Using open and click tracking for marketing emails helps you measure recipient engagement. By analyzing which emails have the most engagement, you can tailor future email campaigns to more closely resemble successful past emails.
Opens are registered when a tracking pixel - an invisible image embedded in the email - loads, or when a link is clicked. If an open isn't registered, it's often caused by image blockers or privacy features in the recipient's email client not allowing the pixel to load.
You can turn off open and click tracking for either all emails in your account or individual emails.
Permissions requiredSuper Admin or Website settings permissions are required to edit marketing email tracking settings.
If you turn off tracking email opens, HubSpot will still anonymously track this data to support the network health of HubSpot's email sending infrastructure.
When click tracking is turned on, tracking parameters will be added to links. While the links will function as normal, the URL will be longer and may include a redirect to ensure the click is registered.
Tracked email clicks set a cookie in a visitor's browser linked to the original recipient's contact record. Clicks from other visitors who are interacting with a forwarded email are still attributed to the original contact. Learn more about tracking visitors.
Edit tracking settings
In your HubSpot account, click the settings icon in the top navigation bar.
In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Marketing > Email.
Click the Tracking tab.
To turn off open tracking entirely, toggle the Track email opens switch off.
To turn off click tracking in emails that render using HTML, toggle the Track clicks in HTML emails switch off.
To turn off click tracking in emails that render in plain text, toggle the Track clicks in plain text emails switch off.
In the Click tracking domain section, you can set the domain used for click tracking in email links. If you have the Brands Add-On, you can set separate domains for each brand. To set a click tracking domain:
Next to the current domain, click Edit.
In the dialog box, click the Domain dropdown menu and select a domain.
Click Save.
In the Source tracking section, select an option for whether tags will be added to tracking URLs to record that traffic is coming from marketing emails:
Add source tracking tags to allURLs: HubSpot tracking tags will be added to all URLs in marketing emails. This will overwrite any custom tracking tags you've added to URLs.
Add source tracking only if no existing tags in URL: HubSpot tracking tags will only be added to URLs without existing tags. If you've already added custom tracking tags to URLs, they will not be overwritten.
Don't add source trackingtags: no HubSpot tracking tags will be added to URLs.
To turn off identity tracking - using cookies to identify which contacts clicked specific links - toggle the Identity tracking switch off.
Turn off tracking for an individual email
In the email editor, you can turn off open and click tracking for an individual email before it is sent or published. This can be useful for setting up test sends without affecting overall analytics or ensuring privacy compliance.
Please note: in order to turn off tracking for an individual email, these conditions must be met:
Open and click tracking must be turned on in your account.
Source tracking must be set to Add source tracking tags to all URLs.
In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to Marketing > Email. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to Marketing > Email directly.
Click the name of an existing email, or click Create email in the top right.
In the email editor, click the setup icon in the left sidebar.
In the Email Performance section, toggle the Track opens and clicks for this email switch off. This will remove the tracking pixel from the email.
