Link Tracking
Link tracking allows you to monitor which links your subscribers click in your emails. This feature provides detailed analytics including click counts, geographic data, and engagement patterns.
How Link Tracking Works
When you enable click tracking on broadcasts or sequences, Broadcast automatically rewrites all links in your email to pass through a tracking system. Here’s what happens:
- Link Rewriting: When the email is sent, all
<a href>links are rewritten to use tracking URLs - Click Recording: When a recipient clicks a link, Broadcast records the click with full metadata
- Redirect: The recipient is immediately redirected to the original destination URL (HTTP 301 redirect)
For example, a link like https://example.com/page becomes:
https://your-broadcast-domain.com/link/[unique-id]?id=[email-id]
Which Links Are Rewritten
When Track clicks is enabled, this is the expected behavior for each kind of link in your email:
| Link | Tracked? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Standard links in the email body (https://..., http://...) |
Yes | Rewritten to a tracking URL |
Personalized links (e.g. https://example.com/{{ subscriber.custom_data.token }}) |
Yes | Liquid variables are rendered per subscriber first, then the resulting URL is rewritten |
Links without a protocol (example.com) |
Yes | https:// is prepended, then the URL is rewritten |
| Links in the email footer | Yes | The channel footer (or the email server’s custom footer) is tracked the same way as the body |
The unsubscribe link ({{ unsubscribe_url }}) |
No | Always sent as a direct link, so unsubscribing never depends on the tracking redirect |
The Postmark unsubscribe tag ({{{ pm:unsubscribe }}}) |
No | Passed through untouched for Postmark to substitute. On a server that is not Postmark it becomes Broadcast’s unsubscribe link, which is never tracked |
mailto: and tel: links in the footer |
No | Non-web links cannot pass through an HTTPS redirect |
Anchor links (#section) |
No | In-page references, not destinations |
Image sources (<img src>) |
No | Only anchor (<a href>) links are rewritten |
Note
Each unique destination URL gets its own tracking entry. Personalized links produce one entry per subscriber, since each rendered URL is different.
Broadcast Tracking vs. Provider Tracking
Some email providers (Mailgun, Postmark, SendGrid) offer their own open and click tracking, which adds a second pixel and rewrites links a second time through the provider’s domain. Broadcast never asks the provider to track. The channel setting Provider tracking (Settings → General Channel Settings → Tracking) decides what the provider is told:
| Provider tracking | What the provider gets |
|---|---|
| Off (the default) | An explicit “do not track” for each email: X-PM-TrackOpens: false and X-PM-TrackLinks: None for Postmark SMTP, TrackOpens: false and TrackLinks: "None" for the Postmark API, X-Mailgun-Track-Opens: no and X-Mailgun-Track-Clicks: no for Mailgun, and disabled open and click tracking for SendGrid. |
| Use the provider’s settings | No tracking instruction. Your provider’s server or domain setting decides. |
Amazon SES and Resend cannot take a tracking instruction for each email. Their configuration set or domain setting decides in both cases.
Broadcast’s own tracking (Track opens and Track clicks on a broadcast or sequence) works in both cases, and so do sequence conditions on opens and clicks. Transactional emails, double opt-in confirmation and welcome emails, test sends and password resets never get Broadcast tracking, and in Off they also tell the provider not to track.
Warning
Off is the default, also for channels that existed before Broadcast 2.46.0. If you read opens and clicks in your provider’s dashboard, choose Use the provider’s settings, or those numbers stop.
Channel Defaults
Settings → General Channel Settings → Tracking also has Track opens and Track clicks. They are the starting values for new broadcasts and sequences, in Broadcast and through the API when a request leaves track_opens or track_clicks out. Existing broadcasts and sequences keep their own setting. Both are off by default.
Accessing Link Tracking
To access link tracking analytics, navigate to Analytics in the sidebar:
The Link Tracking page displays aggregate statistics for all tracked links across the channel.
Key Metrics
The sidebar shows summary statistics:
- Total Links Clicked: Number of unique URLs that received at least one click
- Total Clicks: Aggregate count of all link click events
- Avg Clicks per Link: Average number of clicks per tracked link
Enabling Link Tracking
Link tracking must be enabled when creating or editing broadcasts and sequences.
For Broadcasts
- Create or edit a broadcast
- Go to the Settings tab
- Enable Track clicks in the Tracking Options section
- All links in the email body will automatically be tracked
For Sequences
- Edit your sequence settings
- Enable Track clicks at the sequence level
- All emails in the sequence will have link tracking enabled
Click Data Captured
When a recipient clicks a tracked link, Broadcast records:
| Data | Description |
|---|---|
| Timestamp | When the click occurred |
| Subscriber | Who clicked the link (via email identifier) |
| Link URL | The original destination URL |
| IP Address | The clicker’s IP address |
| User Agent | Browser and device information |
| Referrer | HTTP referrer header (where the click originated) |
| Geographic Data | Country, region, and city (via IP geolocation) |
Geographic Data
Broadcast automatically geocodes IP addresses to provide location insights:
- Country: The clicker’s country
- Region: State or region within the country
- City: City-level location when available
Geolocation is performed asynchronously using free IP geolocation services and does not delay the redirect.
Per-Broadcast Link Analytics
Each broadcast with click tracking enabled shows link performance on its detail page:
- Navigate to the broadcast detail page
- Scroll to the Link Performance section
- View which links were clicked and their click counts
The broadcast detail page also shows: - Click Rate: Percentage of recipients who clicked any link - Total Clicks: Number of click events for this broadcast
Link Details View
Click on any link in the tracking table to see detailed analytics:
- Total Clicks: All click events for this link
- Unique Clicks: Number of distinct recipients who clicked
- Click Timeline: Chart showing clicks over time (24h, 7d, 30d, 90d, all)
- Geographic Breakdown: Top countries and cities by click count
- Click History: Full list of individual clicks with timestamps
Use Cases
Measuring Content Engagement
- Identify which topics resonate with your audience
- Track which calls-to-action perform best
- Measure interest in specific products or features
Optimizing Email Content
- A/B test different link placements
- Compare button clicks vs text link clicks
- Refine your content based on engagement data
Understanding Your Audience
- See geographic distribution of engaged subscribers
- Identify peak engagement times by analyzing click timestamps
- Track engagement patterns over time with timeline charts
Technical Details
URL Handling
- Links without a protocol (e.g.,
example.com) automatically gethttps://prepended - Anchor links (
#section) are not tracked - Empty or blank links are skipped
- Links are deduplicated to avoid creating multiple tracking entries for the same URL
- Footer links follow the same rules, except the unsubscribe link, the Postmark unsubscribe tag, and non-web links (
mailto:,tel:), which are never rewritten (see the table above)
Link Redirect Records
Each unique URL in your emails creates a LinkRedirect record with:
- A unique UUID identifier used in tracking URLs
- The original destination URL
- Association with your broadcast channel
Performance
- Click tracking adds minimal latency (< 100ms) to the redirect
- Geolocation happens asynchronously after the redirect
- All tracking data is indexed for fast analytics queries
Privacy Considerations
Link tracking involves redirecting clicks through Broadcast’s tracking servers. Consider:
- Transparency: Inform subscribers that click tracking is enabled in your privacy policy
- Email Scanners: Some email clients or security tools may pre-click links for safety scanning, which can inflate click counts
- Bot Traffic: Automated systems may click links, particularly in corporate environments with security scanning
- IP Geolocation: Geographic data is derived from IP addresses, which may not always be accurate (e.g., VPN users)
Best Practices
Enable tracking strategically: Only track clicks when you need the analytics data to reduce processing overhead
Monitor for anomalies: Watch for unusual click patterns that might indicate bot traffic or security scanning
Use alongside open tracking: Combine click data with open rates for complete engagement analysis
Review regularly: Check link performance to optimize future campaigns
Deduplicate metrics: When analyzing click rates, consider using unique clicks rather than total clicks to account for recipients who click multiple times
Troubleshooting
Clicks Not Appearing
If clicks aren’t being recorded:
- Verify Track clicks is enabled for the broadcast/sequence
- Check that the email has been sent (drafts don’t track clicks)
- Ensure the tracking URL format is correct in the email source
Inflated Click Counts
High click counts compared to open rates may indicate:
- Security software pre-scanning links
- Bot traffic from email security tools
- Recipients clicking links multiple times
Use unique click counts instead of total clicks for more accurate engagement metrics.
