What Is Open Rate? A Metric That Became Unreliable

In plain English

Opens are measured by a tracking pixel loading, which was always approximate and is now substantially unreliable. Privacy features pre-load images, registering opens nobody performed.

The result is inflated and noisy numbers. Open rate is still worth watching as a trend within your own sending, and it should not be a headline metric or a basis for decisions.

What to know

Pixel-based

Requires images to load.

Inflated by privacy features

Automatic pre-loading counts as an open.

Directionally useful

Large swings still mean something.

Not a decision metric

Clicks and revenue are.

Why it matters

Any email programme still optimising subject lines against open rate is optimising against noise. Click and conversion data survived the privacy changes; opens largely did not.

Common mistakes

×Reporting open rate as the primary metric.

×A/B testing subject lines on opens alone.

×Comparing open rates before and after privacy changes.

×Suppressing subscribers based on opens rather than clicks.

FAQs

Is open rate useless now?

Not useless, but inflated and noisy. Use clicks for decisions.

What should replace it?

Click-through rate and revenue per send.

WRITTEN BY TARIQ SALLAM

Marketing Consultant. Entrepreneur. Content Creator.

I'm a marketing consultant, entrepreneur and content creator. I help businesses grow through practical marketing, websites, SEO, content and AI.

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