Track Email Opens

Introduction

In this article, you will learn how to track email opens in BetterMerge. Open tracking allows you to monitor whether recipients have opened your emails and view basic engagement data. However, it has technical limitations that can affect accuracy.

Note

This feature is available on every plan, including Free. See Pricing Plans.

How to Enable Email Open Tracking

To enable open tracking:

1. Create a new campaign, or open a draft.
2. Open the Delivery tab.
3. Under Tracking, turn on Track email opens.

Tracking settings are locked once a campaign has started, so turn them on before you click Start campaign.

How to View Open Tracking Reports

You can view open tracking reports in two ways:

1. Campaign report - In the web app or the Google Sheets add-on, click Campaigns in the left menu, open the campaign, and select the Tracking logs tab. Choose the Opens filter to see only opens. For the totals, see Unique opens on the Overview tab. See View tracking logs.
2. Google Sheets - In the Google Sheet storing your email list, the STATUS (Campaign name) column shows OPENED for recipients who have opened the email. The LOGS (Campaign name) column shows the date and time of each open.

How Email Open Tracking Works

Email open tracking relies on pixel-based tracking, where a small, invisible 1x1 pixel image is embedded in the email. When the recipient downloads images, the tracking pixel loads, recording an “open.”

Technical limitations:

• Image blocking - Some email clients block images by default, preventing tracking.
• Email provider caching - Providers like Gmail may cache images, causing false opens or preventing multiple opens from being recorded.
• Multiple opens - Every image load shows up in the Tracking Logs, but each recipient only adds to your open total once.
• Automated image loads - Privacy proxies and security systems can trigger a false open, since BetterMerge can’t confirm the recipient personally opened the email.

Pros and Cons of Open Tracking

Pros:

• Provides basic engagement insights.
• Helps identify active and inactive recipients.

Cons:

• Inaccurate due to image blocking and caching.
• Cannot track opens from plain-text emails.
• Automated image loads can inflate the number of recipients reported as having opened.

Best Practices for Reliable Tracking

• Use click tracking - Link clicks provide more accurate engagement data.
• Add other images - Including additional images increases the likelihood of the tracking pixel being loaded.
• Combine tracking methods - Use both open and click tracking for better insights.

Conclusion

Email open tracking in BetterMerge offers a general indication of recipient engagement but is subject to technical limitations. For more accurate insights, it is recommended to combine open tracking with click tracking and other engagement metrics.