Overview
Click tracking is a feature used in email marketing to monitor when and how often recipients click on links within an email. It helps measure engagement and can inform which content or calls to action are working best.
While click tracking can offer useful insights, it poses significant risks in cold email outreach. From triggering spam filters to damaging trust and deliverability, it's important to approach link tracking with caution. Below are the key risks and best practices to help you use tracking effectively—without compromising performance.
Risks of Click Tracking in Cold Emails
- Triggers Spam Filters
- Click tracking modifies URLs, making them appear suspicious.
- Email clients may flag them as phishing attempts.
- Hurts Domain Reputation
- ESPs (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc.) track click-through rates (CTR).
- If recipients don’t engage or mark the email as spam, it lowers your sender score.
- Breaks Trust & Personalization
- Prospects hover over a link and see a weird tracking URL (e.g., tracking.yourtool.com/xyz).
- This makes emails look automated and impersonal.
- Misleads Data
- Many corporate email security systems and B2B inboxes pre-click all links to check for malware, leading to false positives in tracking.
- Your tool may log a click, but the recipient never saw the email.
- This could lead to you prioritizing or following up with contacts who did not engage, which increases your likelihood of being marked as spam.
Best Practices for Click Tracking in Cold Outreach
- Disable Click Tracking in Initial Cold Emails
- First cold email should focus on deliverability and generating replies—not tracking behavior. To increase deliverability, click tracking should be disabled.
- Follow-ups → Consider enabling only if needed.
- Use a Custom Tracking Domain
- Instead of yourtool.tracking.com/xyz, use your brand domain:
- ✅ track.yourcompany.com/xyz
- This improves trust and reduces spam flagging.
- Limit Links (Max 1-2 per Email)
- More links = Higher spam risk
- Ideal 1 link CTA (e.g., Calendly, website).
- Prioritize Reply Tracking Instead
- Optimize for email responses, not just clicks.
The best metric for cold outreach success isn’t clicks—it’s replies.
In cold outreach, replies—not clicks—are the clearest indicator of success. Rather than focusing on link tracking, prioritize strategies that encourage direct responses. This not only improves engagement but also builds more authentic conversations and stronger opportunities.