How to set up custom domain tracking

Why set up custom domain tracking?

Custom domain tracking allows you to improve your deliverability by using your own branding to track prospects' activities.

Some prospects get turned off by generic tracking links so if they see that the links are using your own domain's branding, they are more likely to trust your emails and open your links.

Also, default tracking URLs are used by other users in sending their test emails or campaigns.
Because of this, its reputation is affected by other user's activities.

By using custom domain tracking, you will have full control over building a good domain reputation which can improve the deliverability of your emails.

How to set up custom domain tracking?

1. Add a CNAME record

To be able to set up a custom domain tracking in QuickMail, you'll need to access your domain's DNS records to add a CNAME.

Here are some helpful articles from some domain hosts about how to add a CNAME record:

Once you have accessed your DNS, add a CNAME with the desired hostname and point it to hello.quicknext.net. The TTL should be the default which is 1 hour.

Here's an example:

Pro tip: Don't use email-related words for the CNAME host to avoid raising spam suspicion (e.g. mail, email, tracking, custom).

Once you have set up the CNAME, you may need to wait a bit (depending on the DNS server) before the records propagate.

You can use DNS lookup tools like MXToolbox to check if the CNAME is pointing to hello.quicknext.net.

Here's how to check whether the CNAME has propagated, using MXToolbox:

2. Add a custom domain tracking in QuickMail

a. Custom domain tracking on the account level

Once the CNAME record is properly propagated, go to your QuickMail account's general settings and fill out the custom domain for tracking field under Deliverability and Branding.

b. Custom domain tracking on the inbox level

If you have multiple inboxes with different domains, it's better to set the custom domain tracking on the inbox level.

To do that, just go to the inbox's sending settings.

Then, scroll down to Deliverability & Branding and paste your custom domain tracking.

How does custom domain tracking work?

When the custom domain tracking is set up, we use your own domain for tracking.

If the custom domain tracking is only set up on the account level, this will be used by all the inboxes in the account.
However, if an inbox has a custom domain tracking set up, QuickMail will ignore the custom domain tracking set on the account, and use that of the inbox instead.

How do I know if my custom domain tracking is properly set up?

If the custom domain tracking is not correctly pointing to hello.quicknext.net, you will get an error upon adding it to QuickMail.

Also, every day, we check the custom domain tracking set on the account and the inbox to see if they're properly set up.

If we found that the custom domain tracking is not working, we pause the inboxes using the incorrect custom domain tracking.

For example, if the custom domain tracking set is only on the account level and the custom domain tracking is not working, we will pause all inboxes in the account.

However, if the custom domain tracking is set also on the inbox level, we only pause the inboxes that have the incorrect custom domain tracking.

Here's the error on the custom domain tracking on the account level:

And here's the error on the custom domain tracking set on the inbox level:

Note: Inboxes with incorrect custom domain tracking --whether they're using that of the inbox or that of the account-- can't be unpaused.