Webhooks are a method of sending information from Bitly to an application outside of Bitly. They're a way to automate actions or updates between Bitly and another system.
For example, when someone clicks on one of your Bitly links, your webhook can send data about the click to another application. That application can then send a notification, update records, or trigger another action.
Currently, Bitly's webhooks only support click events.
To create a webhook, you'll need an endpoint URL to tell Bitly where to send the click data. The endpoint URL is like an address for your receiving application, usually found in the application's account settings.
Webhooks can only be set up by your Bitly account administrators.
What can you do with webhooks?
Quite a lot! Each app that accepts webhooks has different actions that can occur after receiving one.
Take, for example, a company that sends Bitly short links to customers confirming a delivery status for a product. They could set a webhook to send that confirmation click to a CRM. The CRM may have an automated process that then sends a Thank You email to the customer. That email might even prompt the customer to leave a review for the product.
How about an organization that wants to update a database to track click data? They could point a webhook directly to the database or, if that's not an option, use a service like Zapier to update fields. This can be a faster way of collecting and analyzing data than periodically pulling information through the Bitly API.
There are many more possibilities, depending on where you're sending the data.
Let's get started
If you're ready to start setting one up, check out How do I configure a webhook? We explain the process in even more detail on our site for developers, dev.bitly.com.
This does require some technical knowledge, so work with your technical staff or a developer if the information doesn't make sense to you.
Note: The webhook payload includes an event_type field. In October 2023, we changed the event type from "clicks" to "engagements" because it's inclusive of Short Link clicks, QR Code scans, and Link-in-bio clicks.