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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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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