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 activate, deactivate, edit, and delete each variant on its own, separately from the main OmniLab Smart Link.

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.

Create form showing UTM Parameters and the Variants block with the empty state and Add Variant

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.

Add Variant dialog with Variant Name and Variant ID, plus optional UTM Parameters and Custom Variables

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).

Variants section with three active variant cards: North Entrance Poster, Food Court Poster, and Cinema Bridge Poster

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.

Configuration Overview on Details: base URL, destination, and three variant cards with IDs and full variant URLs

Update a variant later

To change tracking, rename a placement, turn a placement off, or remove a variant, click Edit OmniLab Smart Link. In Edit Variants, open the menu on a variant card to Edit, Deactivate, or Delete it.

Avoid changing Variant ID once you've distributed URLs, QR codes, or short links that carry the old value. Those assets carry the ID in the URL, so changing it starts a new placement in reporting and can break printed materials already in circulation.

To give people clearer wording, update Variant Name instead — it doesn't change the URL.
Change Variant ID only to fix a mistake, or when you accept re-issuing the affected assets.

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.

Design QR Code modal with three variants selected, Show Smartlink label on, and multi-file download

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, and main-poster for the same location
avoid renaming a Variant ID after launch unless you can update every live URL or printed QR code that used the old value

Think of the Variant ID as your reporting key

The Variant Name is for people. The Variant ID is what tells the URLs apart and what makes the placement measurable in practice.

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.