Open rates are one of the most common ways to measure how your audience is engaging with your emails—but they’re not always accurate. Here’s what you need to know.

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How Open Rates Work

Open rates are tracked by placing a tiny invisible image (called a tracking pixel) in your email.

  • When the email is opened and images are loaded, the pixel is triggered.
  • That counts as an “open.”

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Why Open Rates Aren’t Always Reliable

Open rates can give you a general sense of engagement—but they aren’t perfect.

Reasons they can be inaccurate:

  • Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP): Apple pre-loads email content (including the pixel), making it seem like people opened your email even if they didn’t.
  • Some users never load images, so their opens aren’t tracked.
  • Some systems block tracking pixels, meaning legitimate opens don’t get counted.

Open rates are best used to identify big trends, not exact behavior.

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What’s More Reliable?

While open rates are useful, more reliable engagement metrics include:

  • Click rates – when someone clicks a link in your email
  • Unsubscribe rates – if people are opting out, your content may not be landing well
  • Bounce and complaint rates – help track deliverability and sender reputation

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Tips for Better Insights

  • Focus on calls to action and link clicks when measuring email performance.
  • Use tagging and segmentation to send relevant emails and improve actual engagement.
  • Track metrics over time to see what’s working and where you can improve.

Still have questions about email analytics?
Reach out to support@churchspace.co.