Tracking & Analytics
Cleanmails tracks opens, clicks, replies, bounces, and unsubscribes for every email sent.
Open Tracking
When enabled, a 1x1 transparent pixel is appended to each email. When the recipient loads images, the pixel fires and records the open.
- Bot detection — Filters out opens from Barracuda, Proofpoint, Google Safe Browsing, Apple Privacy Proxy, and 20+ other known bots
- Timing detection — Opens within 2 seconds of delivery are flagged as bot opens
- Per-step tracking — Each step has its own pixel URL for accurate attribution
Click Tracking
When enabled, all links in your email body are wrapped with tracking redirects. When a recipient clicks, Cleanmails logs the click and redirects to the original URL.
- Uses secure SHA-256 hashed link IDs (not Base64) to prevent bot pre-fetching
- Bot clicks are detected and excluded from stats
- Click logs include IP, user agent, and timestamp
Reply Detection
The inbox worker monitors sender mailboxes via IMAP every few seconds. When a reply is detected:
- The delivery log is updated with
replied_attimestamp - The reply message content is stored
- Campaign reply count is incremented
- If "Check Reply" is enabled, subsequent steps are skipped for that lead
- An event is emitted for webhooks and CRM sync
Bounce Handling
Bounces are categorized into:
| Type | Examples | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Hard bounce | User unknown, mailbox not found, address rejected | Lead marked invalid, sender health -15, cross-list invalidation |
| Soft bounce | Mailbox full, try again later, rate limited | Retried with backoff, sender health -5 |
If hard bounce rate exceeds 5% of total sends, the campaign is automatically paused. This protects your sender reputation from list quality issues.
Unsubscribe Tracking
Every email includes an unsubscribe footer with an HMAC-signed link. When clicked:
- Lead is shown a confirmation page (prevents bot auto-unsubscribe)
- On confirmation, lead is marked as unsubscribed across all campaigns
- Supports RFC 8058 one-click unsubscribe for email clients that support it
Analytics Dashboard
The dashboard shows:
- Overall stats — Total sent, open rate, reply rate, bounce rate, unsubscribe rate
- Activity chart — Daily sends, replies, and unsubscribes over time
- Per-campaign stats — Breakdown for each campaign
- Per-lead timeline — Full delivery history for any individual lead
- A/B test results — Per-variant open/click/reply rates