Where to Find It
- On the URL Shortener page — Go to Tools → Link Shortener in the sidebar (
/shorten-url). Scroll below your links to the Audience & Sources card. - In the Marketing report — On the URL Shortener page, click the View Insights button in the top-right, or go to Reports → Marketing (
/insights/marketing).
On the URL Shortener Page
Your Links
The Your Links table lists the current property's short links with Short URL, Original URL, Campaign, Notes and Created date. Use the icons next to each short URL to copy it or show its QR code. The Actions menu has View Analytics, Edit Notes and Delete. QR scans are tracked separately from direct clicks via the hm_qr parameter.
View Analytics *(Pro feature)*
Actions → View Analytics opens a single link's all-time numbers: Total clicks, QR scans, Unique visitors, Returning and the date of the last click, plus the same four breakdown panels described below.
Audience & Sources *(Pro feature)*
Below your links, the Audience & Sources card combines click data from all links in the current property, all-time. Free and Weekend Host plans see an upgrade prompt here. Breakdown data is only recorded while the account is on Pro — upgrading doesn't backfill earlier clicks.
Four summary tiles:
| Tile | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Total clicks | Every click across the property's links |
| Unique visitors | Distinct visitors per link, added up across links |
| New | Clicks that were a visitor's first click on that link |
| Returning | Repeat clicks by a visitor on the same link |
Four breakdown panels: Devices, Browsers, Top referrers and Countries — each showing up to six rows, ranked by click volume. Referrers appear as bare hostnames, with "Direct" for clicks with no referrer. These populate as your links accumulate clicks.
In the Marketing Report
Open Reports → Marketing (or the View Insights button on the URL Shortener). Alongside the rest of your marketing analytics you'll find:
- Top Links — your top 10 short links by clicks in the selected period, with each link's campaign tag, channel and click count. Channel is the link's utm_source, or its campaign tag, or "direct/other". With Compare on, a vs Prev column is added.
- Top Campaigns — your GA4 campaigns from UTM parameters, with visitors, sessions and conversions (Weekend Host and Pro). This is GA4 data, not your link campaign tags.
- Campaign → Bookings — bookings matched to campaigns, including your link campaign tags.
- Channel Correlation — clicks by channel against direct bookings.
Top Links follows the report's date range. Audience & Sources and View Analytics are always all-time.
Unique vs. Total Visitors
Hostmatic distinguishes total clicks from unique visitors:
- Total clicks — Every single click, including repeat visitors
- Unique visitors — Each distinct visitor counted once per link. Someone who clicks two of your links counts twice in the combined total
- New — A visitor's first click on a link
- Returning — Repeat clicks by the same visitor on the same link
Bots, link-preview unfurls and rapid repeat clicks from one IP address are excluded from all of these.
How Fingerprinting Works
Hostmatic identifies unique visitors without cookies using server-side fingerprinting (Pro plan). A SHA-256 hash is generated from the visitor's IP address, user agent and browser language, then truncated. This approach:
- Sets no cookies
- Doesn't store the visitor's IP address, only the hash
- Treats a different browser, device or network as a new visitor
Each click does store the user agent, referrer, device, browser, OS and location.
Note: Visitors on the same network with identical browser configurations may be counted as one unique visitor. This is a known trade-off for cookie-free tracking.