How Bitly Turned AI Chat Into a High-Converting Acquisition Channel With Koah
See how the leading link management platform partnered with Koah to move beyond black-box AI ad platforms, and drive deeper engagement and more qualified signups.
“Lots of platforms are selling AI-native ad placements now, but Koah is the only one that actually equips us to thrive on this new channel. We’re already seeing higher conversion rates than we ever could’ve expected.”
Daniel Platero
Paid Acquisition Director at Bitly
8%
session-to-signup conversion rate
157%
lift in account-wide CTR
See how the leading link management platform partnered with Koah to move beyond black-box AI ad platforms, and drive deeper engagement and more qualified signups.
TL;DR
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Bitly needed to stand up an AI-native acquisition channel to reach buyers at their highest-intent moments
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After cycling through several black-box AI advertising platforms that didn’t move the needle, the company looked to Koah
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Bitly used Koah’s contextual ad infrastructure to ship highly relevant AI ads that earn record numbers of clicks and signups
About
Bitly is a leading global platform for link and QR code management, enabling brands and businesses to create, manage, and measure digital interactions across online and offline channels. Used by millions of monthly active users and hundreds of thousands of customers across 190 countries, Bitly helps teams deliver reliable experiences and gain clear insights into what’s working across their connections.
Challenge
Reaching High-Intent Buyers Directly Inside AI Conversations
With over two decades of experience in digital marketing, Bitly’s Paid Acquisition Director, Daniel Platero, has an impressive track record of driving clicks and conversions across traditional advertising surfaces. But as buyers migrated from search engines to LLMs, he understood it was time to meet them in this new territory.
To succeed on this still-nascent acquisition channel, Daniel needed to target users strategically. He knew Bitly’s QR Code Creator wouldn’t earn enough attention if he only went after people actively searching for similar solutions. The best move was to catch users in the middle of the work that Bitly could make easier—whether that was planning a wedding or promoting a local business.
Taking this contextual approach would give Daniel access to a broader pool of high-intent users. The blocker? Reaching—and converting—these users required a deep, data-backed understanding of what they were actually doing inside LLMs.
Daniel tested multiple AI-native ad platforms promising to deliver this, but they all fell short. Their publisher inventory was always too limited for Bitly’s broad geographic reach, and performance was a black box. This meant Daniel had no visibility into what targeting or creative decisions were resonating with which audiences.
“When we tried other contextual ad providers, we were essentially paying the bill and throwing them our creatives. We had no way to know if what we were doing was working.”
These solutions also lacked the AI expertise and strategic guidance that would help Bitly navigate a rapidly evolving landscape, making effective iteration nearly impossible.
The only way to make this new acquisition channel profitable and prove its value to leadership was for Daniel to find a solution with:
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Data-driven, contextually relevant audience targeting
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A broad publisher network
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360-degree performance visibility
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Iterative partner support
Koah ticked every box on Daniel’s wishlist.
“AI answer engines are where buyers spend their time now. We knew we had to start advertising inside LLMs if we wanted to follow the customers.”
Solution
Context-Native Ads That Reach Buyers Where Work Happens
Onboarding with Koah was quick and low-lift. After a brief kickoff conversation, Daniel handed off the creatives to the Koah team, and they hit the ground running, activating Bitly’s ads across the most relevant inventory in their vast publisher network.
In just 10 weeks, Bitly was using Koah to drive conversions in three international markets. They started in their core U.S. market, expanded to the UK after strong early performance, and then launched in Brazil—where they achieved their highest CTR yet.
Daniel attributes these quick wins to Koah’s in-depth understanding of how Bitly’s customers behave inside LLMs. By leveraging first-party data from its publisher network, Koah tracks what users are doing when they engage with the company’s ads and determines what drives their attention—providing the Bitly team with a level of visibility Daniel never experienced with past platforms.
Daniel leverages this strong data foundation to target vertical-specific audiences built around real user activities, including Weddings and Social, Hospitality and Restaurants, Mobile Content, and Lead Gen and Promotion. Instead of generic QR code messaging, every audience receives highly targeted ads that pair Daniel’s existing creatives with relevant copy crafted by Koah’s AI models.
The result is a smooth, user-friendly ad experience that feels made for the person seeing it. For example, a restaurant owner researching social media growth might see an ad showing how Bitly’s QR Code Creator can help send guests directly to their Instagram page.
“Koah’s ads perform so well because they talk directly to the audiences they reach. It’s quite exciting.”
The downstream results have already validated the investment to Daniel and his leadership team. Koah’s Advertiser Dashboard reports lifts in both top-of-funnel metrics like CTR and bottom-of-funnel metrics like session-to-signup rates—proving Bitly’s new ads are actually reaching high-intent users, not just curious clickers.
Best of all, the results compound over time: as Koah collects more data about Bitly’s ads, its AI-generated ad copy gets sharper and more relevant to the moment, leading to higher CTR and conversions with every campaign cycle.
Behind this success is Koah’s hands-on team. They brainstorm campaigns with Daniel on a near-daily basis and follow up with new CTA variations and ad formats to test. With Koah in his corner, Daniel continuously drives above-benchmark performance on a channel most advertisers are still figuring out.
“Koah delivers it all: highly precise targeting, comprehensive performance visibility, and hands-on support. There’s no pain point of AI advertising they haven’t solved for.”
Results
Rising CTR, More Qualified Traffic, and a Scalable New Acquisition Channel
With Koah, Bitly realized the full potential of its new AI advertising channel, turning everyday LLM interactions into a steady stream of clicks and qualified signups.
The impact:
- 8% session-to-signup conversion rate
- 157% lift in account-wide CTR
- 5+ consecutive weeks of steady CTR climb
Daniel’s excited to keep iterating with the Koah team. They’re currently exploring how to expand Bitly’s Koah campaigns to even larger audiences without compromising the traffic quality that’s driven such strong early results.
