Tracking Issues Apollo.io & HubSpot

[FuturAlly]

Hi Community! 

I have an issue with the email tracking and the integration with Apollo.io 

I am using both the HubSpot sales extension and the Apollo extension to keep track of my email outreach. 

So I have log and track enabled with HubSpot

However, it seems that every time I open my "Emails" tab in the Apollo dashboard, an open event is registered for all the contacts visible in the apollo dashboard.

Here is a screenshot of the Apollo dashboard:

You can see the correct open events being registered on the right.

Now just after opening that page, I check in Hubspot and you can see that the contacts visible in the Apollo dashboard have all been updated with an open event matching the exact time I loaded the Apollo dashboard.

It somehow seems the HubSpot pixel is downloading when I open the Apollo dashboard - which is then registering an open event within HubSpot.

I talked to apollo about this but after long exchanges, they told me I should contact Hubspot.

I am not sure this is fixable in any settings and might be a bug with the integration. But I would greatly appreciate any help! 

Thanks!

Antoine

[MiaSrebrnjak]

After working together with a product expert, we came to the following conclusion:

TL;DR: This is an issue caused by the interference of the 2 email tracking applications, Apollo and HubSpot Sales.

How HubSpot Sales works

HubSpot Sales embeds a 1x1 pixel invisible image into a message when it is sent. When the email is opened and the images load, we are able to associate that tracking pixel with the recipient of the email and then display that as an open. In our Chrome extension we have a built in "feature" that will block these open notifications from coming through if the user opens up an email in Gmail in a Chrome browser that has our extension enabled. Similarly, our Outlook Desktop add-in will block notifications from users opening their own tracked emails if they open them in Outlook with our plugin enabled. 

Using HubSpot Sales in combination with other Sales extension 

If users open up sales emails in another platforms that don't have either of those sales extensions installed, they'll likely trigger self open notifications. The only way to try to prevent these from coming through is by having the user block their IP address. This will only work if the customer has a static IP address (instructions here). Truth be told, static IPs aren't very common nowadays, as most internet providers use dynamic IPs. 

Conclusion 

As this problem stems from an interference with a different application and both applications work as designed on their own, there isn't much we can do on our end.

The HubSpot tracking pixel is loading in Apollo and triggering an email open notification. It seems like Apollo is loading the emails in the background, which also loads the tracking pixel and triggers opens on all of them. If there's a way to prevent Apollo from screening the emails in the background and stop images from automatically downloading, you may be able to fix the tracking issue. 

Ultimately, it's probably best to only use one email tracking software and disable the second one. 

Hope this helps,

Mia

[MiaSrebrnjak]

Hi @FuturAlly,

Thank you for reaching out and the information you've provided above. We will have a deeper look at these irregularities with our Support team and will get back to you as soon as possible. 

Thanks,

Mia

[DGani]

has this been resolved. hubspot tracking is pretty poor and i would prefer to use apollo but cannot 

[MiaSrebrnjak]

Hi @DGani, I apologize for the delay in my reply. I'm afraid there haven't been any updates here. It's still best to only use one email tracking software and disable the second one.  

Thank you for your understanding. 

Mia, Community team