How to track email opens in campaigns

This article explains how Snov.io’s open tracking works, how to enable it in your email campaigns, and how to monitor the open rate in statistics and reports.

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Open tracking is useful in email campaigns because you can:

• Set up a sequence based on whether or not the recipient has opened the previous email using conditional triggers
• Monitor the open rate as one of the KPIs in your campaigns and Reports dashboard
• Get real-time notifications when recipients open your emails

How open tracking works (Magic pixel)

Common tracking methods use a tiny image in the email to detect when the recipient opens it. Google flags emails containing this type of tracking as “suspicious”. This makes this method unreliable when sending campaigns to Gmail addresses.

Snov.io uses its own open tracking technology, Magic pixel. This unique tracking pixel seamlessly blends into your email content. Due to its properties, it is invisible to both the end recipient and provider’s spam filters. This helps tracked emails avoid detection and make sure your recipients don’t see “spam alerts” in their inbox.

Remember: Snov.io’s tracking pixel reduces the chance of your emails being flagged as suspicious by Gmail. But there are still other factors that can trigger spam filters or affect tracking accuracy.

1. By default, the tracking uses a shared domain, which means other users with the same domain may affect your email placement (inbox or spam).

Solution: Add a custom tracking domain to avoid the risks of using a shared domain. Using the subdomain belonging to the same domain as a sender can improve deliverability. But the final result also depends on other factors as well. Do regular deliverability tests to detect possible email issues and get personalized recommendations on how to fix them.

2. Some email applications or spam filters may cause false opens when they scan incoming emails before they reach the inbox.

Solution: To ensure accurate email open statistics, Snov.io automatically filters out opens made by bots. False open detection is enabled by default for  in your account settings.

How to enable open tracking

You can turn on tracking for emails sent through Snov.io campaigns or for single emails sent from a prospect’s profile.

To enable open tracking in campaigns, go to Step 3 of the campaign creation process (Sending options). In the Tracking settings, check the Track opens option. You can enable or disable open tracking for active campaigns as well. Pause the campaign, go to the Edit mode, and update the tracking settings.

How to monitor email open rate

You can track the total open rate and the number of email opens in your campaign’s statistics. To view this data, open the campaign from the campaign list and go to the Statistics tab.

Check the Email opens metric: it shows the percentage and the number of recipients who opened your email at least once during the selected time period (adjust it on the right).

The open rate is calculated this way: the number of email opens is divided by the total number of emails delivered.

For example: If your campaign delivers 100 emails and 50 are opened, the open rate would be 50%. The total open rate only includes unique opens. Multiple opens from the same recipient are not taken into account.

When a recipient opens your email, this action is also recorded in the Email opens column on the Recipients tab. To get a list of recipients who have opened your emails, use the Filter menu on the right.

On the Reports dashboard, you can track overall KPIs for your campaigns including the Open rate. You can also export lists of recipients who opened your emails in multiple campaigns based on chosen filters.

Open rate helps you know the effectiveness of your subject lines and intro sentences. Test and refine these elements for better email engagement.

FAQs

Here are some frequently asked questions about open rates, along with their answers.

1) How can I know if the open tracking is on or off in my ongoing campaign?

Open tracking is disabled by default. To enable it, update the campaign’s tracking settings.

When open tracking is enabled, the statistics will show the open rate percentage. If it’s disabled, a dash (–) will appear instead, indicating that open tracking is off and no data is being collected.

2) If the statistics show that a recipient has opened my email multiple times, how can I be sure it’s accurate?

Snov.io automatically detects opens made by bots, rather than actual recipients, and does not count them. Check if the false open detection is enabled in your account settings. Also, if your recipient manually forwards the email to a teammate, any subsequent opens by additional recipients will be added to the email opens statistics.

3) Why is my open rate so low? How can I improve it?

While open rates are not the best metric to monitor engagement, it still may serve as a useful indicator of certain issues in your settings or email content. If you notice a decrease in the open rates, it’s a sign that you should review your sending schedule, as well as the content of your emails (such as the subject line).

If you need assistance with something that we haven’t covered in this article, please contact us at help@snov.io or through our live support chat.