# Smart Link Analytics

> What a smart link counts: QR scans and clicks apart, sure and potential chats, how each chat was recognised, conversions, countries, devices and campaigns, what counts as a visit, and the chats each link started.

Source: https://docs.theavoxai.com/chat-links/analytics

Every [smart link](https://docs.theavoxai.com/chat-links) keeps its own numbers, from the first scan to the chat that came of it.
Open a link and its **Analytics** tab shows how it's doing; the **Chats** tab lists each chat it
started. The **Smart links** list shows each link's last 30 days at a glance.

## What counts as a visit

A **visit** is someone opening the link's current address while the link is live. Visits come in two
kinds, counted apart:

- **QR scans**: visits through the QR code. The address inside a link's QR code ends in `?q=1`, and
  that's how a scan is told apart from a click.
- **Link clicks**: visits through the link itself: taps in bios, posts, emails, ads and the
  [website chat button](https://docs.theavoxai.com/chat-links#website-chat-button).

Some openings are never counted, so the numbers stay about real people:

- **Robots and link previews.** When you paste a link into a chat app or a post, the app fetches it to
  draw a preview card. Those fetches, search engines and other robots never count.
- **Browser prefetches.** A browser that loads a page early, in case you tap it, isn't a visit.
- **Bursts from one network.** Many visits from the same network within a minute are only counted up to
  a limit.
- **Old addresses.** After you [change a link's address](https://docs.theavoxai.com/chat-links#changing-the-address), the old one
  still opens WhatsApp but isn't counted as a visit. Avox still notes it, only so a chat from it can be
  recognised.
- **Links that aren't live.** A draft, scheduled, paused, ended or archived link doesn't open WhatsApp,
  so there's nothing to count.

Opening your own link counts as a click, like anyone else's.

### What's kept about a visit

> **Note**
>
> Smart links set no cookies, and no IP address is kept. For each visit Avox keeps only the time, scan or
> click, the country, the kind of device (phone, tablet or computer), its system (like iOS, Android or
> Windows), the campaign labels and a one-off random number for the visit (carried in the message's
> hidden reference). Visits are never tied to a named person: a visit only meets a contact when that
> person sends the link's message.

Visits are kept for about 13 months (400 days). Each chat started from a link and each conversion is
kept for 13 months. Older ones are removed every day, but the link's **all time** numbers keep counting
them, so they never go down.

## What counts as a chat started

A **chat started** is a **sure** match: a customer's message that carries the link's reference, visible
like `(ref AB3X9K)` or hidden, arriving on the link's number when someone opened that link in the
**7 days** before it. That's the message the link typed in for them, so most chats count the moment they
press Send. See [Three ways Avox recognises a chat](https://docs.theavoxai.com/chat-links#three-ways-avox-recognises-a-chat).

- The visible reference can be anywhere in the message, in any case, so a customer who changed the
  greeting still counts.
- The hidden reference ties the chat to the exact visit. Without it, the chat takes the scan or click,
  country and campaign labels of the latest visit before it.
- The same contact messaging the same link again within 24 hours is the same chat. After 24 hours it
  counts again, as **Returning**.

**Potential** chats are counted apart, next to **Chats started**: chats found by the message text alone
(when exactly one of your links has that text and was opened in the 24 hours before), chats with a
reference but no recent visit, and forwarded messages. If a customer deleted the visible reference and
their app dropped the hidden one, the chat may still show as potential.

When a sure chat is counted, the link [sends its Flow, template or table details](https://docs.theavoxai.com/chat-links#what-a-link-can-send)
(if it has one) and starts any [Chat started from a link](https://docs.theavoxai.com/automation/triggers#chat-started-from-a-link)
automations. Potential chats do too only when the link has **Act on potential matches too** on.

## Conversions

When a link has **Count conversions** on, a chat from it counts as converted when its contact gets the
link's tag (like Paid or Booked) within the number of days you set. See
[Conversions](https://docs.theavoxai.com/chat-links#conversions) for setting it up.

## The Analytics tab

Pick a range at the top: **7**, **30**, **90** or **365** days. Days follow UTC.

| Figure | What it shows |
| --- | --- |
| **QR scans** | Visits through the QR code in the range, and all time. |
| **Link clicks** | Visits through the link itself in the range, and all time. |
| **Chats started** | Sure chats in the range, the share of visits that became a chat, the potential chats beside them, and all time. |
| **Conversions** | Chats from this link whose contact got your conversion tag in time, in the range and all time. |

Below the figures:

- **Day by day** charts QR scans, link clicks and chats started for each day of the range.
- **How chats were recognised** splits chats by visible reference, hidden reference and message text.
- **Sure chats by how they opened** shows how many came from QR code scans and how many from taps and clicks.
- **Time to chat** is the middle time between opening the link and sending the message (over sure chats
  tied to a visit), with how many chats were from returning and existing contacts.
- **Countries**, **Devices** (Phones, Tablets, Computers, Other) and **Systems** break visits down.
  A visit whose country isn't known shows as "Unknown".
- **Campaign sources**, **Campaign mediums**, **Campaign names**, **Campaign terms** and **Campaign
  content** appear once visits carry [campaign labels](#campaign-labels-in-analytics), with the top values
  for each.
- **Old addresses** lists the link's earlier addresses.

### Campaign labels in analytics

Campaign labels come from the link's own **Campaign labels** (set in **Edit**) and from `utm_` values on
the address where you shared it. A visit's own values win; the link's labels fill in the rest. Use them
to share one link in several places and still tell the places apart:

```text
https://chat.theavoxai.com/summer-sale?utm_source=instagram
https://chat.theavoxai.com/summer-sale?utm_source=newsletter
```

For printed codes, a separate link per place is simpler: each gets its own QR code and its own numbers.

### Old addresses

Each old address shows when it was changed and either "still opens WhatsApp, not counted" or "doesn't
open WhatsApp now". An old address opens WhatsApp only while the link is live.

## The Chats tab

The **Chats** tab lists every chat the link started, newest first, 25 to a page. Each row shows:

- the contact's name, or "A contact" when your role can't see contacts (the **See contacts** permission);
- whether they scanned the QR code or clicked the link;
- the visit's country and campaign;
- when the chat started;
- how the chat was recognised: **Visible ref**, **Hidden ref** or **Message text**, and **Potential**
  when it isn't a sure match (hover it for why);
- how long after the scan or click the message came;
- **Returning** (started a chat from this link more than 24 hours before) and **Existing contact** (had
  messaged you before opening the link);
- the follow-up, for a link that sends something: **Sending**, **Follow-up sent**, **Follow-up failed**
  or **Follow-up skipped** (hover it for why, for example an unsubscribed contact or a potential match);
- **Converted**, when the contact got the conversion tag in time.

With access to the Inbox, open a chat's conversation from its row.

## Using the numbers

- **Compare places, not totals.** One link per poster, menu or ad tells you which place works. Put them
  in a [folder](https://docs.theavoxai.com/chat-links#folders) to keep a campaign together.
- **Scans with no chats?** People are reaching WhatsApp but not sending. Try a message that says what
  they want ("Hi, I'd like to book a table").
- **Chats with no conversions?** The link works; the conversation after it is the place to look.
- **Start automations from the link.** The
  [Chat started from a link](https://docs.theavoxai.com/automation/triggers#chat-started-from-a-link) trigger can tag the contact
  with the campaign or send a welcome offer.

## Related

- [Smart links](https://docs.theavoxai.com/chat-links): Addresses, sends, dates, sharing and limits

- [QR codes](https://docs.theavoxai.com/chat-links/qr-codes): Design, check and print a smart link's QR code