Skip to main content

Click Map with Inbox Monster

See where the links in your email actually go, and catch a broken or misdirected one before your audience finds it.

L
Written by Lee Silver

A link that looks right in the creative can still land somewhere wrong. Click Map picks up the links in your email, follows each one through its redirects to the page it finally opens, captures that page, and shows it beside the email so you can confirm at a glance that it goes where it should.

This walkthrough covers turning the tab on, running a map, and reading the results.

ℹ WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS GUIDE

1. How to turn on the Click Map tab

2. How to run a Click Map for an email

3. How to read the map and the link statuses

4. How to open a landing page full size

✦ CLICK MAP IS IN BETA
The feature is fully usable in production, and we are still refining it based on real-world feedback. Use the help icon in the top nav to send us anything that looks wrong.

Turning on the Click Map tab

Click Map is off until an admin enables it, in the same way as Approvals. It is switched on per account, so once it is on it appears for everyone on the account.

  1. Click the Settings gear icon in the top navigation bar.

  2. Choose Creative Rendering.

  3. Open the Tabs settings and switch Click Map on.

Creative Rendering tab settings with Click Map switched on

Switch Click Map on in the Creative Rendering tab settings. The list continues above and below.

Running a Click Map

The map is not built automatically. Open the rendering report, go to the Click Map tab, and start it yourself.

  1. Open the rendering report for the email you want to check.

  2. Select the Click Map tab.

  3. Click Run.

The Click Map tab with the Run button highlighted

The Click Map tab. Click Run to start the scan.

Inbox Monster then visits the links it picks up, follows any redirects, and takes a full-page snapshot of wherever each one ends up. This takes a little time, since every landing page is loaded properly rather than guessed at.

Once a map exists, the button moves to the top of the page and becomes Re-run.

Reading the map

When the scan finishes, the tab shows your email on the left and the landing pages on the right.

  • The email preview. Your creative, with a numbered marker on each link that was followed.

  • Landing page cards. One card per followed link, numbered to match its marker, showing a snapshot of the page that link actually opens.

  • Connectors. A line drawn from a marker to its card, so you can see which page belongs to which link.

  • Status counts. Resolved, Redirect and Broken totals for the links in the map, shown above it.

The Click Map tab after a scan

The map after a scan: marker on the link, connector, and the landing page it opens.

Understanding a landing page card

Each card carries everything you need to judge one link.

A landing page card

A landing page card: marker number, snapshot, link text, status and both URLs.

On the card

What it tells you

Number

Matches the marker on the email preview, so you can find that link in the creative.

Snapshot

The page as it actually loaded. Click it to open full size.

Link text

The wording of the link in your email, so you can recognise it without hunting.

Status

Resolved, Redirect or Broken, with the HTTP code the page returned.

LINK

The URL exactly as it appears in the email — usually your tracking link.

RESOLVES

Where that link finally arrived. This is the one to check.

The three statuses

Status

What it means

What to do

Resolved

The link opened its page directly, with no redirect.

Check the snapshot is the page you intended.

Redirect

The link passed through one or more redirects before arriving. Normal for tracked links, so most of your links will look like this.

Confirm RESOLVES is the right destination, not last month's campaign or a generic homepage.

Broken

The page returned an error, or the server did not respond.

Fix before send. Scan for these first.

Opening a landing page full size

Click any snapshot to open that page full size, with the resolved URL shown along the top so you can confirm exactly where the link went. Close it to return to the map.

A landing page opened over the map

The landing page opens over the map, with its resolved URL along the top.

Frequently asked questions

The tab says "No links found". What does that mean?

The scan ran and completed, but did not pick up anything to follow in this creative. Check the email contains the links you expect, then run it again.

Which links does Click Map follow?

It picks up the links it finds in the creative, which can include image links such as a masthead logo as well as buttons. If a link you expected to see is missing from the map, send it to us through the help icon — how the set is chosen is one of the things being refined while Click Map is in BETA.

Why is almost everything showing as Redirect?

That is normal. Tracked links go through your ESP's click-tracking domain before reaching the destination, which counts as a redirect. What matters is the RESOLVES line, not the status.

Why has a link come back as Broken when it works in my browser?

The snapshot is taken from outside your session, so anything depending on being signed in, or on a regional redirect, can resolve differently. Check the RESOLVES line on the card to see where it actually went.

The map is stuck loading. What now?

If a scan does not come back, Click Map stops waiting after a few minutes and offers you a retry rather than spinning indefinitely. Start it again from the retry panel. If it fails a second time, send it to us through the help icon.

Do I need to run it again after editing the creative?

Yes. The map reflects the links in the version that was scanned, so use Re-run after changing any link.


Did this answer your question?