Paved reposted this
The internet is an amazing place, full of the best and worst of humanity. I met my husband on Craigslist, found my dogs on Petfinder, and applied for jobs using this very website! Yet, it is this exact site that seems to be the source of so much misinformation, persistent myths, and outright lies. Recently, the rumor mill has been abuzz with the assertion that Gmail is (or will be) blocking open tracking, effectively disrupting email marketing as we know it. This is due to a post making the rounds, which features a screenshot of a message being viewed in Gmail with a banner that says, "Images in this message are hidden. This message might be suspicious or spam." The poster claims that Gmail "just permanently broke email tracking...for everyone". Big, if true! So how worried should you be?! Not very! That warning isn't new, or just about open tracking pixels. Let's untangle what's really going on: 🦗 "Opens" aren't really opens. They're pixel loads. When your ESP reports on opens, they're actually telling you how many email addresses loaded a 1x1 invisible image, with the assumption being that if the image loaded, it's because a person looked at the email. This metric has always been flawed because not everyone loads images, and not every image load comes from somebody actually opening your mail. Especially in a post-Apple MPP world (where Apple mail app users can choose to have all images loaded whether the message is actually opened), opens are likely to be inflated and inaccurate. They are, however, a decent gauge of potential inbox placement because images aren't typically fetched for mail in the spam folder. To be fair, this warning from Gmail would break open tracking (after all, no image loads, no opens tracked), but this warning isn't about all senders, it's about THIS sender. 🦗 See, Gmail actually outlines this exact situation in their own documentation, saying "Sometimes, senders may know whether you've opened an email that has an image. Gmail scans every message for suspicious content. If Gmail thinks that a sender or message is suspicious, images aren’t shown and you’ll be asked if you want to see the images." Gmail isn't concerned about open tracking in general, they're just being protective of user activity when they think the sender has nefarious purposes. 🦗 In fact, Gmail even recommends open tracking. From their docs again, "To help ensure recipients are engaged: •Make sure recipients opt in to get messages from you. •Confirm each recipient's email address before subscribing them. •Periodically send messages to confirm that recipients want to stay subscribed. •Consider unsubscribing recipients who don’t open or read your messages." They are literally TELLING YOU to pay attention to who is opening your messages, they quite obviously support open tracking. 🦗 If you follow best practices, nothing can hold you down! If people really want your mail, you have no reason to fret or frown. #deliverability #gmail #lies