Understanding Email Tracking: How Opens and Clicks Are Recorded

Created by Rubric Support, Modified on Fri, 3 Jan at 3:54 PM by Rubric Support

Email Tracking: How Opens and Clicks Are Recorded

Email tracking helps you monitor the performance of your campaigns by showing how many recipients opened your email or clicked on the links inside. Here's a quick guide to how it works and why the numbers might not always be exact.

How Does Email Tracking Work?

Opens

When your email is sent, it includes a small, invisible image (often called a tracking pixel). When the recipient’s email client loads this image, it triggers an "open" and records it in your stats.

Important Note: Some email clients block images by default, so an email may be opened but not recorded if the tracking pixel isn't loaded.

Clicks

Each link in your email is replaced with a unique tracking URL. When a recipient clicks on a link, the tracking URL records the click before redirecting to the intended destination.

Important Note: If a recipient copies and pastes a URL directly into their browser or if security software modifies the links, the click might not be tracked.

Why Might Tracking Be Inaccurate?

Image Blocking: If a recipient's email client blocks images, opens won't be recorded.
Previews Count as Opens: Some email clients, like Outlook, may trigger an open when the email is previewed but not actually read.
Link Rewriting: Security software can rewrite links, preventing click tracking.
Copy-Pasted Links: If recipients manually paste the link into their browser, clicks won't be recorded.
Forwarding Emails: Opens and clicks from forwarded emails might be attributed to the original recipient.

What Can I Learn from Tracking?

Email tracking is not a perfect science, but it provides useful trends:

Engagement: How many people are interacting with your email?
Content Performance: Which links are the most popular?
Audience Preferences: Identify what topics or offers resonate most with your recipients.

Tips to Improve Tracking Accuracy

Encourage Image Loading: Use engaging content that motivates recipients to load images.
Clear Calls to Action: Make clickable links or buttons visually prominent.
Segment Your Audience: Send targeted emails to improve engagement rates.

Email tracking is a valuable tool for understanding your campaign's performance, but it’s important to view the data as an estimate rather than an exact measure. Use these insights to optimize your emails and better connect with your audience!