Smart Targets: dynamic routing per scan

Overview

A Smart Target attaches a personalization audience to an override URL on a Smart Link. When a visitor clicks the short URL or scans the QR, SiteDetour walks the Smart Targets in configured order and uses the first whose audience matches. If none match, the default target wins.

This is the mechanism that lets a single printed QR route iOS users to the App Store, Android users to Play Store, desktop users to a marketing page, and still fall through safely when nothing matches.

Prerequisites

You need at least one personalization audience created first — see What is a personalization audience?. Smart Targets cannot reference ad-hoc rules; they reference named audiences.

Adding a Smart Target

Open the Smart Link editor. Scroll to the Smart Targets section. Click + Add Target. For each target:

• Personalized Audience — pick an existing audience from the dropdown.
• Target Url — the URL visitors matching this audience will be redirected to.

Add as many Smart Targets as you want. Drag to reorder.

Evaluation order

Smart Targets are evaluated top-to-bottom. The first matching audience wins. Order matters when audiences overlap.

Example: you have two audiences — Mobile in the US (AND: country=US, device=Mobile) and Mobile anywhere (device=Mobile). A US mobile visitor technically matches both. Put the narrower audience first or the broader rule will win.

Fall-through

If no Smart Target's audience matches the visitor, the default Target Url on the Smart Link is used. The default is always a valid fallback — there is no path where a visitor gets a 404 or error from SiteDetour.

Worked example: app install routing

Goal: one QR on a print ad routes iOS visitors to the App Store, Android visitors to Play Store, and everyone else (tablet, desktop, feature phone) to a mobile-first marketing landing page.

1. Create audience iOS devices: Visitor's Operating System = iOS.
2. Create audience Android devices: Visitor's Operating System = Android.
3. On the Smart Link, add two Smart Targets:
   • Target 1: audience iOS devices → https://apps.apple.com/.../your-app.
   • Target 2: audience Android devices → https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=....
4. Set the default target to your marketing landing page.

Scan the QR from an iPhone: App Store opens. From an Android phone: Play Store. From a desktop browser: the marketing page.

Worked example: language splits

Goal: route Spanish speakers to a localized landing page.

1. Create audience Spanish speakers: Visitor's Preferred Language includes es. Match type OR (so es-MX, es-AR, etc. all match).
2. Add a Smart Target: audience Spanish speakers → the Spanish landing page URL.
3. Default target: the English landing page.

Debugging a Smart Target

If a Smart Target isn't firing:

• Check audience order. Broader audiences earlier in the list shadow narrower ones.
• Verify the audience match type (AND vs. OR).
• If your domain is behind Cloudflare, confirm the link domain has Reverse Proxy Support enabled — otherwise audience IP and geo rules see Cloudflare's IP, not the visitor's.
• Use the URL Redirect Checker to see the final destination.

Next steps

• What is a personalization audience?
• All targeting rules explained in depth