Email types & metrics
Open rate
The share of delivered emails recorded as opened. Increasingly imprecise due to privacy features that pre-fetch images regardless of a real open.
How opens are tracked
Open tracking adds a tiny invisible image to each email. When the image loads, the open is recorded. If images are blocked, no open is recorded even when the email was read.
Why open rates got less reliable
Apple Mail Privacy Protection loads images for every email automatically, whether or not anyone reads them, so opens from Apple Mail users are inflated. Other clients and security scanners do similar things.
Open rate is still useful for spotting trends and sudden drops, which can signal a deliverability problem. It’s a poor way to judge whether a campaign worked.
Better metrics to watch
Clicks, replies and conversions are much harder to fake. In MailCraft, open tracking can be turned on or off for each sending domain, and opens and clicks are reported for every email and campaign.
Let MailCraft handle the details
Authentication, bounces, complaints and suppression are built in. Start free with 3,000 emails a month, no credit card required.
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Full glossaryEmail types & metrics
Click-through rate (CTR)
The share of delivered emails that received at least one click on a tracked link — a stronger engagement signal than open rate.
Deliverability
Engagement rate
How often recipients open, click, or otherwise interact with your email — a primary signal mailbox providers use to decide future inbox placement.
Sending & delivery events
Webhook
An HTTP callback your application receives in real time when an event happens — a delivery, open, click, bounce or complaint — instead of polling for status.