Smart Link variants (A/B routing)
Track locations, channels, and placements separately without creating a new OmniLab Smart Link each time.
Track each poster, channel, or location on its own without building a separate OmniLab Smart Link for every one. Variants give one OmniLab Smart Link a set of named versions, each with its own URL and its own scan report.
What a variant is
A variant is a named version of one OmniLab Smart Link. It keeps the same main destination, but gives a specific placement, channel, or location its own URL and its own analytics trail.
The main OmniLab Smart Link URL is built from its slug — for example /l/spring-launch. Each variant keeps the same base slug and adds its own placement identifier at the end, for example /l/spring-launch?v=window-a.
That makes variants ideal when you want separate reporting without creating a completely separate OmniLab Smart Link for every placement.
When to use variants
Variants work best when:
- one campaign is shared in several physical locations
- one destination is reused across multiple channels
- the same QR code design needs separate reporting by placement
- you want one OmniLab Smart Link to act as the tracking hub for a family of related URLs
Typical examples:
| Scenario | Variant examples |
|---|---|
| One poster artwork across a mall | north-entrance, food-court, cinema-bridge |
| One campaign across channels | newsletter, instagram-bio, window-poster |
| One activation across several stores | paris-centre, lyon-centre, marseille-centre |
The fields in a variant
Each variant includes:
| Field | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Variant Name | Readable label for operators, such as North Entrance Poster |
| Variant ID | URL-safe identifier used in the ?v= part of the link |
| UTM Parameters (per variant) | Optional placement-level tracking, added or overriding the base link |
| Custom Variables | Optional extra named values for later reporting |
You can edit or delete a variant on its own, without affecting the main OmniLab Smart Link's own status.
Create a variant
Open the OmniLab Smart Link form
Create a new OmniLab Smart Link or edit an existing one, then go to the Variants section.
In the example below, the OmniLab Smart Link is set up for one mall info page shared across three poster placements. Each placement becomes its own variant with a distinct Variant ID (north-entrance, food-court, cinema-bridge).
Add the variant identity
Click Add Variant, then enter:
- Variant Name, such as
Food Court Poster - Variant ID, such as
food-court
Choose IDs that stay readable in a URL and make sense in reports later.
Click Add Variant in the dialog to save that row, then click Add Variant again for each additional placement. For the mall example, you would add North Entrance Poster (north-entrance), Food Court Poster (food-court), and Cinema Bridge Poster (cinema-bridge).
Add optional tracking fields
Add tracking to a variant when it helps:
- UTM Parameters — add them when this placement needs its own attribution.
- Custom Variables — add them when you need context that doesn't fit the standard UTM fields, such as a placement code, store code, or artwork reference.
Save and test the variant URL
When every variant is listed on the form, the section shows one card per placement (here, three Active variants for the same OmniLab Smart Link).
Click Save & Activate on the OmniLab Smart Link. OmniLab saves the setup and opens the Details page. You can also open the OmniLab Smart Link later from the folder list.
Open or scan a variant URL to confirm it works. For a slug such as mall-campaign, a food-court placement URL ends in /l/mall-campaign?v=food-court.
After you save: overview, edits, and QR exports
See variants on the Details page
On Details, the Configuration Overview summarizes the OmniLab Smart Link and lists every variant with its own full URL (the base link plus ?v=<variant-id>). This is the usual place to copy a link for tests, share it with a teammate, or confirm which ID belongs to which placement before you print. The screenshots below use a sample OmniLab Smart Link; your own URLs will show your domain and slug.
Update a variant later
To change tracking, rename a placement, or remove a variant, click Edit OmniLab Smart Link. In Edit Variants, open the menu on a variant card to Edit or Delete it.
Changing a Variant ID after you've distributed URLs, QR codes, or short links that carry the old value does not split that placement into a new row in Scans by Variant — that report groups by Variant Name, not by ID. What it does instead is quieter: an already-printed link or QR code using the old value keeps redirecting to the destination, but it no longer matches any variant, so that traffic loses its UTM parameters, custom variables, and variant attribution.
Renaming the Variant Name is the change that actually splits your reporting: OmniLab records new activity under the new name, so one placement's history ends up spread across two rows.
- Change Variant ID only to fix a mistake, or when you accept that printed assets using the old value will stop reporting correctly until they're reissued.
- Keep the Variant Name stable once a placement is live and you're relying on its scan history.
Download several variant QR codes at once
From Details, click Download QR. Under Variants, select which placements to include (Select All selects every variant). When at least one variant is selected, OmniLab downloads a ZIP containing the main OmniLab Smart Link QR code plus one file per selected variant. The button label shows how many files you're about to export.
Turn on Show Smartlink label to add text under each QR code in the exported image, using the OmniLab Smart Link title so files are easier to tell apart at print handoff. Because each variant is a separate file in the ZIP, you can match files to placements and avoid swapping the wrong code at the printer.
For format choices, sizes, and a full walkthrough, see Download QR code.
Best practices for variant IDs
- keep IDs short and reporting-friendly
- use one naming style across a campaign or organisation
- make the ID describe the placement, not the full campaign
- avoid near-duplicates such as
poster-a,poster-main, andmain-posterfor the same location - avoid renaming a Variant Name after launch if you want that placement's reporting history to stay in one row
- change a Variant ID only when you can reissue the printed or shared assets that used the old value
Variant Name is your reporting key
Scans by Variant groups activity by Variant Name, not by Variant ID. Keep the Variant Name stable once a placement is live and being measured, and treat the Variant ID as the technical value that keeps each printed or shared URL distinct.
How variants appear in analytics
Once traffic starts coming in, OmniLab Smart Links analytics can separate performance by variant. That helps you answer questions such as:
- Which poster location generated the most scans?
- Which email placement outperformed the others?
- Which store or venue brought in the strongest traffic?
The Scans by Variant widget is usually the fastest way to compare those results.
When to create a new OmniLab Smart Link instead
Create a new OmniLab Smart Link instead of a variant when:
- the base destination strategy is meaningfully different
- the audience or objective is different enough to deserve its own reporting hub
- the link should live in a different folder, team workflow, or lifecycle
Use variants when the overall OmniLab Smart Link is still one family of related share assets.