Open tracking and link tracking (and when to turn them off)

Draft — written from product facts + domain knowledge; UI labels to be verified before publishing.

Open tracking inserts an invisible 1×1 image into each email; when the recipient's mail client loads it, the open is recorded. Link tracking rewrites each link in the email to pass through a tracking domain before redirecting to the real URL; a click is recorded on the way. Both give you engagement data, and both have a deliverability cost. This article shows where the settings are and when to switch them off.

Steps

Open the campaign → Edit Campaign → Settings (or the Settings step of a new campaign).
Click Show advanced configurations.
Find the tracking options:
- Track opens: on or off.
- Track link clicks: on or off.
Set them as you want, click Save, then Launch Campaign or Resume Campaign.

For link tracking to work without hurting deliverability, set up a custom tracking domain first (Domain → select domain → Settings → custom tracking domain → add the CNAME at your DNS host → Save → Verify). Without it, links route through a shared tracking domain that other senders may have burned.

What the data is worth


Signal	Reliability	Why
Open	Low	Apple Mail Privacy Protection, Gmail image proxying and corporate security scanners load the pixel automatically. Expect inflated open rates and some "opens" seconds after sending.
Click	Medium	Security scanners also click links, but a human click usually follows an open by minutes, not seconds.
Reply	High	The only signal that proves a person read the email.

When to turn tracking off

Open tracking off for plain-text style campaigns. The pixel is the one piece of HTML in an otherwise text email and is a known spam-filter signal. If you enabled Send emails in plain text, open tracking is unavailable anyway.
Link tracking off when you have no custom tracking domain, or when the email contains only one link (your calendar) and you would rather protect deliverability than know it was clicked.
Both off for high-value, low-volume campaigns (under 100 leads) where you will judge success on replies alone.

Tips

If you keep open tracking on, judge campaigns on reply rate, not open rate. Compare variants by replies per send.
Fewer links beat tracked links: an email with no links at all usually outperforms one with a tracked link.
Never tracked-link an unsubscribe URL that points to your own page; the unsubscribe option under Risk Control handles that.
When you turn link tracking on, re-check the Preview in the editor to confirm links resolve to your tracking domain.

Troubleshooting

Open rate over 80%: bot opens. Turn open tracking off or ignore the metric.
Links show a warning in Gmail: the shared tracking domain is flagged. Set up a custom tracking domain and verify it.
No opens recorded at all: images are blocked by the recipient's client, or tracking is off for the campaign.

Set up a custom tracking domain
Send emails in plain text
Lead activity log: see every email, open and reply for a contact
Add unsubscribe links

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More in Campaigns: Schedule & Options

Create a sending schedule (time zone, holidays, days, send windows)→Manage multiple sending schedules and apply one to a campaign→Set the daily new-contacts limit for a campaign→Choose a sending strategy: follow-ups first, balanced, or new leads first→Schedule a campaign start date→Auto-match ESP: send from a mailbox that matches the recipient's provider→Bounce protection: auto-pause a campaign at a bounce-rate threshold→Campaign time zone and lead-level time zones→Daily sending limits: mailbox limit vs campaign limit→Inbox rotation: how OutreachFox spreads sends across mailboxes→CC and BCC on campaign emails→Why did my campaign pause or stop sending? (all reasons in one place)→