In order to track link clicks and provide shorten links to creators, 1stCollab will shorten any referral links you provide and give creators links in the format: {brand}.1stcollab.com/{creator_handle}_{platform}. This shorten link then redirects users to links configured in the campaign settings.
How do the redirects work?
When someone opens a tracking-enabled 1stCollab referral link:
The link service resolves the configured destination on its servers.
It returns a small HTML page with an HTTP
200response.That page loads the configured client-side tracking code.
An immediate HTML meta-refresh instructs the browser to navigate to the destination.
Any services later in the chain—such as another link shortener, OneLink, or an app store—may use conventional 301 or 302 redirects.
The end result to a user is that they will see an immediate redirect from our shortened link to the final destination.
An example walkthrough
Suppose the brand provides this format:
https://example.com/landing-page/?utm_source={platform}&utm_campaign=1stcollab&utm_content={creator_handle}For a YouTube creator with the handle mrbeast, 1stCollab could generate:
Short link: https://example.1stcollab.com/mrbeast_yt Destination: https://example.com/landing-page/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=1stcollab&utm_content=mrbeast
When someone clicks the short link, the brand receives the UTM parameters populated by 1stCollab:
utm_source=youtube utm_campaign=1stcollab utm_content=mrbeast
Parameters added before reaching 1stCollab are not forwarded
Advertising and social platforms may automatically append their own tracking parameters when presenting or opening a link. For example, Facebook might add an fid parameter:
https://example.1stcollab.com/mrbeast_yt?fid=abc123
All 1stCollab referral links have shortio_nomerge=1 enabled. As a result, the platform-added fid parameter is not merged into the destination. The visitor is still sent to the URL configured from the brand’s referral-link format:
https://example.com/landing-page/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=1stcollab&utm_content=mrbeast
1stCollab excludes these initial parameters because platforms can add parameters that sometimes overlap or conflict with the destination parameters supplied by the brand. Rather than attempting to reconcile potentially conflicting values, 1stCollab treats the brand’s configured destination as authoritative.
This ensures that parameters such as utm_source, utm_campaign, and utm_content retain the values the brand expects.
Downstream redirects may affect parameters
The brand-provided parameters are preserved through the 1stCollab redirect to the first destination. If that destination performs another redirect, the downstream service determines whether the parameters continue to the final page.
For example, the first destination might be:
https://example.com/landing-page/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=1stcollab&utm_content=mrbeast
If it redirects to the following URL, the parameters are preserved:
https://shop.example.com/product?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=1stcollab&utm_content=mrbeast
If it instead redirects to the following URL, the parameters are dropped:
https://shop.example.com/product
In summary, 1stCollab preserves the parameters from the brand’s configured referral-link format. Parameters appended before the visitor reaches 1stCollab are intentionally excluded to prevent conflicts, while any redirects after reaching the brand’s destination are controlled by the downstream service.
FAQs
Does 1stCollab proxy the destination?
Does 1stCollab proxy the destination?
No. The platform resolves the referral link’s destination, but it does not fetch or proxy the destination page on the user’s behalf.
After receiving the redirect instruction, the user’s browser or device makes a new request directly to the destination URL. The same process repeats for every subsequent redirect until the final page or application is reached.
In summary:
The link mapping is resolved server-side.
Client-side tracking can run on the initial 1stCollab redirect page.
The destination content is not proxied through 1stCollab.
The user’s browser directly visits each URL in the redirect chain.