Bitly

Bitly is a link management platform that lets you shorten URLs, track clicks, and organize links into campaigns and channels. It's widely used by marketing teams to measure link performance across email, social, and paid campaigns.

Connecting Bitly to Coupler.io lets you pull your link data into spreadsheets, dashboards, or data warehouses — automatically, on a schedule you control.

Why connect Bitly to Coupler.io?

• Export click data for all your Bitlinks without manual CSV downloads

• Combine Bitlink performance with data from other marketing tools using Join or Append transformations

• Send your link analytics to AI destinations like ChatGPT or Gemini for automated insights

• Keep Google Sheets, BigQuery, or Looker Studio dashboards up to date with fresh Bitly data

Prerequisites

• A Bitly account (Free, Basic, or higher)

• A Bitly API access token — available under Settings → Developer settings → API in your Bitly account

• Access to the groups, organizations, or campaigns you want to export

Start with the Bitlink clicks entity if your goal is performance reporting. It gives you the most actionable data right away.

Quick start

1

Create a new data flow in Coupler.io. From your Coupler.io dashboard, click Add data flow and search for Bitly as the source.

2

Enter your Bitly API token. In your Bitly account, go to Settings → Developer settings → API, generate or copy your access token, and paste it into the Coupler.io connection field.

3

Select an entity. Choose what data you want to pull — for example, Bitlink clicks for performance data or Bitlinks for a full list of your shortened links.

4

Set a date range. Use the date pickers to define the start and end dates for your export period.

5

Choose a destination. Select where your data should land — Google Sheets, Excel, BigQuery, Looker Studio, or an AI destination like ChatGPT or Gemini.

6

Run the data flow. Click Run to execute a manual sync. Once it completes successfully, your Bitly data will appear in your destination.

Available entities

Entity	What it contains
Bitlinks	All shortened links in your account with metadata
Bitlink clicks	Click counts per link over a date range
Bsds	Custom branded short domains
Campaigns	Campaign definitions and metadata
Channels	Channel definitions linked to campaigns
Groups	Groups within your organization
Group preferences	Settings and preferences per group
Group shorten counts	Number of links shortened per group
Organizations	Organization-level account data
Organization shorten counts	Number of links shortened at the org level
QR codes	QR code data linked to Bitlinks

Bitly data overview

Bitly exposes data across link management, click analytics, and account structure. You can pull data at the link level, group level, or organization level depending on how your Bitly account is set up.

Entities overview

Entity	Granularity	Best used for
Bitlinks	Per link	Auditing all shortened URLs and their settings
Bitlink clicks	Per link + date range	Click performance reporting
Bsds	Per domain	Managing branded short domains
Campaigns	Per campaign	Campaign-level reporting
Channels	Per channel	Channel attribution
Groups	Per group	Group management and structure
Group preferences	Per group	Group configuration audit
Group shorten counts	Per group + date range	Volume tracking per team
Organizations	Per org	Top-level account info
Organization shorten counts	Per org + date range	Org-wide link volume tracking
QR codes	Per QR code	QR campaign tracking

Available fields

Bitlinks

Field	Description
id	Unique Bitlink identifier
link	The shortened Bitly URL
long_url	The original destination URL
title	Link title
created_at	Timestamp when the link was created
archived	Whether the link is archived
tags	Tags applied to the link
custom_bitlinks	Any custom back-halves applied
group_guid	The group this link belongs to

Bitlink clicks

Field	Description
id	Bitlink identifier
date	Date of the click data point
clicks	Number of clicks recorded

Campaigns

Field	Description
guid	Campaign unique ID
name	Campaign name
description	Campaign description
created	Creation timestamp
modified	Last modified timestamp
group_guid	Associated group

Groups & Organizations

Field	Description
guid	Unique identifier
name	Group or org name
is_active	Whether the group/org is active
created	Creation timestamp
modified	Last modified timestamp
organization_guid	Parent organization (groups only)
bsd_count	Number of branded short domains
link_count	Total links in the group

Group / Organization shorten counts

Field	Description
unit_reference	Date reference for the count
value	Number of links shortened
unit	Time unit (day, week, month)

QR codes

Field	Description
id	QR code unique ID
title	QR code title
created_at	Creation timestamp
bitlink_id	Associated Bitlink
is_paused	Whether the QR code is paused

Common field combinations

• Bitlinks + Bitlink clicks — Join on id to combine link metadata with click performance in a single table

• Campaigns + Channels + Bitlinks — Build a full campaign attribution view linking channels down to individual URLs

• Group shorten counts + Groups — Join on group_guid to add group names to volume data

• Organization shorten counts over time — Track how link creation volume changes month over month

Use cases by role

Marketers

• Track which shortened links drive the most clicks across campaigns

• Compare click performance across channels (email, social, paid)

• Use Append to combine Bitlink click data from multiple groups into a single report

• Send link performance data to ChatGPT or Gemini to generate campaign summaries automatically

Content teams

• Audit all active Bitlinks and their destination URLs to spot broken or outdated links

• Monitor QR code engagement for print and offline campaigns

• Tag-based reporting: filter Bitlinks by tags to see performance by content type

Marketing ops

• Track group-level shorten counts to understand which teams are most active

• Monitor branded short domain usage across the organization

• Build automated dashboards in Looker Studio or BigQuery fed by scheduled Coupler.io data flows

Platform-specific notes

• Click data is only available for the date range you specify using the start and end date parameters — there is no default lookback period

• Free Bitly accounts have limited API access; some entities (e.g., Campaigns, Channels, Bsds) may require a paid plan

• Bitly's API returns click data in time-series units — daily granularity is the most common

• group_guid is the key field for joining groups-related entities; keep it in your destination for cross-entity joins

• QR code data reflects the QR code object itself — click-level QR analytics are part of the Bitlink clicks entity via the associated bitlink_id

Bitly common issues

Connection issues

My API token is not accepted

Make sure you're using a personal access token, not an OAuth client secret. In Bitly, go to Settings → Developer settings → API and generate a new token if needed. Tokens are long strings starting with a mix of letters and numbers — double-check there are no extra spaces when pasting.

The data flow connects but returns no data

Check that your Bitly account has data for the entity you selected. For example, if you selected Campaigns but haven't created any campaigns, the response will be empty. Also verify your date range covers a period when links were active.

Missing data

Bitlink clicks show zero even though I know links were clicked

This almost always comes down to the date range. Bitly's click data API requires an explicit start and end date — if the date range doesn't overlap with when the clicks occurred, you'll get zeros. Use the date pickers to set a range that covers the relevant period.

Some entities return no rows on my paid plan

Certain entities like Campaigns and Channels are only available if you've actually created them in Bitly. An empty result is not an error — it means there's no data of that type in your account yet.

I can't see links from other groups in my organization

Your API token is scoped to your own user permissions. If you don't have access to certain groups in the Bitly UI, the API will not return their data either. Ask your Bitly org admin to grant you the appropriate group access.

Permission errors

I get a 403 error when pulling Campaigns or Channels

Campaigns and Channels are features available on Bitly's paid plans (Teams and above). If your account is on a Free or Basic plan, these endpoints will return a 403 permission error. Upgrade your Bitly plan or use entities available on your current tier.

API returns 401 Unauthorized

Your token may have been revoked or regenerated in Bitly. Go to Settings → Developer settings → API in Bitly, copy the current token, and update it in your Coupler.io data flow connection settings.

Data discrepancies

Click counts in Coupler.io don't match the Bitly dashboard

Bitly's dashboard may apply different date boundaries or time zones than your API query. Make sure your start and end dates in Coupler.io match exactly what you're comparing in the Bitly UI. Also note that the Bitly dashboard sometimes shows real-time data that takes a few hours to appear in the API.

Rate limits

My data flow fails with a rate limit error

Bitly enforces API rate limits that vary by plan. If you're pulling a large number of Bitlinks or running frequent syncs, you may hit these limits. Try narrowing your date range, reducing sync frequency, or splitting entities across separate data flows. Free plan users have significantly lower rate limits than paid plans.

Bitly FAQ

Where do I find my Bitly API token?

Log in to Bitly and go to Settings → Developer settings → API. You'll see your personal access token there. If you haven't generated one yet, click the button to create it. Copy the full token and paste it into Coupler.io when setting up the connection.

Which Bitly plan do I need to use all entities?

Basic entities like Bitlinks, Bitlink clicks, Groups, and Organizations are available on most plans including Free. However, Campaigns, Channels, and Bsds require a paid plan (Teams or higher). If you get a 403 error on those entities, your plan likely doesn't include them.

Can I pull click data for all my Bitlinks at once?

Yes, but with caveats. The Bitlink clicks entity returns click counts across your links for the date range you specify. For accounts with a large number of links, pulling a very wide date range in one go can run into rate limits. It's better to use monthly date ranges and Append mode to build up history incrementally.

Can I combine Bitly data with data from other marketing tools?

Absolutely. Coupler.io supports multiple sources in a single data flow. You can use Join to merge Bitly click data with, say, campaign data from HubSpot or UTM data from Google Analytics. Use Append to stack data from multiple Bitly groups or accounts side by side.

Can I send Bitly data to an AI tool for analysis?

Yes. Coupler.io supports AI destinations including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Cursor, and OpenClaw. You can route your Bitlink clicks or campaign data directly to these tools to generate summaries, spot trends, or draft reports automatically.

Why does my Bitlink clicks entity return empty rows?

This is almost always a date range issue. Bitly's clicks API requires explicit start and end dates — if your date range doesn't cover any period with click activity, you'll get an empty result. Double-check your date pickers and make sure the range overlaps with when your links were active.

What's the difference between Group shorten counts and Organization shorten counts?

Both track how many links were shortened, but at different levels. Group shorten counts shows activity per team or group within your org — useful if you want to see which team is creating the most links. Organization shorten counts rolls that up to the top level for an org-wide view.

Can I track QR code clicks through Coupler.io?

The QR codes entity returns QR code metadata and their associated Bitlink IDs. Click-level data for QR codes flows through the Bitlink clicks entity — join on bitlink_id to connect QR code info to its click performance.

For a full breakdown of available fields per entity, see the Data Overview article. For help with connection errors or missing data, check Common Issues.