Email Link Shortening and Click Tracking

When you send an email campaign, Iterable replaces each link in the message body with an Iterable tracking link.

Standard tracking links redirect recipients to the destination URL from your template while recording click events for attribution and reporting. That helps your marketing team measure engagement and use analytics features like campaign attribution.

Email link shortening — an optional add-on feature — replaces the longer standard tracking URLs with shortened links in the sent HTML, which reduces the risk of message clipping in your users' inboxes while enabling data-rich links for features like heatmaps.

This article explains how Iterable creates standard tracking links for your emails, how email link shortening works, and how Iterable selects the domain for those links.

# In this article

# How link tracking works for email

When Iterable sends an email campaign, it replaces every link in the message body with a standard tracking link (or a shortened link when email link shortening is enabled for that template).

When a user clicks a tracking link, Iterable records the click event and redirects the user to the original link from your email campaign (including any query parameters).

You can configure your project to use a custom tracking domain for your links, or you can use Iterable's default tracking domain, which is helpful in projects used for sandbox and similar testing purposes.

# Types of tracking links for email

There are two types of tracking links for email campaigns:

• Standard tracking links: These are the default tracking links that Iterable creates for each destination URL in your email template.
• Shortened links: These are the links that Iterable creates for each destination URL in your email template when email link shortening is enabled.

# Security and trust for email tracking links

Iterable protects standard tracking links and shortened links with the following security features:

• HTTPS: Iterable’s default link hosts always use HTTPS. For a custom tracking domain, turn on Enable HTTPS in Settings > Domains so click URLs use https://; Iterable verifies your domain before that setting takes effect. Without HTTPS enabled, some projects may still have older http:// tracking URLs—Iterable recommends enabling HTTPS for every custom tracking domain. For setup, see Configuring HTTPS for Link Tracking Domains.

• Integrity: Iterable checks each click before redirecting users to the destination. Each link includes a long, random value that is difficult to guess or fake.

• Brand recognition: Links stay on your tracking domain (or Iterable’s default), not a generic public shortener. This creates a consistent and trustworthy brand experience across your messages.

# Setting up email tracking links

To set up email tracking links, you need to configure your sending domains and tracking domains. Your web administrator needs to configure your DNS with specific DNS records to enable email tracking links. You can find these DNS record values on the Settings > Current Project > DNS Setup page after you add the tracking domain in your Iterable project.

See Email Setup for step-by-step instructions.

# Setting up email tracking links for deep links

Both standard tracking links and shortened links can support deep links in your email campaigns. Deep links are links that open in a mobile app if a user has it installed, and a web browser otherwise.

For step-by-step instructions on how to set up your tracking domain to support deep links, see Configuring Deep Links for Email or SMS.

# Tracking links and other channels

For SMS and WhatsApp, Iterable uses shortlinks — a separate product feature from email link shortening — and a different tracking-domain selection flow. Confirm each channel's configuration when you want email, SMS, and/or WhatsApp links to use the same tracking domain. For more information, see Link Shortening and Click Tracking for SMS and WhatsApp.

# Email link shortening

Email link shortening is an optional add-on that builds shortened links for click tracking and campaign attribution. When enabled for a template, Iterable converts each destination URL in your email template into a redirect with a condensed, fixed-length path. This replaces the long query-string style URL of the standard tracking link with a shortened link, reducing how many characters each link contributes to the message body size.

Characteristics of shortened email links:

• Tracking domain: Uses the same tracking domain selection process as standard tracking links.
• On-brand: Recognizable to your recipients and trusted by content filters and anti-spam systems.
• Length: Are approximately 100 characters long, including the tracking domain.
• Expiration: Expire after 1 year.
• Uniqueness: Are unique links that are not reused for new links in the future.
• Template-level control: Email link shortening is enabled on a per-template basis, so you can turn it on only where it matters most.

# Why email link shortening is useful

Long standard tracking URLs add to the overall size of an email campaign's HTML message body. That matters most in large, link-dense campaigns (such as newsletters, retail catalogs with many CTAs, or messages where many links are tracked). For inbox clients like Gmail, a bigger HTML payload can increase the risk of message clipping. Standard tracking links preserve full analytics; enabling email link shortening produces shortened links that add fewer characters to the HTML while keeping click tracking and attribution. It is most valuable where link length materially affects clipping risk or inbox presentation.

# When to enable email link shortening

Turn email link shortening on for templates where long links are a real constraint, not on every template by default.

Use the per-template setting to apply email link shortening where it matters most, instead of globally enabling it for all templates.

When to consider enabling email link shortening:

• Heatmaps and rich link metadata. Features such as Heatmaps and the project setting Enable improved tracking add data to tracking links, which lengthens standard tracking URLs. That extra length adds up quickly in link-heavy templates, which is a common reason to use email link shortening.

• Many links in one message — newsletters, editorial digests, retail or catalog emails with many CTAs, link-heavy layouts, or any send where URL length noticeably increases the HTML size of the email message body.

• Bulky HTML already near client size limits — shortened links reduce how much space that tracking links add to message size, which matters most in Gmail and other clients that clip long emails.

• Brand-sensitive campaigns where shorter, cleaner links improve how the send looks in the inbox.

When email link shortening is not a good fit:

• Short transactional messages where the HTML size of the email message body is already small are not good candidates for email link shortening.
• Simple templates with few links and low risk of clipping would not benefit from email link shortening.

# Proofs do not use email link shortening

Email link shortening does not apply to proof sends (test messages to internal recipients). To verify how shortened links appear before launching a campaign, send a live message to an internal test address with email link shortening enabled on the template.

Proofs differ from live sends in ways that affect message clipping in the inbox. See Troubleshooting Message Clipping to learn more.

# Using email link shortening in a template

With email link shortening enabled on your account, you can turn it on or off for individual email templates in the Details tab of the template editor. By default, email link shortening is off.

To enable email link shortening in a template:

1. Go to Content > Templates.

2. Open the email template you want to edit, or create a new email template.

3. In the template editor, open the Details tab.

4. Turn on the Link Shortening option.

   

5. Save the template.

Once you've enabled email link shortening in a template, Iterable creates shortened links for each destination URL in that template when the message is sent.

# How Iterable selects the tracking domain for email campaigns

Iterable projects can have multiple sending domains and tracking domains. When you create an email template, your project configuration and the choices you make in the template determine which tracking domain Iterable uses in the tracking links for that email campaign.

This process varies depending on whether you send with your own ESP account or with Iterable's Amazon SES with a shared IP pool. Understanding how Iterable makes this selection helps you configure your templates to use the right tracking domain for each send—keeping your messages on-brand and consistent.

# Tracking domain selection when using your own ESP account

When you use your own ESP account to send email, Iterable selects the tracking domain for links based on the From email for each message, in this order:

1. From email sending domain association. Iterable matches the From email domain to a verified sending domain in your project. If that sending domain has a tracking domain associated with it, Iterable uses that tracking domain for the links in that message.

   Look at the sending domains section in the Settings > Current Project > Domains page to review this configuration.

   With dynamic sender emails, the From email can change per recipient — Iterable picks the tracking domain to match each sender's domain.

2. Default tracking domain. If no matching sending domain is found, Iterable uses your project's default tracking domain.

   Look at the tracking domains section in the Settings > Current Project > Domains page to review this configuration.

3. Iterable's default link URL. If no default tracking domain applies, Iterable falls back to its built-in default: links.iterable.com (US data center) or links.eu.iterable.com (EU data center).

# Tracking domain selection when using Amazon SES with a shared IP pool

When Iterable sends email using Amazon SES with a shared IP pool (instead of your own ESP account), your sending domain is configured in the Project Settings page, and the sending domain does not have a specific tracking domain associated with it in its settings.

Iterable selects the tracking domain for standard tracking links and shortened links in this order:

1. Default tracking domain. Iterable uses your project's default tracking domain, regardless of the From email address used.

   Look at the tracking domains section in the Settings > Current Project > Domains page to review this configuration.

2. Iterable's default link URL. If no default tracking domain applies, Iterable falls back to its built-in default: links.iterable.com (US data center) or links.eu.iterable.com (EU data center).

# Why different templates can use different domains

When you use your own ESP account, tracked links can use different tracking domains in these cases:

• Different sending domains. If two email templates use From email addresses with different sending domains, and each sending domain is associated with a different tracking domain, the tracked links in those messages use different domains.
• Dynamic sender emails in one campaign. If a campaign uses dynamic sender emails and recipients are sent from different sender domains, each message uses the tracking domain associated with that recipient's rendered From email domain.

In each case, the template's From email determines the sending domain, and the sending domain determines which associated tracking domain Iterable uses.

# Want to learn more?

For more information about some of the topics in this article, check out these resources:

• Email Setup
• Creating Email Templates
• Previewing Templates
• Troubleshooting Message Clipping
• Maximizing Email Deliverability
• Heatmaps
• Link Shortening and Click Tracking for SMS and WhatsApp