We pulled anonymized, aggregate data from 2.4 thousand clicks across 1,200 campaigns on the getowl platform. The question was simple: do branded short links actually perform better than generic ones?
The answer: yes, and it's not even close.
The Data
Across all campaigns:
- Branded links (e.g., go.company.com/spring) averaged a 38% higher CTR than generic short URLs (e.g., owl.link/x7k2m)
- The improvement ranged from 34% to 47% depending on the channel
- Email saw the highest lift (47%), followed by social media (41%) and paid ads (34%)
- WhatsApp and SMS showed a 36% improvement
Why Branded Links Win
- Trust signal: Recipients can see the domain belongs to the sender
- Preview text: Many platforms show the domain in link previews
- Brand reinforcement: Every click interaction reinforces brand recognition
- Reduced spam filtering: Custom domains are less likely to be flagged
StayingAhead's Story
StayingAhead, a media and newsletter company, switched from generic bit.ly links to branded links on their custom domain in early 2026.
The setup took 2 minutes:
- Added their custom domain in getowl
- Pointed a CNAME record to CloudFront
- SSL certificate provisioned automatically
- All new links immediately used the branded domain
Results after 30 days:
- Newsletter CTR increased 40%
- Social media click-through improved 35%
- They now run 4 custom domains for different content properties
Ananya Birla, Growth Lead at StayingAhead: "The moment we switched to branded links, our newsletter metrics transformed. Our audience trusts links from our domain — it's that simple."