To track email opens, link clicks, and unsubscribes in Nooks, your team will need to configure a custom domain. This guide walks through the process of setting one up.

Background

When tracking and unsubscribe links appear to come from your own domain rather than a shared one, email providers like Gmail and Outlook are more likely to deliver your messages to the inbox instead of spam. This setup:

• Improves inbox placement 

• Protects sender reputation

• Minimizes potential deliverability complications

To safeguard your sender reputation, email tracking and unsubscribe links will be disabled for your Workspace until you have a custom domain configured. Emails will still send normally, but open and clicks will not be recorded. If unsubscribe links are enabled, recipients will see a plain-text opt-out prompt instead.

Setup Steps

This setup requires a DNS change, which is typically handled by your IT, network, or DNS administrator. We recommend looping in the right person early. The DNS change itself is quick, but getting access can take time.

Step 1 (Nooks Admin): Choose Your Custom Hostname

Pick a subdomain for Nooks to use for email tracking and unsubscribe links. A good subdomain should:

• Begin with "track" – for example, track.acme.com

• Match your sending domain – if you send from @acme.com, use track.acme.com

• Not include special characters – these can hurt deliverability

• Avoid words like "Sales", "Marketing", and "Nooks" – these can hurt deliverability

Step 2 (Your IT Team): Update Your DNS Record

Share your chosen subdomain with your internal DNS administrator and ask them to add a CNAME record with the following values:

The process of adding a CNAME record varies by DNS provider. Instructions for common DNS providers are linked below. 

• Amazon Route 53

• GoDaddy

• Namecheap

Step 3 (Nooks Admin): Enter Your Chosen Hostname in Nooks

Once your DNS administrator confirms the CNAME has been added, enter your subdomain in Nooks:

1. Go to Settings → All Settings.

2. Under Sequencing, select Email.

3. In the General tab, locate the Branded Tracking Domain setting.

4. Input your chosen hostname, then press Save.

Step 4 (Automated): Nooks Validates and Provisions Your Domain

Once the subdomain is saved, Nooks automatically validates the CNAME record is properly configured and provisions the necessary infrastructure. Unless there is a configuration error, no additional action is necessary from your team. You can monitor the progress from Nooks Settings.

The automated setup consists of two stages:

1. DNS Record Detected – Nooks confirms that your CNAME is resolving to the correct target. Note that DNS changes can take time to propagate to the whole internet. If your record is not immediately detected, wait a few minutes. Nooks will continue checking automatically as propagation completes.

   See the Troubleshooting section of this guide if this check returns an error.

2. Domain Routing Active – Nooks provisions TLS and routing for your custom hostname.

The tracking domain will show as Live once the setup is fully complete.

Step 5 (Nooks Admin & Your Internal IT Team): Add Additional Custom Subdomains

Skip this step if your team only sends from one domain.

If your team sends emails from more than one domain, add a branded tracking domain for each one. This keeps your sender reputations isolated and improves deliverability across all your sending domains.

1. In Nooks, go to Settings → All Settings → Email.

2. In the Branded Tracking Domains section, click + Add Domain.

3. Follow Steps 1–4 for the new domain.

4. Repeat for any additional domains.

Step 5b (Nooks Admin): Select Your Default Branded Tracking Domain in Nooks

If you've added more than one branded tracking domain, choose which one should serve as the default by clicking the star icon next to it.

The default domain is used for any emails from from an address whose domain does not match any of your Workspace's branded tracking domains. The first branded tracking domain you add is automatically set as the default, but we recommend setting your main web domain as the default instead.

Step 6 (Nooks Admin): Configure Email Tracking and Unsubscribe Settings

Once at least one branded tracking domain is live in Nooks, the Workspace-level email tracking and unsubscribe settings are automatically unlocked. You can proceed with configuring them for your team.

• Configure the email tracking settings

• Configure email unsubscribe settings

How Multiple Branded Tracking Domains Work

When your team has more than one branded tracking domain, Nooks automatically picks the right one based on the sending email address' domain. If there's no exact match, Nooks falls back to your Workspace's default tracking domain.

Example: If track.acme.com is your default and track.getacme.com is also configured:

Reviewing Your Workspace's Connected Sending Domains

For the best deliverability, aim to have a branded tracking domain for every sending domain connected to Nooks. There is no limit on the number of branded tracking domains you can configure.

To review your Workspace's connected domains:

1. Go to Settings → All Settings.

2. Under Sequencing, select → Email.

3. Click into the Deliverability tab.

4. Locate the Domain Authentication section, where you can see the domains your team has connected to Nooks Sequencing.

End-User Setup

When end-users install the Nooks Chrome extension, they will need to grant permissions for your team's tracking domains. These permissions prevent email open metrics from being inflated when users open their own emails.

To grant permissions, users can:

1. Click on the Nooks Chrome extension in the top-right corner of their Chrome browser.

2. Press Grant Access.

Removing a Branded Domain from Your Workspace

Removing a branded tracking domain prevents it from being used on future emails. Only remove a domain if you will no longer send emails from addresses at that domain.

To remove a branded tracking domain:

1. Go to Settings → All Settings.

2. Under Sequencing, select Email.

3. In the General tab, locate the Branded Tracking Domain setting.

4. Press the x on the right of the branded tracking domain you want to remove.

Troubleshooting

This section identifies some common errors that arise while setting up branded tracking domains in Nooks and how to resolve them.

Not Yet Found

DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to fully propagate across the internet. If your record continues to show Not Yet Found after a few minutes, confirm with your DNS administrator that the CNAME record was saved correctly in your DNS registrar. Then, wait and check Nooks again. Nooks will continue checking automatically.

Wrong Target Error

If Nooks' DNS record check returns a Wrong Target error, it indicates that your CNAME exists but is pointing somewhere else. To resolve, connect with your internal DNS administrator to ensure the the CNAME record's value/target is set to "tracking.sep.nooks.in" in your DNS registrar.

FAQs