId, mobileNo)<\/code> to your outbound message rows. And a flag on every click that might be a link preview or a security scanner rather than a person, because on SMS a lot of them are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    TL;DR<\/h2>\n\n\n\n