LinkPilot for MailerWave

Take full control of every link in your emails

LinkPilot is a WordPress plugin built for email marketers. It lets you cloak, target, schedule, and track links — without touching a single line of code.

✓ Link Cloaking ✓ Geo & Device Targeting ✓ Expiry Dates ✓ A/B Split Testing ✓ Click Analytics

What is LinkPilot?

LinkPilot sits quietly inside your WordPress site and controls where your links send people. You create rules — “if a visitor is on mobile, send them here; if they’re from Nigeria, send them there” — and LinkPilot handles everything automatically.

It also lets you hide long or ugly affiliate URLs behind clean, short links on your own domain — so instead of sending subscribers to affiliate.com/ref=abc123xyz, you send them to yoursite.com/go/product-name. If the affiliate link ever changes, you update it in one place and every email you’ve ever sent automatically points to the right place.

💡 Built for MailerWave users. LinkPilot works alongside your MailerWave email broadcasts. Paste a /go/ link into any email and LinkPilot handles the rest — targeting, tracking, expiry — without your subscribers noticing anything different.

Everything you get

Seven focused features — each one solving a real problem email marketers face every campaign.

🔗

Link Cloaking

Replace any URL with a clean /go/your-link path on your own domain. Update the destination anytime — old emails update automatically.

🌍

Geolocation Targeting

Send visitors from different countries to different pages. Nigerian subscribers see Naira pricing, US subscribers see dollar pricing — from the same link.

📱

Device Targeting

Route mobile visitors to a mobile-optimised page and desktop visitors to the full version. One link, two experiences.

🏷️

UTM Source Targeting

Redirect based on any query parameter. Send utm_source=email visitors to a personalised page that references the email they came from.

Expiry Dates

Set a date and time for a link to stop working. After it expires, visitors are automatically sent to a fallback page — no manual changes needed.

🧪

A/B Split Testing

Send a percentage of visitors to Variant A and the rest to Variant B. Test two landing pages from the same link with no extra tools required.

📊

Click Analytics

See how many real visitors clicked each rule and each cloaked link. Bots are automatically filtered out so your numbers are always accurate.

🔁

Query Forwarding

Automatically pass UTM parameters from the click URL through to the destination — so your tracking stays intact end to end.

How a redirect rule works

Every redirect rule has three parts: a condition, an optional page scope, and a destination. When a visitor arrives, LinkPilot checks each rule in order and fires the first one that matches.

Rule anatomy
Condition
Device = Mobile
Apply to (optional)
/summer-offer
Destination
yoursite.com/offer-mobile
Mobile visitors on the /summer-offer page are sent to the mobile version. Everyone else is unaffected.
Condition
Country = NG
Apply to (optional)
— site-wide —
Destination
yoursite.com/naira-pricing
All Nigerian visitors anywhere on the site are sent to the Naira pricing page.
Use “Apply to” for campaign-specific rules. Leave it empty for rules that should apply everywhere — like a country-wide geo redirect. Paste a specific page URL when you only want the rule to fire on that one page.

Clean links on your own domain

Cloaked links replace any URL with a short, branded path on your domain. Visitors see your brand in the browser bar — not a long affiliate string.

Why it matters for email

Better deliverability
Your domain, not a known affiliate domain, reduces spam filter triggers.
Update without resending
Change the destination anytime. Every email ever sent updates automatically.
Click tracking built in
See exactly how many people clicked each link, with bots filtered out.
⚠️ Do not delete the “go” page that LinkPilot creates on your WordPress site. It is what makes /go/ links work. If deleted, the plugin recreates it automatically on your next admin visit.

The three condition types

When creating a redirect rule, you choose one condition type. Here is what each one does.

ConditionWhat it checksExample value
DeviceWhether the visitor is on a mobile phone or a desktop/laptop computerMobile — Desktop
UTM / QueryThe value of any query parameter in the URL — defaults to utm_source but you can change it to any parameterutm_source = email
GeolocationThe visitor’s country, detected automatically from their IP address. Enter a two-letter country code.NG, US, GB
🌍 Geo detection uses the visitor’s IP address and is cached for 24 hours per IP. It works accurately on live servers. On localhost (your own computer) it always returns empty — test your geo rules on your live site.

Real campaigns, real problems solved

Here are the most common ways MailerWave users put LinkPilot to work in their broadcasts.

🌍 Geo-targeted pricing

Send one broadcast to your entire list. Nigerian subscribers land on a Naira-priced offer, US subscribers land on a dollar-priced version — automatically, from the same link.

Rule: Country = NG → yoursite.com/naira-offer

📱 Mobile landing pages

More than 60% of emails are opened on mobile. Send mobile subscribers to a short, scroll-friendly page and desktop subscribers to the full sales page.

Rule: Device = Mobile → yoursite.com/offer-short

⏰ Expiring launch links

Running a 48-hour offer? Set the link to expire automatically. After the deadline, anyone who clicks gets sent to a “this offer has closed” page — no manual changes.

Expiry: Dec 31, 11:59 PM → /offer-closed

🔗 Affiliate link cloaking

Replace every affiliate URL in your emails with a clean /go/ link. If the affiliate network changes its URL, update one field and every email fixes itself.

Before: tracker.net/ref=abc123
After: yoursite.com/go/my-tool

🎙️ Evergreen webinar link

Use yoursite.com/go/webinar in all your marketing. Before each new event, update the destination to the new registration page. Old emails still work.

Link: /go/webinar → current registration page

📧 Email-source personalisation

Redirect visitors who came from your email broadcasts to a page that references the email context — a different headline, a different offer, a personalised message.

Rule: utm_source = email → /email-landing

🧪 A/B test landing pages

Not sure which landing page converts better? Split traffic 50/50 between two variants directly from one link. No extra testing tool needed.

Split: 50% → /page-a   50% → /page-b

📌 Page-specific targeting

Scope any rule to one specific page using the “Apply to” field. Mobile visitors on your /summer-offer page go to the mobile version. Everywhere else is untouched.

Apply to: /summer-offer, Device = Mobile

Setting up a cloaked link

Takes less than a minute. Follow these steps and your clean link will be live immediately.

1

Go to Redirects → Cloaked Links

In your WordPress admin sidebar, find Redirects and click Cloaked Links in the submenu.

2

Click “Add Link”

A form slides open. Give the link a label (your internal name for it — subscribers never see this).

3

Set the slug

The slug is the part after /go/. Click Generate for a random one, or type something memorable like free-trial or webinar-reg. This becomes yoursite.com/go/free-trial.

4

Paste the destination URL

Paste the full URL where you want visitors to land — your affiliate link, registration page, offer page, whatever it is.

5

Save and copy

Click Save Link. The link is live immediately. Use the Copy button to grab the clean URL and paste it into your MailerWave broadcast.

6

Watch the clicks come in

The Cloaked Links table shows a live click count for each link. Go to Redirects → Analytics for a full breakdown with a daily chart and CSV export.

Setting up a redirect rule

1

Go to Redirects

Click Redirects in the WordPress admin sidebar. You’ll see your rules list (empty on first use).

2

Click “Add Rule”

The rule form opens. Give it a descriptive label — e.g. “Nigeria – Naira pricing” or “Mobile – Summer offer”.

3

Set the Apply to URL (optional)

If you want this rule to fire only on a specific page, paste that page’s URL in the Apply to field. Leave it empty to apply the rule across your entire site.

4

Choose a condition

Select Device, UTM / Query parameter, or Geolocation from the dropdown. Fill in the condition value — e.g. NG for Nigeria, or Mobile for mobile devices.

5

Set the destination URL

Paste the URL where matching visitors should land. Set a Fallback URL for when the rule expires (optional).

6

Save and activate

Click Save Rule. The rule is active immediately. The toggle switch in the rules list lets you enable or disable it anytime with one click.

Rules evaluate top-to-bottom. The first rule that matches a visitor wins and the rest are skipped. Drag the handle on the left side of any rule to reorder them. Put your most specific rules at the top.

Know exactly what’s working

Go to Redirects → Analytics for a full performance dashboard. All numbers shown are real human clicks — bots are automatically filtered out.

Total clicks
All redirects in the selected period
Active rules
Rules that fired at least once
Daily avg
Clicks per day over the period
Top rule
The rule with the most clicks

Switch between 7, 14, 30, and 90-day windows. Export the top rules data as a CSV file for your own records. The Cloaked Links table also shows a live click count per link.

Power features for every rule

Every redirect rule and cloaked link has a set of optional advanced settings in the Advanced section of the form.

SettingWhat it does
Forward query paramsPasses any UTM parameters from the click URL through to the destination. So if a subscriber clicks /go/deal?utm_campaign=launch, that campaign tag arrives at the destination page intact.
Strip referrerPrevents the destination site from seeing your domain as the traffic source. Useful for affiliate links where you don’t want the merchant tracking your landing pages or traffic sources.
Pixel pageInstead of redirecting instantly, the plugin briefly shows a blank page that fires your conversion pixel first — then redirects. Use this when you have a conversion pixel set and need it to fire reliably before the browser leaves.
Conversion pixel (JS)Paste JavaScript for your Facebook Pixel, Google Ads tag, or any tracking snippet here. Fires on this rule only. Enable “Pixel page” above for best results.
Cloak slugOn redirect rules, creates a /go/slug version of the rule for use in emails — combining the conditional redirect with a clean cloaked URL.

Time-limited offers and split tests

Setting an expiry date

Expand the Expiry section in the rule form. Pick a date and time. After that moment, the rule automatically sends visitors to your Fallback URL instead of the primary destination.

Set the fallback URL to a page that explains the offer has ended — not a 404 or blank page.

Setting up A/B split

Expand the A/B Testing section. Enter a Variant B URL and set the weights — e.g. 50 and 50 for an equal split, or 80 and 20 to test cautiously.

Use 302 (temporary) status code for A/B tests — never 301, which browsers cache permanently.

Common questions

Go to Settings → Permalinks in WordPress and click Save Changes without changing anything. This refreshes the rewrite rules. The plugin creates a real WordPress page called “go” on activation — if that page was deleted, the plugin recreates it automatically on your next admin visit.
Yes. LinkPilot uses a real WordPress page as the base for /go/ links — so your server already knows how to route those requests to WordPress. No Nginx configuration changes are needed, unlike plugins that rely on custom rewrite rules.
By default, yes — a redirect rule applies to all pages on your site. Use the Apply to field to scope a rule to one specific page. Paste the page URL there and the rule only fires when visitors land on that exact page. Leave it empty for site-wide behaviour.
No. LinkPilot automatically detects and ignores bots, crawlers, and scrapers before logging any click. This includes Googlebot, Bingbot, SEO tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush, uptime monitors, social media previewers, and many more. Your click counts reflect real human visitors only.
Yes — each rule is completely independent. Rule 1 can expire on December 31, Rule 2 on January 15, and Rule 3 can have no expiry at all. They don’t affect each other.
After the expiry date and time, any visitor matching the rule is automatically sent to the Fallback URL you set — typically a page explaining the offer has ended or the event has passed. If you did not set a fallback URL, visitors are sent to /link-expired on your site.
Yes — that is one of the main benefits. Go to Redirects → Cloaked Links, click the edit button on the link, update the destination URL, and save. Every email you have ever sent that contains that cloaked link will now point to the new destination automatically. No resending needed.
Yes. Uninstalling removes all redirect rules, click logs, cloaked links, and the /go/ WordPress page. Export your rules as JSON first (click Export JSON on the main Redirects page) if you want to keep them.

Ready to take control of your links?

Install LinkPilot and start sending smarter, cleaner, more targeted links from your next MailerWave broadcast.

Download LinkPilot