Tracking issues with iOS: which properties still updated?

[PietroCalafiore]

Hello!

Since 16th of August, we experienced a huge drop in the Open Rate of all emails. We think this is due to an Apple Privacy Policy Update.

We see this from the email report Hubspot automatically pulls out.

Knowing how many contacts open an email is one to target our database.

So, my question is: are the other properties (like Last Marketing Email Open date, for example) being affected by this new policy, as far as you know? Because - maybe - we don't see a real OR in the email, but Hubspot knows if a contact opened an email.

Thanks.

[kvlschaefer · Accepted solution]

Hi @PietroCalafiore,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community!

Open rates are less reliable because all opens through an iOS device (no matter the email client) will be "opened" by Apple. You can continue to use the open rate metric in HubSpot, but we will not recommend it for critical tactics.

• For example, if a customer connects their Gmail account to the Apple mail app on their iPhone, Apple will automatically trigger an email open for mail delivered to that device.

I wanted to share these articles referring iOS 15:

• How Apple's iOS 15 Could Impact Email Marketers: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-apples-ios-15-could-impact-email-marketersHow 
• How HubSpot's Email Team is Responding to iOS 15: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-hubspots-email-team-is-responding-to-ios-15
• Apple announced mail privacy protection, how will this affect emails sent through HubSpot?: https://community.hubspot.com/t5/Email-Marketing-Tool/Apple-announced-mail-privacy-protection-how-wi...
• How Apple iOS 15 is Impacting Email Marketers [New Data]: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/apple-ios-15-email-marketing-impact-data

It seems that the iOS privacy changes affect opens, but not clicks However, it can affect click-through rates as that is calculated by clicks/opens. 

I would recommend having a read through those articles if you're interested to know more about these changes. It also provides some recommendations on other metrics you could use.

I hope this helps!

Best,

Kristen