With the Bitly Canva integration, you can create beautiful designs that work harder. This powerful connection brings trackable short links, QR Codes, and other important content creation tools directly into your Canva workspace, so your visual assets can look great and drive measurable results. Whether you’re building social media posts, business cards, or branded templates, this integration helps you streamline campaigns using branded links and real-time link analytics with no need to switch platforms.
In this article, you’ll learn how to activate the integration, explore common use cases, and discover step-by-step tips to optimize your digital marketing and design workflows at scale.
Note: The brands and examples discussed below were found during our online research for this article.
Why the Bitly + Canva integration exists
Canva empowers millions of users from solo creators to global teams to design every type of marketing collateral and digital image asset. But when it comes to adding short links or QR Codes, many workflows fall short, especially if they rely solely on free digital marketing tools and don’t use the best QR Code generator.
Teams often paste in long, messy URLs or add QR Code images manually, making it hard to ensure scalability, consistency, brand alignment, and effortless performance tracking. It’s hard to ignore the many upsides of a Bitly QR Code vs a Canva QR Code.
Designers and marketers need built-in trackability
When designers add links after the fact—or don’t track them at all—it can be nearly impossible to accurately measure engagement. With Bitly, every link or QR Code added through Canva is instantly trackable, branded, and tied to real-time analytics. This setup lets you see what’s working and optimize creative assets faster. You can compare performance across channels, campaigns, or asset types, all from a single source of truth. That means smarter decisions, faster iterations, and better results with every design.
Bitly connects design to distribution
Bitly’s Canva integration simplifies your workflow by embedding branded links and dynamic QR Codes directly into your designs. No platform switching. No manual steps. Just seamless, on-brand design creation that’s ready for distribution, automation, and smart performance tracking the moment you hit publish. It’s the fastest way to go from concept to campaign-ready content without sacrificing control or consistency. And because everything stays within Bitly’s ecosystem, you can scale confidently across channels and teams.
How to use Bitly’s Canva integration
If you enable the integration, you can access Canva’s powerful design tools directly from your Bitly workflow, with no tab switching and no extra steps. This integration allows you to build polished assets with branded short links and dynamic QR Codes baked right in, supporting faster design execution and better brand consistency across all channels. Whether you’re creating digital marketing assets, business cards, or social media graphics, Bitly helps you streamline the design process while keeping links and codes trackable and on-brand.
Launch Canva directly from Bitly
To start, log in to your Bitly account and select the Canva integration under Connect your account. Click or tap Connect Canva and Bitly, then select Use in new design on the Canva page that opens, and select a template.
A new design window will open, with a prompt on the left that shows the Bitly logo and says QR Codes (and Links) wants to connect your account. Select the Connect button and then Allow on the authorization window that pops up.
Once the platforms connect, you can launch Canva right within Bitly, giving you seamless access to templates, design tools, and your full suite of Bitly features like link shortening and QR Code generation, all in one workspace. Your Canva windows will include a Bitly tab in the left-hand menu where you can access all your managed link assets and use them in your designs.
Instantly generate short links and QR Codes in your designs
Add a destination URL inside your Canva project, and Bitly will automatically create a short link or QR Code on the spot. These elements are perfect for flyers, posters, product labels, or social media posts—any place where you want to pair beautiful visuals with trackable, branded links.
Automatically apply Bitly brand settings
Bitly ensures that every QR Code and shortened URL aligns with your existing brand guidelines. Your logo, color palette, and custom domain are auto-applied, with no need to tweak each design manually. This makes it easy for large teams to maintain consistent branding across all assets, while scaling design workflows for multiple use cases.
Where to use Bitly links and QR Codes in Canva
The Bitly + Canva integration isn’t just about design convenience. It’s a game-changer for how teams across industries track, share, and optimize visual content. Whether you’re in retail, events, B2B marketing, or freelance design, embedding short links and QR Codes into your Canva assets helps connect the dots between creation and conversion. Here’s how teams are already using it:
- Social media graphics
Use trackable short links in headers, captions, and image overlays to drive traffic from Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook. With Bitly Analytics and UTM tracking, you can see which assets are performing and optimize based on real-time engagement. Branded links can also help by boosting trust and recognition in crowded feeds.
- Event flyers or signage
If you need a seamless way to guide attendees to RSVP pages, session maps, or sponsor promos, drop a QR Code into your flyer or banner design. Whether you share these assets online or print them, every scan delivers measurable results perfect for event marketers managing last-minute details.
- Retail signage
In-store displays are prime real estate for connecting offline shoppers to online experiences. Add QR Codes that link to limited-time discounts, product tutorials, or loyalty sign-ups. With Bitly, you can track every scan and easily switch links to support evolving or seasonal campaigns.
- Marketing one-pagers
Turn static PDFs or presentations into interactive assets by embedding short links or QR Codes for each call to action (CTA). Use UTM parameters and Bitly Campaigns to track clicks per channel or audience segment, helping you prove ROI and refine messaging.
Business cards
Modernize your networking game with scannable QR Codes that link to digital portfolios, meeting calendars, or demo videos. Designed in Canva and powered by Bitly, these Codes are clean, professional, and always on-brand. For the most flexible option, use Dynamic QR Codes so you can update destination URLs at any time without reprinting.
No matter the asset, Bitly + Canva lets you pair beautiful design with actionable insights. You’re not just sharing information; you’re building smarter, trackable content that drives results.
Benefits for marketers and design teams
Bringing Bitly’s link management and QR Code tools into Canva does more than simplify design. It creates a smarter, more collaborative workflow. By uniting visual content creation with real-time tracking and branding, teams can move faster and make data-driven decisions across every campaign.
Ensure every asset is measurable
With Bitly, every short link and QR Code added in Canva is automatically trackable. Marketers can monitor clicks, scans, and destination URL performance directly from the Bitly Analytics dashboard, helping identify which creative formats, channels, or messages generate the most engagement.
Save time on handoffs and link generation
Say goodbye to back-and-forth between design and marketing. Designers no longer need to wait for someone to create a branded link or ask how to add a QR Code post-export. Everything from link shortening to dynamic QR Code creation happens inside the Canva design flow.
Maintain brand consistency
Thanks to Bitly’s built-in branding settings, every link and QR Code respects your organization’s established standards, including your custom domain, logo, frame text, and color palette. There’s no need for extra styling steps. Just publish confidently, knowing your short links and designs are always on-brand and you’re consistently enjoying the benefits of strong brand association.
Bitly features that support Canva workflows
When you combine Canva’s design flexibility with Bitly’s link management platform, you unlock a seamless workflow that prioritizes speed, brand integrity, and measurable results. Here’s how core Bitly features elevate your creative output:
Branded short links
Using a custom domain generated with the Bitly URL shortener ensures every short link you add to a social media post, email, SMS, or PDF flyer reflects your brand identity. Whether used for a campaign landing page or a digital download, branded links build trust and recognition while keeping your content professional and on-brand.
Editable QR Codes
QR Codes created directly within Canva remain fully editable in Bitly. That means if your destination URL changes after you finalize and print your design, redirecting is not an issue. You can update the link behind the QR Code in real time, without needing to redo or re-export the design, saving time, costs, and headaches.
Link-level analytics
Every QR Code or shortened URL you insert into your Canva designs ties to Bitly’s real-time analytics platform. From your dedicated dashboard, you can track clicks, scans, and audience details like device type, OS, and location (city/country) across every asset. This setup makes it easy to test creative formats, measure performance, and optimize future content.
Best practices for using Bitly in Canva
Pairing Bitly’s short links and QR Codes with Canva’s design tools helps you build assets that are not only beautiful, but functional and trackable. To get the most value out of the integration, follow these proven best practices for maximizing performance and clarity:
Test your QR Code size and placement
Once you’ve mastered how to create a QR Code in Canva, you need to make sure your Codes are easy to scan in real-world settings. They should be large enough to read at a glance, positioned in areas with high contrast, and never stretched or distorted in print or digital formats. For assets like retail signage or event flyers, always test the final version with several real devices in a variety of different lights.
Use clear call-to-action text
Help your audience understand what to do with your link or QR Code. Whether it’s “Scan to RSVP,” “View the menu,” or “Visit our portfolio,” supporting text increases engagement and makes your asset more actionable. This advice applies to social media graphics, business cards, and marketing one-pagers alike.
Organize with tags in Bitly
As you create short links and associated QR Codes through Canva, use Bitly tags to group them by campaign, channel, asset type, or any other rubric you find useful. Tags make it easier to filter and analyze your results in the dashboard, and are especially helpful for larger teams managing multiple design streams or digital marketing campaigns.
How to get started
Ready to create trackable, branded designs with Bitly and Canva? Here’s your quick-start checklist to dive in:
- Log into your Bitly account and navigate to the Canva integration page.
- Click Connect Canva and Bitly to launch the Canva editor.
- Design your asset, then add a Bitly short link or QR Code linked to your destination URL.
- Save and share your design.
- Track performance in Bitly Analytics, monitoring clicks, scans, and engagement in real time.
This integration makes it simple to streamline your design process, maintain brand consistency, and gain actionable insights, all from one place.
Design smarter with Bitly and Canva
The Bitly + Canva integration gives your team a faster, more unified way to design content that looks great and delivers results. By connecting two of your most powerful tools, you eliminate the friction between design and distribution, making it easier than ever to launch campaigns that are both creative and data-driven. Every short link and QR Code you create becomes instantly measurable, on-brand, and easy to manage, with no extra tools or handoffs required.
Designers can create stunning visual assets while marketers track clicks, scans, and engagement from day one, all within the same streamlined workflow. No matter what you’re building, your assets stay consistent, trackable, and ready to optimize. It’s a smarter, faster way to work for teams that care about both design and performance.
Ready to scale your design and marketing workflows? Log in to Bitly today to build a seamless workflow between two of the marketing industry’s biggest powerhouse platforms.
