Set up a custom tracking domain

Open and click tracking in Emailit always runs on a hostname on your own domain, such as go.acme.com. This guide shows how to publish the CNAME record for that hostname, verify it and turn tracking on.

Before you begin

• Add and verify the sending domain. See Add a domain.
• Make sure you can edit the domain’s DNS records.
• Pick a hostname that isn’t used for anything else. The default is go, which gives go.acme.com.

Choose the tracking subdomain

The tracking hostname is <tracking subdomain>.<sending domain>. To use something other than go:

curl https://api.emailit.com/v2/domains/acme.com \
  -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EMAILIT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "tracking_key": "links" }'

The prefix can contain lowercase letters, digits and hyphens, up to 63 characters, and must start and end with a letter or digit. Changing it resets the tracking record to Not checked, so publish a CNAME for the new hostname and check DNS again.

Publish and verify the CNAME

1. Add the CNAME record. At your DNS provider, create this record:

   Type	Host	Target
   CNAME	go (or your tracking subdomain)	go.emailitmail.com

   For acme.com, the result is:

   Text

   go.acme.com.   CNAME   go.emailitmail.com.

   If you send from a subdomain such as mail.acme.com, the host is go.mail in the acme.com zone.

2. Turn off proxying on Cloudflare. If your DNS is on Cloudflare, set the record’s proxy status to DNS only (grey cloud). A proxied record returns Cloudflare’s IP addresses instead of the CNAME, and tracking can’t verify or serve requests. Cloudflare setup creates the record as DNS only for you.

3. Check DNS. On the domain page, select Check DNS. The status badge in the Tracking card changes to OK when the CNAME points to go.emailitmail.com.

4. Turn tracking on. In the Tracking card, turn on Track loads, Track clicks or both. The switches stay disabled until the CNAME shows OK.

   With the API, call Update a domain with "track_loads": true and "track_clicks": true.

These switches set the default for mail from the domain. You can override them for a single email with the tracking field when you send through the API. See Open and click tracking.

HTTPS

All tracking links and pixels use https://. Emailit issues and renews the certificate for your tracking hostname automatically, the first time it receives a request for it. You don’t need to upload a certificate or change anything else.

Verify it worked

1. Send a test email from the domain with at least one link, for example with Compose on the Emails page.

2. Check the links. In the received message, hover over a link. It should start with https://go.acme.com/, not your original URL.

3. Open and click. Open the email and click the link. The email’s page in Email API›Emails lists the open under Loads and the click under Clicks, and the status changes to loaded and then clicked.

Troubleshooting

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