How do I explain poor email performance despite a good open rate?
Michael Ko
Co-founder & CEO, Suped
Published 2 Aug 2025
Updated 16 Aug 2025
7 min read
It can be confusing when your email campaigns show a high open rate, yet the overall performance feels lackluster. Many teams make the mistake of focusing solely on the open rate as the primary indicator of success, overlooking other crucial metrics. This narrow view can obscure the true effectiveness of your email marketing efforts and lead to misguided strategies.
The challenge lies in understanding why a good open rate might not translate into desired outcomes, such as clicks, conversions, or even a healthy subscriber list. Several factors contribute to this disconnect, including changes in how email opens are tracked and the actual engagement quality of your audience.
The deceptive nature of open rates
For years, the email open rate was a cornerstone metric, but its reliability has significantly diminished. The introduction of Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) has largely skewed this metric, particularly for audiences using Apple devices. MPP pre-fetches and caches email content, including tracking pixels, making it appear as though an email has been opened, even if a human recipient never actually viewed it. This leads to artificially inflated open rates that don't reflect genuine interest.
This phenomenon means that a high open rate, especially one far above your usual engagement, could be a false positive rather than a true indicator of campaign success. It's a common issue where email open rates are reported as much higher than their actual values. We are seeing many senders, particularly those with consumer-heavy lists, where 50-90% of reported opens are attributed to MPP.
For instance, if your list is heavily comprised of Apple users, a 60% open rate might translate to a true human open rate closer to 20-30%. This distinction is critical because without knowing the true engagement, you might misinterpret your audience's interest and the effectiveness of your content.
Beyond the open: crucial metrics for true performance
To truly gauge email performance, you must shift your focus from vanity metrics like open rate to more actionable indicators. Metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), click-to-open rate (CTOR), and conversion rate provide a much clearer picture of how your audience is interacting with your content and whether your campaigns are achieving their objectives. These metrics reveal actual engagement and interest, unlike inflated opens.
A high open rate coupled with an extremely low CTR or high opt-out rate is a significant red flag. It indicates that while recipients might be technically opening your emails (or their email client is), they are not finding the content compelling enough to click on your calls to action. This could be due to irrelevant content, a poor subject line promise, or a lack of clear direction within the email itself. Understanding why email clicks are declining despite high opens is key to improving performance.
Consider the context of your campaign's goals. If the objective is to drive website traffic or sales, then conversion metrics directly tied to those actions are far more valuable than simply knowing someone's email client registered an open. As some experts suggest, focusing on mailing list response magnitude is often more critical than list size or open rates alone.
Metric
What it indicates
Reliability
Open rate
The percentage of recipients who ostensibly opened your email.
Low (inflated by MPP and bots).
Click-through rate (CTR)
The percentage of delivered emails that received at least one click.
High (direct indicator of content engagement).
Click-to-open rate (CTOR)
The percentage of opened emails that received at least one click.
High (shows how engaging your content is after opening).
Conversion rate
The percentage of recipients who completed a desired action (e.g., purchase, signup).
High (ultimate measure of campaign success).
Unsubscribe rate
The percentage of recipients who opted out of your list.
High (indicates relevance or frequency issues).
Understanding engagement and deliverability
Engagement is not just about opens, but about clicks, replies, forwards, and time spent interacting with the email. Low engagement signals, such as minimal clicks or high unsubscribe rates, negatively impact your sender reputation with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Google and Yahoo. Even with a technically high open rate, if recipients aren't clicking or are actively opting out, ISPs may interpret your mail as unwanted or irrelevant. This can lead to your emails being directed to the spam folder, or even result in your domain or IP being added to a blacklist (or blocklist).
A high unsubscribe rate, especially one significantly above your industry average, is a clear indicator that your email content is not meeting recipient expectations or that your targeting is off. If you're seeing high open rates but low engagement, it suggests that either Apple Mail Privacy Protection is at play, or your content isn't relevant to those who are technically opening your emails.
ISPs prioritize delivering emails that users want and engage with. If your emails consistently receive low engagement, they are more likely to be filtered into spam folders, regardless of your open rate. This is where a holistic view of your email program becomes vital, considering why your emails might be going to spam despite seemingly good metrics.
ISP engagement signals
ISPs (Internet Service Providers) like Gmail and Outlook monitor a wide range of engagement signals to determine sender reputation and inbox placement. These signals include:
Clicks: How many recipients click on links within your email.
Replies: Direct responses to your emails.
Forwards: When recipients share your email with others.
Deletions: Emails deleted without being opened or read.
Spam complaints: When recipients mark your email as spam, a strong negative signal.
Time in inbox: How long recipients keep your email in their inbox before deleting it.
These signals collectively help ISPs decide whether your email is valuable to their users, directly impacting your deliverability.
Strategies for improving overall email performance
To genuinely improve email performance despite a seemingly good open rate, you need to implement strategies that foster true engagement and maintain a strong sender reputation. This starts with ensuring your audience actually wants and expects your emails, which is fundamental to boosting email deliverability rates.
First, refine your audience segmentation. Sending highly relevant content to smaller, more targeted groups will naturally lead to higher engagement metrics like CTR and conversions, and lower unsubscribe rates. Instead of a broad blast, consider who specifically benefits from your message. This thoughtful targeting helps to avoid hitting spam traps and improves overall deliverability.
Additionally, ensure your emails have a clear and compelling call to action (CTA). If recipients open your email but don't know what to do next, or the action isn't enticing, they won't click. A well-placed, singular CTA guides recipients towards the desired engagement, leading to a higher CTR and ultimately better campaign performance. Reviewing your email authentication, such as DMARC, SPF, and DKIM, is also crucial for preventing your emails from being flagged as spam.
Example DMARC record to monitor email authenticationDNS
Focus on segmenting your audience deeply to ensure content relevance for each send.
Implement clear and singular calls to action to guide recipient engagement effectively.
Regularly clean your email lists by removing inactive or unengaged subscribers.
Utilize DMARC reporting to gain insights into your email authentication health and deliverability issues.
Common pitfalls
Over-relying on open rates as the sole measure of email campaign success.
Sending the same email content to an entire, undifferentiated mailing list.
Ignoring high unsubscribe rates or low click-through rates as mere anomalies.
Failing to regularly monitor email authentication protocols like DMARC, SPF, and DKIM.
Expert tips
Shift your team's focus from open rates to conversion metrics to align with business goals.
Educate stakeholders on the impact of Apple Mail Privacy Protection on open rate accuracy.
Analyze your click-to-open rate (CTOR) to understand content engagement better.
Implement re-engagement campaigns to identify truly active subscribers versus passive ones.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says to implement filtering to remove proxy/fake opens generated by Apple's Mail Privacy Protection to accurately contextualize data. The opt-out rate can also be a function of small list size.
2023-05-05 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says that for consumer-heavy lists, 50-90% of opens recorded are attributed to Mail Privacy Protection, indicating true open rates could be significantly lower.
2023-05-05 - Email Geeks
Conclusion: A holistic view of email success
Explaining poor email performance despite a high open rate requires a nuanced approach and a clear understanding of modern email metrics. The open rate alone is no longer a reliable measure of success, especially with the widespread adoption of privacy features like Apple Mail Privacy Protection. Focus on what truly matters: whether your audience is engaging with your content and taking the desired actions.
By emphasizing metrics like click-through rate, conversions, and unsubscribe rates, you can paint a more accurate picture of campaign effectiveness. This shift in perspective allows you to move beyond superficial numbers and implement data-driven strategies that genuinely improve your email program's impact and maintain a healthy sender reputation.
Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) has largely skewed this metric, particularly for audiences using 
Apple devices. MPP pre-fetches and caches email content, including tracking pixels, making it appear as though an email has been opened, even if a human recipient never actually viewed it. This leads to artificially inflated open rates that don't reflect genuine interest.
Google and 
Yahoo. Even with a technically high open rate, if recipients aren't clicking or are actively opting out, ISPs may interpret your mail as unwanted or irrelevant. This can lead to your emails being directed to the spam folder, or even result in your domain or IP being added to a blacklist (or blocklist).
Gmail and 
Outlook monitor a wide range of engagement signals to determine sender reputation and inbox placement. These signals include:
