Use a custom tracking domain

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

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

Before you startCopy Anchor Link

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 custom host must sit on a domain you have already verified, or on a parent of it (see Choose the host).
• Access to that domain's DNS settings. Some DNS providers also support Samva's automatic setup.

1. Enable custom trackingCopy Anchor Link

Choose the hostCopy Anchor Link

The tracking host is a label plus a parent domain: <label>.<parent domain>. The label defaults to track, and any valid label works. The parent domain defaults to your sending domain.

You can place the host under a parent of your sending domain instead. For the sending domain send.acme.com, the defaults give track.send.acme.com, and choosing the parent acme.com gives track.acme.com.

The allowed parents are the sending domain itself and each domain above it, up to the registrable domain: the domain you registered with a registrar, such as acme.com or acme.co.uk. A shared public suffix such as github.io is never allowed. For send.you.github.io, the allowed parents are send.you.github.io and you.github.io, but not github.io. The dashboard and the status response list your allowed parents, nearest first, before you enable anything.

Each host belongs to one domain. If another domain already uses the host, enabling answers 409 Conflict ("track.acme.com is already a custom tracking host; choose another label or parent domain"). Choose another label or parent. A parent that is not allowed is rejected with the list of allowed parents.

To change the host later, enable again with a different label or parent. Omitting the parent means your sending domain.

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

2. Set up DNSCopy Anchor Link

The dashboard checks whether your DNS provider supports automatic setup for the zone that holds your host. When Set up automatically appears, select it and approve both records at your DNS provider. Returning to Samva means the records were submitted, not that the custom host is ready. Samva keeps checking DNS and certificate readiness before it starts using the host.

If you cancel, the setup link expires, your hostname changes, or your provider cannot complete the request, use the exact manual records shown in the dashboard or start automatic setup again. The manual records are always available and automatic setup never replaces readiness checks.

Add the records manuallyCopy Anchor Link

Custom tracking uses exactly two CNAME records, both at the host you chose:

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

Publish them in the DNS zone that holds the host. For track.acme.com, that is the acme.com zone, even when send.acme.com is a separate delegated zone.

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.

3. Confirm it goes liveCopy Anchor Link

After the records resolve, Samva issues the certificate and points your tracking links at the custom host. Readiness moves from pending to active on its own; how long that takes depends on how quickly your DNS changes are visible. New sends keep using the Samva tracking host until readiness is active.

Check the status any time. Alongside the readiness, the status reports the certificate reason (what the certificate is waiting on), last checked (when Samva last looked), and next check (when Samva will look again by itself). The next check is a schedule, not a promise of when the certificate arrives. Samva checks often while the certificate is not ready, then less often once it is.

samva email domains custom-tracking status dom_abc123

certificate is null until Samva has made its first check.

Check nowCopy Anchor Link

After you change DNS, you do not have to wait for the next scheduled check. Ask Samva to check now and it returns the refreshed state. DNS changes can take time to propagate, so a check right after an edit can still report the old state; try again in a few minutes. Samva checks a hostname at most once every 30 seconds, and a check inside that window returns the result of the last one.

The request fails if custom tracking was never enabled, was disabled, or is still being prepared. See Recheck a custom tracking domain for the HTTP form.

Certificate reasonsCopy Anchor Link

Disable custom trackingCopy Anchor Link

Disabling switches new sends to the Samva tracking host and immediately stops open and click links on the custom host, including links in already-delivered mail. Recorded events stay in your timeline and analytics.

Confirmation and preference pages on the removed host remain available for the recipient-page retention period, then Samva removes the host. Keep both DNS records in place during that period. Replacing the host also retains those recipient pages after the replacement becomes active.

samva email domains custom-tracking disable dom_abc123 --yes

If your plan changesCopy Anchor Link

A plan change that removes custom tracking is gentler than a manual disable. Samva notices the change when your subscription updates, moves the custom host to teardown-scheduled, and switches new sends to the Samva tracking host right away. The custom host keeps serving the links in mail you already sent for a 30-day grace period, and the status reports the teardown date as teardownScheduledAt.

If custom tracking returns to your plan before that date, the custom host goes back to active and new sends use it again, with no DNS changes. Otherwise, at the teardown date Samva stops open and click tracking on the host. Recipient pages keep the retention period described above before the host is removed. To use custom tracking again after that, enable it again.

A custom host that has never become active gets no grace period: Samva stops the setup and disables the host right away. If custom tracking returns to your plan, enable it again.

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.