Ana Kowalska
Marketing solutions engineering
Writing for Elido since February 2025
Ana joined Elido in 2025 from a Warsaw-based ecommerce SaaS where she was the bridge between the growth team and the data platform — building the kind of attribution pipeline that survives a CDP migration. She holds a Master's in Information Systems from the Warsaw School of Economics and a CIM diploma in digital marketing.
She writes the comparison posts and tutorials — the ones a marketer reads while building a UTM template, evaluating a Bitly alternative, or wiring server-side conversion forwarding to Meta CAPI. She's measured by whether the post actually answers the question someone typed into Google, not whether it ranks.
Ana keeps a small spreadsheet of "things vendors claim that aren't actually true" and uses it whenever she writes a comparison.
Expertise
- Server-side attribution and CAPI / GA4 plumbing
- UTM template governance for marketing teams
- Vendor evaluations (Bitly, Rebrandly, Short.io, Branch)
- Bulk migration playbooks
Elsewhere
Posts by Ana Kowalska
URL shorteners for SaaS: lifecycle, onboarding, in-product comms
SaaS lifecycle email + in-product banners + magic-link adjacency. Per-template UTM discipline, tracked CTAs, and the procurement-ready compliance story
industriesURL shorteners for marketers: the 2026 comparison matrix
12 features × 7 tools — Bitly, Rebrandly, Short.io, Branch, TinyURL, Bl.ink, Elido — and a decision tree for picking by team size, residency, and budget
comparisonsCornerstoneURL shorteners for influencers: branded domain, slugs, and audit trails
Creators need three things from a link layer: trust signal, per-post attribution, and a clean payout audit trail. Here's how short links cover all three
industriesSet up branded short links: pick a domain, ship in an afternoon
Branded short links lift CTR 20-39% over generic ones. Pick the right domain pattern, run the four setup steps, and migrate without breaking existing links
tutorialsMigrate from TinyURL: two paths and what each one preserves
TinyURL migration depends on whether you have a Pro API account. Two paths, what survives the move, and the realist's note on tinyurl.com slugs you can't preserve
migrationMigrate from Rebrandly: branded domain handover without slug loss
Rebrandly's strength is the branded domain — so its migration is a DNS handover with link preservation. Two paths, the export shape, and the validation script
migrationMigrate from Bitly without breaking links: a failure-modes playbook
Seven classes of breakage when migrating from Bitly — slug case, DNS TTL, webhooks, deeplinks — and the audit script that catches them before users do
tutorialsCornerstoneGA4 server-side tracking via the redirect tier
GA4 client-side loses 25-35% of events to ad-blockers and ITP. Measurement Protocol restores most of it. The endpoint, the payload, and the client_id stitching
tutorialsForwarding conversions to Meta CAPI through Elido short links
How to recover the 30-40% of conversion events Meta Pixel loses to ITP — CAPI setup, match keys, dedup discipline, and the validation checklist
tutorialsBulk-import short links from a Google Sheet (the real campaign workflow)
Copy-paste 200 campaign URLs into a sheet, bulk-import into Elido, get short links with UTM tagging in one pass. The sheet shape and Apps Script automation
tutorialsBio pages for creators: what actually goes above the fold
A bio page is one link to 5-15 destinations with per-link tracking. The four zones, the 3-link rule above the fold, and why a URL shortener hosts it better
featuresA/B test landing pages with short links — no CRO tool required
Smart short links can split traffic server-side without JS flicker. The variant shapes, sample sizes, and the workflow most marketers can run inside an afternoon
tutorialsWhite-label URL shorteners for agencies: a complete buyer's guide
Everything a director of ops or agency owner needs to evaluate white-label URL shortener platforms — what each branding layer actually covers, which vendors go beyond custom domains, reseller billing patterns, EU compliance, and a migration checklist
agenciesCornerstoneShort link analytics — what to measure and what to ignore
A practical guide to the metrics that actually drive decisions: unique visitors, click decay, referrer attribution, bot-filtered counts, and A/B variant splits — plus a short weekly ritual for putting them to use.
featuresBuilding a QR code campaign from scratch — a step-by-step guide
A practical end-to-end guide for marketers running QR campaigns: defining goals, planning UTMs, generating dynamic QR codes, designing for print, placing codes in the field, measuring scans, and iterating without reprinting.
featuresCornerstoneElido vs YOURLS: managed EU shortener vs self-host PHP veteran
YOURLS is free, mature, and runs on any server with PHP. Elido is a managed EU-first platform with a Go stack, ClickHouse analytics, and a Helm chart for teams that want self-host without the PHP tax. Honest comparison of both.
comparisonsElido vs T.LY: modern alternatives for indie creators and SMBs
T.LY competes on price and browser-extension UX. Elido competes on EU residency, white-label depth, developer tooling, and smart routing. Here's the honest breakdown of when each one fits.
comparisonsElido vs TinyURL: modern shortener vs the original
TinyURL is 24 years old and still the fastest way to shorten a link anonymously. Here's the honest comparison: where TinyURL is fine, where it stops, and what you trade by staying on the free tier.
comparisonsElido vs Bl.ink — when each makes sense in 2026
Bl.ink is the compliance-first shortener that enterprise and agency marketers recognize. Elido is EU-native, self-hostable, and developer-ready. Here is the honest side-by-side.
comparisonsElido vs Bitly Enterprise — when each makes sense in 2026
A procurement-level comparison of Bitly Enterprise and Elido for large marketing organizations — data residency, SSO, audit log, self-host, and the scenarios where each platform is the right decision
comparisonsFree URL shorteners ranked by what you actually give up
Not a listicle — an honest matrix of five free URL shorteners, the catch behind each free tier, and when self-hosting beats all of them
comparisonsElido vs Short.io: pricing, teams, and EU residency in 2026
A pricing-first comparison of Short.io and Elido — click-tier vs link-tier economics, team workflows, EU data residency, and when each is the right pick
comparisonsElido vs Rebrandly: pricing, EU residency, and branded links in 2026
Rebrandly bills per branded link cap. Elido bills per click volume. Here's the per-tier math, the EU residency gap, and an honest look at where Rebrandly still wins
comparisonsHow to track UTM campaigns end-to-end without a CDP
A practical playbook for marketers: workspace UTM templates, bulk import from Sheets, server-side conversion forwarding, and the QA dry-run that catches drift before launch
tutorialsCornerstoneBitly alternatives: the actual feature gap nobody talks about
An honest table of what Bitly ships, what it doesn't, and what it charges for — written for teams hitting BSU pricing limits or EU residency requirements
comparisonsCornerstone