A collect link is a web address you send to a customer. They open it on their phone or computer, record a short video, and press send. No app, no account, no password. This guide walks through setting one up and getting your first testimonial in.
1. Create your account
Sign up for free. You don’t need a credit card. Your account starts with one brand, which is the business your testimonials are about. If you run several businesses or work for clients, you can add more brands later under Brands, each with its own links, logo and colours.
2. Make a collect link
Open Links in the sidebar and choose New link. The editor shows a live preview of what your customer will see as you type.
- Title is the heading on the recording page. Keep it friendly and specific, like “Tell us about your kitchen renovation”.
- Introduction is optional. One or two sentences that say who is asking and why it matters to you.
- Ways to respond lets you accept Video, Audio only and Written answers. Leaving all three on gets you more replies: people who are camera shy will often still leave a voice note or a few sentences.
- Ask for their name is on by default, and we recommend leaving it on. A testimonial with a real name is far more convincing than an anonymous one.
- Require their email is off by default. Every extra required field means a few more people give up, and email is the one that loses the most.
3. Write your questions
Each link can ask up to 5 questions, and each question has its own time limit, from 5 seconds up to 3 minutes. Your customer sees one question at a time, so it feels like a short conversation rather than a form.
Two or three questions is the sweet spot. Ask about the situation before, what changed, and who they would recommend you to. Our list of testimonial questions has ready-made wording for each.
4. Set the consent wording
Under Consent, write what your customer agrees to, for example that you may show their testimonial on your website and social media. It appears next to an unticked box they have to tick before sending.
Akteora stores this wording word for word with every testimonial. That way you can always show exactly what someone agreed to, even years later. Because of that, it can’t be edited once the link is created. If you need different wording, make a new link.
Under After they send you can add a thank-you message, or send people to a page of your own. Limits lets the link close on a date or after a number of testimonials.
5. Send the link
Save the link and the Share panel appears. From there you can copy the address, download a QR code for print or packaging, open a ready-written email, or share on WhatsApp.
Send yourself a test first. Open the link on your own phone, record a few seconds, and send it. That shows you exactly what your customers will see, and your test lands in the inbox so you can try approving it too.
When you write to customers, a personal note gets far more replies than a bulk email. Our post on how to ask for a video testimonial has message templates you can copy.
6. Review and approve
New testimonials arrive in your Inbox a few seconds after your customer presses send. Video and audio are transcribed automatically, so you can search them and skim what was said before you press play.
- Open a testimonial to watch or read it.
- Choose Approve if you want to use it.
- Turn on Show publicly to let it appear on your website widget and your public testimonial page. Nothing is ever shown publicly until you do this.
The original recording is always kept exactly as it was made. Akteora never edits what your customer said, and that matters: changing the meaning of someone’s testimonial is one of the things the FTC rule on reviews and testimonials forbids.
What’s next
- Add testimonials to your website with a widget or a public page.
- Import testimonials you already have from a spreadsheet.
- Turn your best videos into a captioned reel for social media from Reels (on paid plans, see pricing).