Why are my open rates inflated?
Apple Mail counts an email as opened before anyone reads it, so open rates run high for every sender. Here's what to trust instead.
If your open rate looks higher than you’d expect, that’s normal. Apple Mail’s privacy feature (Mail Privacy Protection) loads every email’s images as soon as it arrives, whether or not anyone reads it, and that counts as an open. It inflates open rates for every sender, not only on EmailFig.
A campaign report says so too: hover over Opened and you’ll see “Open rates are directional. Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates opens.”
What it means for you
- Open rate is still useful compared with your own past campaigns. A big change between two of your sends still means something.
- It isn’t reliable as an absolute number, so don’t compare it with industry benchmarks or other senders. How many of your readers use Apple Mail varies from list to list.
- Someone marked as having opened hasn’t necessarily seen your email.
What to trust instead
Clicks. EmailFig leaves out opens and clicks that look automated, like a company’s security filter checking every link before the email reaches its reader. To click, someone has to read your email and act on it, so click rate, click-to-open rate (CTOR) and the Links table on the campaign report are a far better sign of whether a campaign landed. See Read a campaign report and, for the formulas, Metrics defined.