By default, if you track your email clicks, email opens, or if you use an unsubscribe link, this includes links in your email that point to a server that Hunter maintains.
If you're keen on maximizing your deliverability, we strongly recommend you use your own custom domain instead.
Why should I configure a custom tracking domain?
Using a custom tracking domain to track email sent is important for three main reasons:
Improved deliverability: whether your emails get delivered to the inbox depends on many factors, including the reputation of the domains used inside of your emails. With a custom tracking domain, you have more control over the reputation of all the links in your emails, which can improve your deliverability.
Lower risk of getting blocklisted: it protects your domain from getting blocklisted, as it separates your emails from emails sent by other Hunter users.
Brand consistency: a custom tracking domain can maintain brand consistency and look more trustworthy.
What do I need to set up a custom tracking domain?
You'll need the following:
A subdomain dedicated to tracking your cold email performance,
Access to your DNS provider.
How to set up a custom tracking domain in Campaigns?
A custom tracking domain needs to be set both in Hunter and in your domain registrar platform. If you are using one of the following registrars, we have dedicated step-by-step guides for them:
If we haven't covered your registrar in a specific guide, you can follow along the below steps, but feel free to reach out to our support team if you find that you need any help on the registrar side.
A custom tracking domain can be set in the Campaigns Settings:
You will need to have DNS control over the custom domain in order to use it for your campaigns.
Fill in the subdomain that you want to use and click the “Set this custom domain” button. In this example, it's track.piedpiper.com.
The process should approximately take 5 minutes: you can wait, come back later or click the refresh link to attempt an early refresh. Requesting a refresh on your custom domain status can only be done once per minute.
Once the verification key has been generated, go to your DNS provider and set up the required TXT record.
Make sure that the TTL for the DNS record is as low as possible (usually the lowest value that you can set is 1 minute) to speed up the process.
Once again, you can wait or click the refresh button after the DNS record has been set up. It may take some time for your DNS changes to take effect.
Once you see the above screen, edit the DNS record you just created:
Change the record type to CNAME record
Update the name of the record (copy the name from Hunter's instruction page)
Update the value of the record (copy the valud from Hunter's instruction page)
You can now wait for the page to update (or use the refresh link if possible).
Once you see the above, your custom domain has been set up. You can increase the TTL in your DNS provider’s control panel to a higher value for better performance.
From this point on all your sent emails in Campaigns will use the custom domain if the email tracking and link tracking are enabled. The unsubscribe link in your messages will also use the same custom domain.
If you no longer wish to use the custom domain or want to change it, simply click the delete link to delete the custom domain from Hunter. After deleting it here you should remove the CNAME record using your DNS provider’s control panel.