Understanding Open & Click Tracking: Apple MPP vs Traditional Pixels
An easy-to-understand breakdown of how email open tracking works, what Apple Mail Privacy Protection changed, and why click-through rates are your most reliable metric.
Email tracking metrics help marketers measure campaign performance. Understanding how open tracking works helps you evaluate your real campaign success.
How Traditional Email Open Tracking Works
Open tracking relies on an invisible 1x1 pixel image embedded at the bottom of the email HTML code. When a recipient opens the email and loads images, their email app requests the 1x1 image from the server, recording an "open".
What Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) Changed
In iOS 15, Apple introduced Mail Privacy Protection (MPP). Apple devices now automatically preload email images on secure proxy servers before the user even opens the email.
This makes open rates appear artificially inflated (often reporting 60% to 80% open rates) for Apple Mail users.
The Solution: Focus on Click-Through Rates (CTR)
Because open rates can be artificially inflated by automated image preloading, experienced marketers focus on Click-Through Rate (CTR). A link click represents definitive human interaction that cannot be faked by proxy servers!
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