Should I use separate or global tracking links for different email subdomains?
Summary
What email marketers say10Marketer opinions
Email marketer from SendGrid indicates that warming up dedicated IPs for each subdomain will protect your overall reputation. They suggest keeping everything separate for better control
Email marketer from Litmus explains that using subdomains for different types of email allows you to isolate your reputation. If one subdomain gets a poor reputation, it won't necessarily affect the others.
Email marketer from GMass suggests that using subdomains may help with deliverability, as you can isolate the reputation of each send type
Email marketer from Neil Patel Digital recommends using subdomains and dedicated IPs to isolate your email sending reputation. Separating transactional and marketing emails can protect your primary domain's reputation.
Email marketer from Reddit suggests that using a separate subdomain for marketing vs transactional emails is a good practice to isolate reputation damage.
Email marketer from Quora shares the opinion that using distinct subdomains for different types of mail is a good idea. If the reputation of one suffers, it won't impact your other mail streams. This allows for granular control.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares they do one-to-one tracking links with corresponding subdomains to keep it clean just in case a bad tracking link with a bad domain can take down good mail.
Email marketer from EmailonAcid advocates for segmenting email traffic to different subdomains. This is because a poor sending reputation with one subdomain won’t impact your overall domain reputation.
Email marketer from Stack Overflow shares that best practice is separate subdomains for different email streams, as this gives you control over reputation
Email marketer from Mailjet suggests segmenting your email traffic across different subdomains to protect your primary domain's sending reputation, separating transactional and marketing emails. This segregation minimizes risks and enhances deliverability.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise emphasizes the importance of properly configuring authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) for each subdomain and using them to isolate different types of email traffic. She also advises using different IPs to segment traffic for different subdomains.
Expert from Email Geeks shares that in the current system: one mistake is never going to break all your mail, as that’s just not how the big filters work.
Expert from Email Geeks explains the deciding factor for using subdomain tracking links is what's right for your tracking system. The key is to build a system that you can use and track with your current reporting system. If it's easier to do that with subdomains, go for it. If it's easier to do that other ways and just use the same subdomain for all the links do that. Domain decisions should support business goals.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that using separate subdomains isolates reputation problems, as issues with one subdomain won't necessarily affect the others. They advocate for different subdomains for marketing and transactional emails.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Google explains that they evaluate reputation on a per-domain and per-IP basis. Using subdomains allows for segmentation of reputation based on sending practices.
Documentation from AWS suggest that dedicated IPs and subdomains allows for segmentation of traffic
Documentation from RFC suggest that separating different types of traffic will allow you to use different email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) on each to improve deliverability
Documentation from SparkPost recommends using subdomains to separate different types of email traffic (transactional vs. marketing). This separation allows you to maintain distinct reputations for each type of email and helps with deliverability.
Documentation from Microsoft suggests that isolating email domains can help improve deliverability of transactional emails.