Set up tracking, CRM and SMTP

In shortCRM and email needs three things before it does anything useful: the AI Rank Lab tracking tag on your site, the per-domain feature toggles in CRM and email → Setup → Tracking setup, and an SMTP account of your own in CRM and SMTP settings so campaigns can send. The tag is the same one the AI bot tracker uses. Forms, heatmaps and recordings stay off until you switch them on.

What this setup is for

The CRM area turns visitors into contacts and lets you email them. To do that it needs to see what happens on your site and it needs a way to send email. AI Rank Lab does not send campaign email from its own servers. You connect your own SMTP account (for example Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo or any other SMTP server), and every campaign goes out through it.

Do this once per domain. After that, the other lessons in this course (contacts, forms, campaigns, templates, recordings and heatmaps) all work on top of it.

Before you start

• A domain added to your account. Every setting on the Setup page applies to the domain selected in the domain switcher, so check it first.
• Access to your site's HTML, or a plugin that lets you add a script to every page (WordPress, Shopify, Wix and Squarespace instructions are shown in the setup sheet).
• SMTP details from your email provider: host, port, username and password or API key, and the address you want to send from.
• Some credits. If your balance reaches zero, the tag pauses on every domain, and forms, heatmaps and recordings stop with it.

Step by step

1. Install the tracking tagThere is only one embed tag. Open AI search → Monitoring and reports → AI bot tracker. If the domain is not verified yet, the Tracking Setup panel opens on its own; otherwise open it from the settings icon in the domain bar. Copy the script under Copy this script to your website:, paste it into every page of your site, then click Verify Installation. The full walkthrough is in Add your domain and install the tracking tag.
2. Open Tracking setup in CRM and emailGo to CRM and email → Setup → Tracking setup. The card is titled CRM & Session Recording Settings and shows four Feature Toggles for the selected domain.
3. Switch on only what you needSession Tracking is baseline visitor tracking (IP, location, first and last visit). Enable CRM Features turns on lead-form capture and any pixels or custom scripts you add below. Record Sessions turns on full visual replays, which are billed per recorded session. Record Heatmaps collects click and scroll positions for the heatmap viewer.
4. Add pixels or custom scripts (optional)Under Third-Party Pixels & Tag Managers you can enter a Google Tag Manager ID, GA4 Measurement ID or Meta Pixel ID, and paste Custom HEAD Scripts or Custom BODY Scripts. The tag injects them on your site, but only while Enable CRM Features is on. Click Save Script Setup.
5. Connect an SMTP accountOpen CRM and email → Setup → CRM and SMTP settings and click Add SMTP Account. Fill in Provider Name, SMTP Host, Port, Username, Password or API Key, From Name and From Email. Port 465 normally needs Use SSL/TLS on; 587 and 25 normally need it off. Rate Limit (per minute) caps how fast campaigns send through this account. Click Create.
6. Test the connectionIn the SMTP Accounts table, click the test-tube button on the row. You should see SMTP connection test successful! This checks that AI Rank Lab can log in to your server. It does not send an email; use the free test send in the campaign composer for that.

How to tell it worked

• The AI bot tracker shows the domain as verified. Verification can pass on a test event alone, so also look for real visits from your site in the tracker.
• The SMTP account row shows Active, and the test passed.
• After a few visits to your site, sessions start to appear under Visitor behaviour → Session recordings, and pages appear in Heatmaps if you switched those on.

What it costs

Setup itself is free. The tag is billed per block of tracked requests, the same as the AI bot tracker. Recordings are billed per session only while Record Sessions is on. Campaign sending is billed when a campaign starts. Heatmaps have no separate charge.