Summary
The consensus among email marketers and experts is that Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) and the actions of AI email assistants have made email open rates an unreliable metric for measuring campaign effectiveness. MPP inflates open rates by preloading pixels, while AI assistants can trigger opens without human interaction. Therefore, marketers are strongly advised to shift their focus to more indicative engagement metrics, such as click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, return on investment (ROI), website traffic, email clicks, and revenue per email. Analyzing full event logs and user agents can help identify the source of email opens, and using UTM parameters will improve tracking accuracy. Deliverability metrics, list segmentation for personalization, and attribution tracking are also crucial for a comprehensive understanding of campaign performance. Focusing on what the business defines as 'effective' will allow the business to revise the KPIs (key performance indicators) to metrics that will deliver results and value.
Key findings
- MPP Impact: Apple's Mail Privacy Protection inflates open rates, rendering them unreliable.
- AI Influence: AI email assistants trigger artificial opens, distorting open rate data.
- CTR Importance: Click-through rate (CTR) is a crucial metric for gauging true engagement.
- Conversion Focus: Conversion rates and ROI are vital for assessing campaign effectiveness and revenue generation.
- Traffic Monitoring: Tracking website traffic from email campaigns helps assess engagement and interest.
- Engagement Metrics: More important engagement metrics are email clicks, and list segmentation for personalised messages.
Key considerations
- KPI Revision: Revise key performance indicators (KPIs) to prioritize metrics beyond open rates for a more accurate view of performance.
- Data Analysis: Analyse the source of email opens and clicks to improve reporting accuracy. Also analyse the user agents and event logs.
- Tracking Enhancement: Utilize UTM parameters to track campaign performance effectively.
- Comprehensive View: Consider deliverability metrics to gain a well-rounded picture of campaign performance and identify areas for improvement.
- Personalization: Use list segmentation to personalize email messages and improve campaign results.
- Attribution Tracking: Focus more on revenue attribution.
- Focus on Goals: Focusing on what the business defines as 'effective'.
What email marketers say
10 marketer opinions
The introduction of Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) and the rise of AI email assistants have significantly impacted the reliability of open rates as a key email marketing metric. MPP inflates open rates by preloading pixels, while AI assistants can trigger opens without a human actually reading the email. As a result, marketers are advised to shift their focus to alternative metrics that provide a more accurate reflection of engagement and conversion. These include click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, return on investment (ROI), website traffic, and revenue per email. Analyzing full event logs and user agents can also help identify the source of email opens. Focusing on engagement metrics that are more relevant will help marketers stay on track.
Key opinions
- MPP Impact: Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) inflates open rates, making them an unreliable metric.
- AI Impact: AI email assistants can trigger artificial opens, further distorting open rate data.
- CTR Importance: Click-through rate (CTR) is a crucial metric for gauging engagement.
- Conversion Focus: Conversion rates and ROI provide insights into campaign effectiveness.
- Website Traffic: Monitoring website traffic sourced from email campaigns helps measure interest and engagement.
- Engagement Metrics: Email Clicks, engagement and list segmentation are key focus areas for gauging success.
Key considerations
- Metric Shift: Adjust key performance indicators (KPIs) to prioritize metrics beyond open rates.
- Data Analysis: Implement methods for identifying the sources of email opens and clicks for more accurate reporting.
- UTM Parameters: Utilize UTM parameters to track campaign performance effectively.
- Holistic View: Use a range of metrics to get a more comprehensive view of the campaigns performance.
- Attribution Tracking: Improve tracking revenue attribution so you can link your marketing campaigns and revenue.
Marketer view
Email marketer from G2 responds that marketers should use metrics like click-to-open rate (CTOR), conversion rate, and bounce rate to measure email marketing success after MPP rolled out. These metrics provide a clearer picture of engagement and campaign performance.
21 Jul 2021 - G2
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares that analyzing full event logs and user agents can help identify the source of email opens.
17 Dec 2024 - Email Geeks
What the experts say
6 expert opinions
Experts emphasize that open rates are becoming increasingly unreliable due to Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) and the influence of AI email assistants. MPP preloads images, inflating open rates with false positives, while AI agents can trigger opens without a human reading the message. Image loads, in general, have always been an imperfect indicator of actual engagement. Therefore, marketers should shift their focus to engagement metrics like clicks and conversions, and align the chosen metrics with specific campaign goals. The information you're seeking to measure should inform the metrics you focus on.
Key opinions
- MPP impact: Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) makes open rates less reliable due to false positive opens.
- AI agent impact: AI agents can trigger opens, further inflating open rates artificially.
- Image loads: Image loads have never perfectly reflected whether people read the email.
- Engagement metrics: Focus on engagement metrics like clicks and conversions instead of obsessing about open rates.
Key considerations
- Metric alignment: Choose metrics that align with the specific goals and information you're trying to measure.
- Goal clarity: Define what 'effective' means for a campaign to determine appropriate metrics.
- Stop Obsessing About Open Rates: Focus more on engagement metrics.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks responds that the information you're looking for will inform what might be the metric you should be focusing on.
21 Feb 2024 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks explains that image loads have never accurately reflected whether people read your mail as some read without images and others load images without reading the email. Also points to 2 blog posts from 2010 and 2020.
30 Aug 2022 - Email Geeks
What the documentation says
5 technical articles
Email marketing documentation highlights the impact of Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) on the accuracy of email open tracking. MPP preloads images, inflating open rates and making them a less reliable metric. To evaluate campaign effectiveness, it's recommended to focus on alternative metrics such as click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, revenue, unsubscribe rates, and spam complaints. In addition, it is suggested to monitor engagement data on landing pages, personalize emails using list segmentation, and utilize deliverability metrics to gain a comprehensive understanding of performance.
Key findings
- MPP Impact: MPP artificially inflates email open rates, reducing their reliability as a performance metric.
- CTR Importance: Click-through rate (CTR) is a key metric for determining campaign effectiveness.
- Alternative Metrics: Other metrics like conversion rates, revenue, unsubscribe rates, and spam complaints provide valuable insights.
- Landing Page Data: Engagement data on landing pages is essential for understanding campaign performance.
Key considerations
- Supplement Open Rates: Supplement open rates with alternative metrics to obtain a more accurate understanding of campaign performance.
- Monitor Deliverability: Track deliverability metrics to ensure effective email delivery.
- Personalize Emails: Use list segmentation to personalize email messages and improve campaign results.
Technical article
Documentation from Mailchimp explains that email open tracking relies on a tracking pixel. MPP impacts the accuracy of this tracking by preloading images, which artificially inflates open rates. They suggest that users should supplement open rates with other metrics for a more accurate understanding of campaign performance.
19 Oct 2022 - Mailchimp
Technical article
Documentation from SparkPost answers that the changes made by MPP mean that marketers should rely more on click-through rate, conversion rates, and engagement data on their landing pages. Deliverability metrics are also helpful for getting a more rounded view of performance.
19 Nov 2021 - SparkPost
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