Common issues with email tracking data

PSA 1: Gmail did not kill Email Open Tracking. PSA 2: Email Open Tracking is dead for years. Let’s unpack this. Recently, a screenshot of Gmail blocking images has been circulating on LinkedIn, accompanied by alarmist claims that this spells the end for open tracking. But here’s the truth: Yes, email open tracking relies on images being loaded — typically, by detecting whether a tracking pixel (a tiny, transparent 1x1 pixel unique to each email recipient) has been downloaded. No, Gmail did not just start blocking these pixels. The screenshot actually shows a specific scenario: Gmail blocks images when it identifies an email as likely spam or a scam. Google does this to protect you from being tracked by malicious senders, and it’s been working this way for years. So, does this mean your open tracking is safe and sound? Not really. While Gmail hasn’t started blocking all your tracking pixels, other Email Service Providers already do. Open tracking is frequently blocked by B2B email server admins, often inaccurate due to security bots, and impacted by privacy settings and browser extensions. So, is Email Open Tracking useless? Well… maybe. If you’re using it as a high-level trend marker for opens, it might still offer some value. But if you’re relying on it for behavioral decision-making or key performance indicators (KPIs), especially in the B2B market, it’s largely ineffective. What should you do instead? Click tracking is a better option — although still not perfect, especially due to security bots in the B2B market. Ultimately, the best approach is to focus on the final goal of your email. Why are you sending it? If it’s to sell a product, track product purchases instead. More to come, so keep on analysing #MarketingCloud #SalesforceOhana and #MarketingChampions!

“Open rates aren’t accurate, never were”. If you’re reading this and alarm bells are going off in your head asking, “wait, whaaaat?! 😳” — keep reading. Here’s why email open rates were never accurate: Email opens are measured by embedding a transparent tracking pixel within the email. This tracking pixel is a tiny graphic with 1×1 dimensions, usually placed at the end of the email, so it’s not typically noticed by humans. But when a subscriber’s mailbox provider loads the images in an email, the open-tracking pixel is also loaded, which logs an open for the subscriber. Sounds good in theory, but in reality, there's no way to accurately measure how many humans opened your email. Not with all the spam filters and autoresponders and user settings and…who knows what else skewing the data. We’ve also got many mailbox providers including Gmail, Yahoo and Apple pre-loading images (firing those tracking pixels!) without being prompted by a user action. If you've read this far, you’re likely starting to realize how inaccurate open rates can be. 😳 💌 But not all is lost, dear friend! 💌 Watching the trends in your open rates at the destination level over time is a useful (and free!) way to identify potential issues with inbox placement. For example, if your open rate is ~40% at all destinations you send to, but it’s trending around 6% at Microsoft, you’re very likely landing in the Junk folder. Dig in and figure out what's happening. Another example: opens aren't registered for emails that land in the spam folder with the mailbox providers who are pre-fetching images...unless an actual human has gone to their spam folder, opened the message, and requested to download images. So, it’s fair to conclude if an open has been registered, the email very likely went to the inbox. 🌈 Looking even farther on the bright side, opens are just one small piece of the email data puzzle…and let me tell you, it’s a big frickin’ puzzle! Place more focus on other, more reliable metrics to determine if your emails are helping your company reach their goals. A few of my faves: - Clicks, even though they're also quite flawed, thanks to bot clicks aka NHI (non-human interactions) - Conversions - Revenue per email (RPE) - Spam complaints - Unsubscribes, and their reasons if you're collecting them - Bounce details telling you why something wasn't delivered Alright, that’s the lesson for today. If you have questions, share 'em in the comments! Or hit me up for a quick chat. Now get back to work! 💌

Open rate tracking is dead... And outbound is changing. Again ⚡️ Recently, Gmail users have started receiving popups in their emails saying: "Images in this message are hidden. This message might be suspicious or spam." And the worst part is that it also contains a huge button labeled "Report Spam." Why does this happen? It's because of the open tracking pixel—a tiny 1x1 invisible pixel that is attached to every email sent via cold outreach or email tracking tools. When this image is loaded, these tools know that the email has been opened. Now, since it's easier to report such emails as spam, more and more outbound emails are starting to land in the spam folder 📧 As a result, your open rates will start dropping as well 🔻 We at Reply have already noticed this trend.   Check out the chart below 👇 Based on millions of emails sent through our platform, this change most likely occurred somewhere between Aug 20 - Aug 24. --- So what to do next: 1️⃣ Turn off open tracking in your cold outreach/sequencing tool.   Based on our data, we've noticed that users who have been using Reply without tracking opens, on average, receive 1.3-2x more replies compared to users who track opens. 2️⃣ Focus on reply rates. When it comes to pure outbound sales (when you send emails to prospects who likely have never heard about your service, product, tool, etc.), a good benchmark is a 5-10% sequence reply rate. Something between 3-5% is also a good result. 3️⃣ Turn on "Plain Text Only" mode. Reply also has a more advanced feature called "plain text" mode. This mode removes all HTML formatting, images, and tracking links from emails, sending them as text only. That way, you can dramatically boost your deliverability rate. --- In the meantime, we at Reply are already working on some solutions to overcome this change ⚡️ So stay tuned 🔔

Guidance on tracking pixels in emails The CNIL - Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés issued draft guidance to evaluate the privacy implications of using tracking pixels on emails. This is important guidance for marketers, lead generation teams, sales teams, or other teams engaged in outbound emailing What are tracking pixels? • Tracking pixels are images not directly contained in emails sent but hosted in remote servers. What are the actions for marketers, lead generation teams, sales team, or other teams engaged in outbound emailing? • consult your privacy team before tracking individual email open rates • provide the information necessary for valid consent (see examples p7-8) • request consent to the use of tracking pixels in emails: a) at the time the relevant email address is collected (CNIL recommendation), or b) via a link embedded in an email without a tracking pixel, • allow receivers to withdraw consent (CNIL recommendation: by a tracking link in the footer of each email using a tracking pixel subject to consent) • keep evidence of the consents obtained (via CRM, for instance) Why email tracking pixels should be considered from a privacy perspective? • Displaying these images within an email client requires making a request on the network, using the URL provided in the body of the message and allows the sender of the email (or its partners) to obtain information relating to the consultation of the email. • The inclusion of the tracking pixels in emails constitutes an instruction to the user’s terminal to return targeted information (pixel ID, IP address etc) to the person who instal them. • The ePrivacy directive art 5(3), national implementing laws (eg FR data protection law art 82), and GDPR apply to this processing What are the different roles in the processing of email tracking pixels? • sender of the email: controller • email sending service provider (emailing): processor • mailing list rental and email sending service provider: processor (if it only provides reports to the sender), or joint-controller (if it uses information for its own purposes, eg improve qualification of the mailing lists) • tracking tech provider: processor (except where using data for its own purposes) • email service provider: in principle, it plays no role in the processing Should you obtain consent from the email receiver? Consent is required for individual measurement and analysis of email open rates to: • evaluate and improve campaign performance • adjust the frequency to preserve deliverability of campaigns • personalise mails based on recipients’ interests • creation of recipients profiles based on preferences and interests • detection and analysis of suspected fraud [this should rely on LI, imo] Important: the consent for tracking is different for the consent required for sending the email in question (if needed) Exempt from consent: • security measures • measurement of overall open rate

“Phil, why are you so against open tracking?” Here’s why 👇👇👇 Look— Salespeople are losing their jobs over this. This post might be technical. But it might also save your career… Open tracking works like this: → You turn your plain text email into HTML → You insert an invisible 1x1 pixel image → You don’t embed the image—you link to it via URL → When the email is opened, the server gets a ping → That GET request = 1 open counted Seems smart, right? But it’s not. There are 2 big problems with this system: 1. It’s unreliable 2. It’s harmful Let’s start with the first one. 𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗡 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗦 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗨𝗡𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 This metric is artificially inflated: → Big companies use cybersecurity bots to scan every email → Gmail, Outlook, and Superhuman cache and pre-load images That means your pixel fires... Even if the user never sees your message. Now for the real kicker. 𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗡 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗦 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗠𝗙𝗨𝗟 In May 2024, Google flipped the deliverability game on its head. Emails stopped landing. Pipelines dried up. Deals vanished overnight. I know salespeople who got performance warnings. I know others who straight-up lost their jobs. All because of one thing: open rates. Now, if you use a tracking pixel? Best case: Google slaps a warning on your email. “𝘐𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘮.” And guess what? Most users (especially non-technical ones) panic and don’t engage. Worse case... Big companies use a custom version of the “SpamAssassin” algorithm. → If it’s your first email → And you’ve got images, links, or attachments? Straight to spam. No questions asked. No trial. No appeal. So let me paint the picture (pun intended) You're hurting your campaign ROI For a number that lies to you. Be smart. Be safe. (And keep your emails clean) – Phil P.S. Anything I missed? Let me know 👇