Articles in this section

Campaign Links

Avatar
Andrea V.
  • Updated

Available on Advanced  Enterprise

Overview

A Campaign Link is designed to help you scale email outreach and track engagement of shared content through email sequences down to the target account and contact level through marketing automation services like Salesloft, Outreach, and others. 

Important: Campaign links cannot be created for Spaces. 

Skipping Ahead

Campaign Link Services

  • Salesloft
  • Outreach
  • Pardot
  • Marketo
  • Hubspot
  • Yesware
  • Apollo
  • Groove
  • And others

Create a Campaign Link

To create a Campaign Link, follow these steps:

  1. Go to your Content library.
  2. Select a document from a Team Folder. 
  3. Click on the Create Link Arrow button and select Campaign Link.
  4. Fill in the merge tags and configure the link settings. For more information, see Campaign Link Settings and Merge Parameters. 
  5. Click on Create Campaign Link when complete.
  6. Copy and Insert your link as a hyperlink into the body of your template or sequence.create_campaign_link.gif

Create a Campaign Link using an Unlisted Email Service

If you don’t see your email service listed, select Other from the Email Services dropdown menu and input the corresponding merge tags associated with your marketing automation tool. DocSend supports all email services so long as they have the corresponding merge tags configured for the tool. 

Tip: Review your automation tool’s help center or reach out to their support team for more information on their specific merge tags. 

Create a Campaign Link with DocSend’s Chrome Extension

If you use Outreach.io or Salesloft.com, you can create a campaign link using the DocSend Chrome extension while remaining on the Outreach.io/Salesloft page that automatically populates the merge tags associated with your marketing automation tool. 

Important: You will not be able to create a general DocSend link through this process. 

  1. Open DocSend’s Chrome extension while on Salesloft.com or Outreach.io.
  2. Select a document from a Team Folder. 
  3. Configure any preferred link settings
  4. Click on Generate & Copy link. Once created, this will be automatically copied to your clipboard. 
  5. Insert your link into the body of your template or Sequence. 

It’s important to use the ‘Insert link’ button or hyperlink instead of pasting in the link to the body directly because Salesloft and Outreach don’t encode links that are not explicitly inserted as links.

 

chrome_extension_campaign.gif

Campaign Link Settings and Merge Parameters

Campaign Links will have similar options to a standard link’s settings but will have three merge parameters and 3 link options that differ.

Link Settings

  • Campaign Name: The name of your campaign.
  • Email Service: The email service you’re using. When you select from a listed email service, the merge tags for that service will automatically populate.
  • Track Forwarding: Enabling this feature will prompt a visitor that is not part of your contact list to input their email address before accessing your shared link.

Merge Tags

Your merge tags should correspond to those listed for the marketing automation tool you're using. 

  • Recipient Email Merge Tag: This is how the recipient will be identified in DocSend when they visit the Campaign Link. For example, Salesloft’s recipient email merge tag is {{email}}. 
  • Sender Email Merge Tag: This will populate the email address of whoever is sending out the template in the automation software. DocSend will show the sender’s information in the Document Viewer, as well as notify the sender of the visit activity instead of the link creator. For example, Salesloft’s sender email merge tag is {{My.email.address}}. While this is not required, its recommended if you have multiple senders who want to track visits.  
  • Recipient Account Merge Tag: DocSend will automatically tie the visit activity back to this account in DocSend. If the account does not already exist in DocSend, a new one will automatically be created. For example, Salesloft’s Account merge tag is {{Company.Name}}.
    • The prospect must be explicitly linked to an account/company in the email service you are using. DocSend will not use the company name. Screen_Shot_2021-03-04_at_10.41.28_AM.png

Campaign Links Tab

To locate the campaign links you created, you can go to the document page and click on the Campaign Link tab.Screen_Shot_2021-03-04_at_1.30.08_PM.png

You can also find your campaign links located under the Recent Activity tab of your document page when a visit is initiated. You’ll be able to distinguish a campaign link from a standard DocSend link by looking for a merge icon to the left of the Campaign Name.Screen_Shot_2021-03-04_at_1.33.54_PM.png

Spawn Links

When a prospect clicks on a Campaign Link, a new link known as a spawn link will be generated in the sender’s DocSend account under the Recent Activity tab. This is used to independently track engagement and visits for each prospect under each target account. Please note, spawn links will only generate as visits occur. Each spawn link's URL will reference the original campaign link by appending an underscore followed by a series of unique characters to the campaign link URL. 

Once a spawn link has been created, visitors from that account will always be directed to that spawn link (even if the master link is disabled). Since spawn links are controlled by the sender and remain independent of the master Campaign Link, disabling the master link’s settings will not impact any of the generated spawn links. Turning off or editing a master Campaign Link will apply to any account that has not yet clicked on the link for that sender.

Note: Sending the same link to different prospects under the same account will automatically direct the activity under the same spawn link.

Things to Consider

  • All senders must have a DocSend account and be on your DocSend team account. If the sender of the link isn’t on the link creator’s DocSend team or does not have access to the document, the link will still work, but all visit activity and emails will be directed to the Campaign link creator. 
  • It’s important to use the ‘Insert link’ button or hyperlink instead of pasting in the link to the body directly because Salesloft and Outreach don’t encode links that are not explicitly inserted as links.
  • If no recipient email is set, the visitor will show up as unidentified in DocSend - unless track forwarding is on. The visit activity will still be tied to the account, assuming that parameter is set.
  • If no sender email is set, or if the sender is not on the link creator’s DocSend account, the spawn link will get created in the Campaign Link creator’s DocSend account. The creator will instead receive all visit activity.
  • If the account is not set, DocSend will create a spawn link in the sender’s account that is not tied to any account. The link name will match the Campaign Link’s name, and the visitor will still be identified by their email address. If a recipient’s account/company is not set in the selected automation service, the visit activity will not get tied back to an account in DocSend. If the company name is set but the Prospect/Person is not explicitly linked to an Account/Company in selected automation service, we will not use that. 
  • In order for the Campaign Link to work properly for other senders, you must select a team-shared document. A warning will show if a personal document was selected.
  • Viewer Email Validation also applies to campaign and mail merge links only when Track Forwarding is enabled.
  • Campaign “Opens” are not synonymous with clicks to your DocSend Campaign link.

Related Reading

___

Still need help? See more articles in the DocSend Help Center.

 

Related articles