How to enable and disable tracking options

All email tracking is enabled by default in MailerLite. If you wish to disable any tracking for a particular campaign or automation email, you can do so before sending.

There are 3 kinds of tracking you can enable/disable in your email campaigns:

1. Opens tracking - Tracks opens using an invisible beacon embedded in your campaign.

2. E-commerce link tracking - Appears when you have a Shopify, Woocommerce, BigCommerce, or PrestaShop integration and tracks purchases made by subscribers who followed an e-commerce link in your campaign.

3. Google Analytics - Tracks your campaign metrics in Google Analytics.

To enable/disable tracking on your campaign:

1. Navigate to the Campaigns page.

2. Click Create campaign.

3. Under Tracking options select or deselect the tracking options you wish to enable/disable.

To enable/disable tracking options on an automation email:

1. Navigate to the automation you wish to apply these settings to and click Edit.

2. Pause your workflow by toggling it to OFF. (Active workflows can't be edited).

3. Click to select the email step you wish to edit.

4. In the sidebar, select or deselect the tracking options you wish to enable/disable.

When you disable opens tracking, you’ll no longer be able to use certain features that rely on opens to function.

These include:

• A/B split campaigns based on opens (A/B split test campaigns can still be run based on clicks)

• Auto resend campaigns based on opens (Auto resend campaigns can still be sent based on clicks)

• Opens by location

• Automation condition: Was/was not opened

• Countdown timers

By focusing your attention on clicks rather than opens, you have a clearer understanding of which subscribers take action to engage with your content.

Additionally, in the age of privacy, some subscribers find comfort in their favorite companies and brands opting not to track their location and behavior.

The biggest incentive to disable opens tracking is if you have a lot of Apple Mail users on your subscriber list. Apple Mail has a privacy feature called Apple Mail Privacy Protection that inhibits senders (email marketers) from seeing whether or not recipients opened their emails.

This new privacy feature works by pre-loading content—including tracking pixels—before someone even opens the email. To you, the sender, this will appear as if the email was opened, even if the subscriber never does.

If you’ve noticed your open rates have skyrocketed since September 20th 2021, this may be a result of skewed opens tracking.

While Apple Mail Privacy Protection may affect your campaign reports, it will not affect your deliverability. If you have a lot of Apple users on your subscriber list, we recommend disabling opens tracking or temporarily excluding them from campaign types that rely on opens to function such as A/B tests and auto resend campaigns.

Check out our blog post, 9 essential email marketing metrics and how to improve them for tips on improving your metrics!

All email tracking is enabled by default in MailerLite. If you wish to disable any tracking for a particular campaign or automation email, you can do so before sending.

There are 3 kinds of tracking you can enable/disable in your email campaigns:

1. Opens tracking - Tracks opens using an invisible beacon embedded in your campaign.

2. E-commerce link tracking - Tracks e-commerce purchases made by subscribers who followed an e-commerce link in your campaign.

3. Google Analytics - Tracks your campaign metrics in Google Analytics.

To enable/disable tracking on your campaign:

1. Navigate to the Campaigns page.

2. Click Create campaign.

3. Under Tracking options click Show options.

4. Select or deselect the tracking option you wish to enable/disable.

To enable/disable tracking options on an automation email:

1. Navigate to the automation you wish to apply these settings to and click Edit.

2. Pause your workflow by toggling it to OFF. (Active workflows can't be edited).

3. Click to select the email step you wish to edit.

4. In the sidebar, scroll to Tracking options and select or deselect the tracking option you wish to enable/disable.

When you disable opens tracking, you’ll no longer be able to use certain features that rely on opens to function. These include:

• A/B split campaigns based on opens (A/B split test campaigns can still be run based on clicks)

• Auto resend campaigns based on opens (Auto resend campaigns can still be sent based on clicks)

• Opens by location

• Automation condition: Was/was not opened

• Countdown timers

If you want to apply default tracking options for all future campaigns, you can do so in your Default settings:

1. Navigate to the Account settings page followed by the Default settings tab.

2. Scroll down to Tracking options and select/deselect the tracking options you wish to enable/disable by default.

1. Click Save.

By focusing your attention to clicks rather than opens, you have a clearer understanding of which subscribers take action to engage with your content.

Additionally, in the age of privacy, some subscribers find comfort in their favorite companies and brands opting not to track their location and behaviour.

The biggest incentive to disable opens tracking is if you have a lot of Apple Mail users on your subscriber list. Apple Mail has a privacy feature called Apple Mail Privacy Protection that inhibits senders (email marketers) from seeing whether or not recipients opened their emails.

This new privacy feature works by pre-loading content—including tracking pixels—before someone even opens the email. To you, the sender, this will appear as if the email was opened, even if the subscriber never does.

If you’ve noticed your open rates have skyrocketed since September 20th 2021, this may be a result of skewed opens tracking.

While Apple Mail Privacy Protection may affect your campaign reports, it will not affect your deliverability. If you have a lot of Apple users on your subscriber list, we recommend disabling opens tracking or temporarily excluding them from campaign types that rely on opens to function such as A/B tests and auto resend campaigns.

To identify which users are reading your campaigns from an Apple client:

1. Navigate to the Subscribers page.

2. Use the dropdown menu to select the Email client filter followed by Opened in email app.

3. Choose the email client you wish to filter out, in this case Apple Mail.

Using this filter to create a segment allows you to exclude Apple Mail users from things like A/B split test campaigns or removes them from the equation when cleaning up inactive subscribers.

However, this is not an effective long term strategy and should only be viewed as a temporary solution to evaluate data. Over the next year as the email marketing industry adapts to changes like Apple Mail Privacy Protection, the way we prioritize different metrics and evaluate data will change as well.