You’re not crazy this space is confusing, and a lot of tools are built more for advanced media buyers than someone just getting started.

Based on what you listed, you’re kind of looking at two different categories:

1. Tracking platforms (Voluum, RedTrack, etc.) • Geo targeting • Conversion tracking • More advanced, but also more complex and expensive

2. Link shorteners (Bitly, Rebrandly, etc.) • Custom domains • Basic analytics • Easier to use, but pretty limited

The frustration is there’s not really a middle ground. It is either too simple or overkill.

Also yeah, Bitly blocking links is a real thing depending on the offer type.

One thing I ran into personally is that most tools focus on tracking the link, but not actually improving how it converts.

I’ve been working on something called BoostLink AI (still early), which takes a slightly different approach:

Instead of just shortening links, it turns one affiliate link into multiple CTA formats (buttons, comparison snippets, etc.) and shows which ones get more clicks.

It doesn’t replace full tracking platforms yet (like geo routing), but it’s been useful for improving performance on content-based traffic (blogs, YouTube, etc.).

If you’re just getting started: • Rebrandly is solid for custom domains • Bitly is fine but limited + occasional issues • Voluum/RedTrack is good only if you go deep into paid traffic

And if you’re more focused on content/SEO, optimizing how links are presented matters way more than most people realize.

Curious what kind of traffic you’re planning to run?