Brand your tracking links

Serve open and click tracking from a subdomain of your own domain. Enable branded tracking, publish two DNS records, and confirm it goes live.

By default, the open pixel and rewritten click links in your mail point at a shared Samva tracking host. Branded tracking serves them from a subdomain of your own verified sending domain instead, so a recipient who inspects a link sees track.yourdomain.com rather than a shared host. Analytics and the message timeline are unchanged; only the hostname on the links moves.

Branded tracking is included on the Growth and Scale plans. This guide takes you from enabling it to a live branded host.

Before you start

You need:

A Samva account on the Growth or Scale plan. On other plans the option shows an upgrade prompt instead.
A verified sending domain. The branded host must be a subdomain of a domain you have already verified.
Access to that domain's DNS settings.

1. Enable branded tracking

Pick the subdomain label that carries your links. Most teams use track, which produces track.yourdomain.com; any label that is valid under your domain works.

In the dashboard, open Email → Domains and select your verified domain. In the Branded tracking domain section, choose a label (or keep track) and enable it.

Enabling returns the two DNS records you publish next. If your plan does not include branded tracking, the request is refused rather than provisioned.

2. Publish the two DNS records

Branded tracking uses exactly two CNAME records:

A tracking record that points your subdomain (for example track.yourdomain.com) at Samva's tracking host.
A record under _acme-challenge for your subdomain that lets Samva keep the subdomain's HTTPS certificate issued and renewing on your behalf.

Copy the host and value for each from the dashboard section or the status command rather than retyping them; the exact values are specific to your domain.

Keep both records in place for as long as you use branded tracking. Removing the _acme-challenge record later stops the certificate from renewing.

3. Confirm it goes live

After the records resolve, Samva issues the certificate and points your tracking links at the branded host. Readiness moves from pending to active on its own, usually within a few minutes and in rare cases up to 48 hours. Check the status any time:

samva email domains branded-tracking status dom_abc123

If a CAA record on your domain authorizes a different certificate authority, it can block the certificate and readiness stays at caa-blocked. Add a CAA record that authorizes Samva's certificate provider, or remove the conflicting record, and readiness clears on the next check. Once readiness is active, new sends with tracking enabled use your branded host.

Disable branded tracking

Disabling reverts your sends to the shared tracking host and starts tearing the branded host down immediately. Unlike a plan downgrade, a manual disable has no grace period: once the branded host is torn down, its tracking links in already-delivered mail stop working. Open and click events already recorded stay in your timeline and analytics; only the branded links stop working.

samva email domains branded-tracking disable dom_abc123

Disable only when you no longer need the branded links in mail you have already sent. A manual disable has no grace period.

If your plan changes

A plan downgrade behaves differently from a manual disable. If your plan stops including branded tracking, Samva reverts new sends to the shared tracking host right away and schedules teardown after a 30-day grace period. Your existing branded links keep working during the grace period, so returning to the Growth or Scale plan within it keeps your branded host and its links. After the grace period, the branded host is torn down and its links in already-delivered mail stop working.

See Control engagement tracking for how open and click tracking, per-send overrides, and recipient opt-outs work regardless of which host serves your links.