ActiveCampaign tracks opens activity for every direct and automated campaign you send. You can view campaign open trends in your campaign reports.
Take note
- It is impossible to track opens for campaigns created using the "Text only" template type
- Open/read tracking is turned on by default for all campaigns created using custom HTML or the drag-and-drop email designer. This setting needs to be enabled to track email opens. You can locate this setting on the Campaign Summary page for each campaign you create
How ActiveCampaign tracks campaign opens
We place an invisible, 1-pixel image in each campaign you create using custom HTML or the drag-and-drop email designer. When a contact opens your campaign and chooses to display images, that graphic is downloaded from our server and recorded as an open.
If a contact chooses not to display images, their open may still be tracked if they click a link in your campaign. Note that link tracking needs to be enabled for this option. Link tracking is enabled by default when you include a link in your campaign. You can view this setting on the Campaign Summary page for each campaign you create.
When campaign opens are tracked, ActiveCampaign records other information about the contact, such as their IP address, email client, and other key signatures. This allows us to distinguish important data about campaign open interaction and report on things like the mail client, Apple Privacy opens, Geolocation, and more.
Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) and campaign opens
Apple MPP is a feature that was released to Apple Mail users who use iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey, and watchOS8 in August 2021. With this release, Apple MPP reports 100% open rates for contacts, regardless of their actual campaign open behavior.
Fortunately, our platform can distinguish between automatic MPP opens and genuine campaign opens. We also made it easy for you to decide to include (or not include) MPP opens in campaign reporting with an "Apple Privacy" filter.
To learn more about Apple MPP, visit ActiveCampaign and Apple iOS 15 Mail Privacy Protection.
Opens reporting terminology
Below is some helpful terminology with definitions that you will find in our campaign reports:
- Total Opens: the total number of opens for a given campaign
- Unique Opens: the total number of contacts with at least one open for a given campaign
- Open Rate: the percentage of unique opens for a given campaign relative to the send amount
- Apple Privacy Opens: any open by a contact for a campaign that has been identified as stemming from the Apple Mail Privacy feature on iOS
- Verified Opens: opens that are recorded for contacts that are not identified as related to Apple Privacy-enabled devices