Open Rates Not Accurate

[ShelleyD883]

Our open rates include recipients who never opened the actual email.  For example, I am on the list and if I open my gmail on my phone or on my computer, it registers as though I opened the email and read it.  This is in accurate and I have reported to Constant Contact with no real explanation other than some browsers open emails to scan for viruses. If this is the case, then their programming should account for this, should it not.

I am really considering using another service my reports contain inaccurate data which is really good for nothing.

Anyone else have this issue?

[William_A]

Hello @ShelleyD883 ,

If the receiving email program or domain runs any security and privacy elements that "open" and "click" in emails to check for malware, this can affect that reporting. This is something that all ESPs' reporting and tracking tools are affected by nowadays. Setting up self-authentication for your account, if you have your own domain, can help this with some email programs, as they'll default to trusting your emails more. However, some programs and networks will simply ignore this and perform their open and click functionalities anyways. 

If you have further questions on these elements, please see the following articles:

• Apple Mail's privacy policies and how they can affect you
• Email open rates
• How opens are tracked
• Email click rates

[JoanL4]

We have the opposite problem. One of our co-workers opens all of the emails we send to two email accounts, and Constant Contact shows he only opened 1 since December. Very inaccurate. We sent a test email today to both accounts, he opened both emails, and today his account shows those emails opened. 

[William_A]

Hello @JoanL4 ,

Does the coworker opening these emails always allow / prompt his email program to download images? Since opens are tracked based on the 1x1 pxel transparent image we include with each, email programs that don't allow images to display until prompted will end up not giving us this report data. Outlook programs are especially particular about being prompted to show images each time an email is opened.

[JoanL4]

I checked and the emails have been going into junk mail, so he has been opening emails from within junk mail, which does not display images. He is going to begin to mark valid emails in his junk folder as safe sender so that they go into his inbox. 

Interesting.  Thanks for the insight!