The disclosed systems and methods for improving a launch power in an optical link. The improvement of launch power in the optical link is based on: i) selecting an optical span from one or more optical spans within the optical link; ii) applying a power dither to a plurality of the optical signals propagating in the selected optical span; iii) selecting an optical signal from the plurality of the optical signals to which the power dither is applied; iv) correlating the power dither with a performance parameter of the selected optical signal; and v) based on the correlation, adjusting the launch power of a first optical amplifier in the selected optical span to minimize the correlation to approximately equal to zero.