Reporting

The Situation

Given the impact of both Google’s recent move to block images and tracking pixels by default and Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), email marketing platforms like Happy Grasshopper face significant challenges in accurately tracking open rates. Traditionally, open rates were a reliable metric, determined when an invisible pixel embedded in an email was loaded upon the recipient’s viewing. However, with Google's updated policies and Apple's MPP, these tracking pixels are increasingly being blocked, leading to a perceived drop in open rates that does not reflect actual audience engagement.

Apple’s MPP automatically loads tracking pixels in a way that obscures the recipient's actual engagement, leading to inflated open rates for some users and no data at all for others, depending on whether the images load. This, combined with Google's policy, exacerbates the skewing of open rate data. Many marketers are now seeing a reduction in reported open rates, which often falsely suggests that fewer people are engaging with their emails. In reality, the same number of recipients may be opening the emails, but without the pixel loading, these opens aren't being tracked accurately.

This discrepancy is particularly problematic for our members who have historically relied heavily on open rates to gauge the success of their campaigns or to trigger automated follow-ups based on recipient behavior and are unaware of the recent changes. The implications of this shift are broad. For instance, the blocking of tracking pixels disrupts A/B testing and other metrics-dependent strategies, making it difficult to determine the effectiveness of different email components. Without knowing about these changes, it’s easy to misinterpret the data and make adjustments based on incorrect assumptions, potentially abandoning successful strategies or doubling down on ineffective ones. 

This issue is compounded by the fact that Gmail, one of the most widely used email services globally, is particularly affected by these recent changes. This means that a significant portion of the email audience, especially those accessing emails via mobile devices, is now underreported in open rate statistics. As a result, senders may underestimate the reach and effectiveness of their campaigns, leading to potential missteps in their overall marketing strategies.

To adapt to these changes, we’re looking at shifting focus from open rates to other metrics like click-through rates and conversions, which can be tracked more reliably. Additionally, encouraging recipients to add the sender to their safe sender list may help mitigate some of the impact of image and pixel blocking. Despite these workarounds, the landscape of email marketing is undeniably shifting, and we at Happy Grasshopper are recalibrating our strategies and resetting expectations to the new normal to ensure our member’s continued success in this new environment.

How Happy Grasshopper Is Addressing It

Moving forward, Happy Grasshopper will still display an open rate, but it will be accompanied by an info link to ensure everyone understands how the new open rate is calculated. As of September 5, 2024 the Happy Grasshopper open rate is the percentage of people who opened your email out of the people who were delivered your email. An email open is counted when the images in the email load, or when the user clicks on a link in the email even if the images do not load. This new approach is going to be more of a relative metric to gauge relative success of an email send since we’re not going to be getting all of the data we used to receive. This is how all the major CRMs and other marketing platforms are addressing this new playing field. 

In conclusion, while Google's blocking of images and pixels has thrown a wrench into traditional email tracking methods for all platforms, marketers and agents must now look beyond open rates to understand the true effectiveness of their campaigns, ensuring they remain aligned with the real behaviors and preferences of their audience. Happy Grasshopper is here to help you as the industry and technology continues to evolve, staying informed and flexible will be key to navigating these changes effectively and creating new opportunities from them.