In this post, we will cover the importance of using an alias in an email in Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
If you are developing an email that involves links in an HTML anchor tag (<a>), then make sure to use an alias.
So, why should you use an alias?
Consider that you have two articles in an email with two buttons having different links but the same text (for example, "read more"). If an alias is not defined for both the links, then the marketing cloud will merge the metrics (clicks, CTRs, etc.) and display it as a single record under the tracking data within the Email Studio.
While tracking or querying the data from the data views, it gets difficult to differentiate the engagement for either of the links if an alias is not defined.
In order to avoid this issue, use a unique alias name especially when dealing with the same text.
Below are a few examples and the expected output for each :
1. BUTTONS WITH SAME LINK AND NO ALIAS
Article 1
<a alias="" href="www.example.com">Read more</a>Article 2
<a alias="" href="www.example.com">Read more</a>Result in a single record with merged metrics.
2. BUTTONS WITH SAME LINK AND SAME ALIAS
Article 1
<a alias="read more" href="www.example.com">Read more</a>Article 2
<a alias="read more" href="www.example.com">Read more</a>Result in a single record with merged metrics.
3. BUTTONS WITH SAME LINK AND DIFFERENT ALIAS
Article 1
<a alias="read more" href="www.example.com">Read more</a>Article 2
<a alias="read more1" href="www.example.com">Read more</a>Result in two records with individual metrics.
4. BUTTONS WITH DIFFERENT LINKS AND SAME ALIAS
Article 1
<a alias="read more" href="www.example.com">Read more</a>Article 2
<a alias="read more" href="www.example1.com">Read more</a>Result in two records with individual metrics.
5. BUTTONS WITH DIFFERENT LINKS AND DIFFERENT ALIAS
Article 1
<a alias="read more" href="www.example.com">Read more</a>Article 2
<a alias="read more1" href="www.example1.com">Read more</a>Result in two records with individual metrics.
Metrics are considered as one of the important aspects to understand the effectiveness of an email. If you want detailed tracking information for the email, then don't forget to use a unique alias!!