With Mail Privacy Protection, whenever a Mail app user receives an email,\u00a0Apple pre-loads a version of that email to their own proxy servers<\/b>\u00a0sometime within a few minutes or a few hours. That triggers the open tracking pixel for that email.<\/p>\n Which means: If you send emails to people using Apple Mail,\u00a0your open rates will be 100% from those recipients<\/b>, regardless of whether or not they actually go on to open the email. Apple, in essence, \u201copened\u201d the email for them behind the scenes.<\/p>\n The ramifications extend beyond open rates as well. You also won\u2019t be able to get reliable data on\u00a0open times<\/b>,\u00a0device data<\/b>, or\u00a0IP address-based geolocation<\/b> from those opens.<\/p>\n For cold emailers and email marketers who rely on open rate data for A\/B testing, measuring the efficacy of campaigns, and improving future campaigns, this isn\u2019t great news.<\/p>\n After all, it\u2019s hard to A\/B test which subject line is getting better open rates if Apple is obfuscating the data. It\u2019s hard to send a hyper-specific follow-up campaign to people who opened an email but didn\u2019t reply if opens are inaccurate.<\/p>\n Open rates are a key metric for pro email users<\/b>\u2026 and now they\u2019re less reliable than before.<\/p>\n So what\u2019s a cold emailer to do?<\/p>\n Step one: Don\u2019t panic. Step two: Think about some changes to the ways you interpret and rely on open rate data. We dug into Apple Mail Privacy Protection to see what kind of impact it\u2019s\u00a0really<\/i>\u00a0having on open rates. We also put together some strategies you can employ now that open rates aren\u2019t quite as reliable as they used to be.<\/p>\n First and foremost \u2014 we want your stats to be as accurate as possible. So as of November 2022, GMass is the first cold email platform to show you open rate stats with and without Apple’s false opens.<\/p>\n Your GMass campaign reports identify Apple’s false opens and break them out so you can see your\u00a0true<\/em> open rate \u2014 and better gauge the effectiveness of your subject line and other open-related campaign elements.<\/p>\n We wanted to see what kind of a difference Apple\u2019s new anti-tracking open rate busting is having on GMass users.<\/p>\n So we took a look at a random sample of GMass campaigns from:<\/p>\n Based on around 250,000 campaigns (with a minimum of 50 recipients per campaign), the verdict is\u2026<\/p>\n That works out to around three extra email opens in the average campaign.<\/p>\n So no, Apple Mail Privacy Protection isn\u2019t causing a seismic shift in open rates<\/strong> \u2014 at least not on this large of a scale.<\/p>\n However, we can see a more notable difference when we look at other metrics.<\/p>\n We see an even larger drop on reply-to-open rate.<\/p>\n Apple Mail Privacy Protection is absolutely\u00a0not<\/i>\u00a0the only factor that could be behind those drops. GMass users didn\u2019t send identical emails to identical lists in May 2021 and May 2022; we can\u2019t control for the content of the emails. Maybe lots of people were\u00a0nailing<\/i>\u00a0their prospecting and their calls-to-action in May of 2021 and weren\u2019t quite as sharp in May of 2022. Could be.<\/p>\n But if Apple\u2019s changes played\u00a0any<\/i>\u00a0role \u2014 which they likely did \u2014 those differences are eye-opening enough that it\u2019s worthwhile for you to take action.<\/p>\n There are a few likely reasons why Apple\u2019s privacy changes did not lead to a massive swing in GMass open numbers.<\/p>\n According to Litmus\u2019s\u00a0latest data<\/a>, more than 58% of emails are now opened with Apple Mail. As adoption increases, open rate numbers will grow less reliable.<\/p>\n But even stepping outside of the Apple bubble,\u00a0more aggressive privacy measures aren\u2019t going anywhere<\/b>.<\/p>\n These privacy changes are great for PR and marketing. (Cynically, it also gives the huge tech companies even more control and targeted advertising power.)<\/p>\n So other tech behemoths will likely introduce their own, similar privacy protection measures. The winds are blowing toward privacy. Which is a good thing on a macro level\u2026 albeit one that\u2019s frustrating for all of us who rely on non-invasive analytics like open rates.<\/p>\n It\u2019s wise to start taking measures to blunt the effect of unreliable open rates now \u2014 for the sake of both the present and the future.<\/p>\n Open rates are important, absolutely. But\u00a0they\u2019re just the first step in the cold email process<\/b>. In virtually all\u00a0cold email<\/a>\u00a0scenarios, the ultimate action you want someone to take isn\u2019t opening your email \u2014 it\u2019s clicking or replying.<\/p>\n And\u00a0clicks and replies are still reliable analytics<\/b>; there\u2019s nothing in Apple\u2019s new privacy measures that messes with those.<\/p>\n So here are six strategies you can employ to bias toward clicks and replies now that Apple Mail Privacy Protection is affecting the veracity of open rates.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll start here by talking about one of the top uses for open rates:\u00a0A\/B testing<\/a>\u00a0on subject lines. It\u2019s hard to know which subject line is really yielding more opens when Apple is automatically \u201copening\u201d your emails.<\/p>\n So it\u2019s time to consider\u00a0A\/B testing your subject line on clicks or replies<\/b>.<\/p>\n After all, the goal of a good subject line is to get someone to open the email\u2026 but then also to take an action inside of your email. An effective subject line entices an open \u2014 while also properly setting expectations and\/or building excitement for what\u2019s inside the email.<\/p>\n With A\/B tests going forward, rather than selecting the \u201cwinning\u201d subject line on opens,\u00a0select it based on your desired action<\/b>\u00a0(click or reply).<\/p>\n Test out two subject lines with the same email body. See which subject line brings in more action (clicks or replies), then use that subject line for the rest of your campaign.<\/p>\n One difference here: You\u00a0may need to use larger test samples<\/b>\u00a0for this to work. If you\u2019re used to (for example) testing subject lines on 30% of your audience, then sending the winner to the remaining 70%, you may need to bump it up to 50%-50%. Why? Clicks and replies are less frequent than opens, so you\u2019ll need that bigger sample to see a significant difference.<\/p>\n To set this up in GMass, first create your campaign as you normally do in the Gmail compose window. Use GMass\u2019s\u00a0spintax<\/a>\u00a0in your subject line to set up the different subject line variations.<\/p>\n Head into the GMass settings for the campaign. In the Advanced section,\u00a0check the box for A\/B testing<\/b>.<\/p>\n Set the percentage to 50%. You also may want to add a longer testing window here; I went with six hours.<\/p>\n GMass will automatically send the winner to the remainder of your list of you choose \u201cAutomatic.\u201d I chose Automatic, then set my metric to replies.<\/p>\n Now when you send the campaign, you\u2019ll optimize your subject line based on replies (not the standard measure of opens).<\/p>\n As we just covered, one of the primary situations where open rates come into play is in subject line testing. So you could do what we described and A\/B test subject lines on other metrics.<\/p>\n Or you could\u00a0take steps to minimize the impact of subject lines at all<\/b>.<\/p>\n One unique GMass feature cold emailers love is the ability to\u00a0send new campaigns as replies to previous emails<\/a>.<\/p>\n With this feature, GMass will look for your last email with each person on your list and\u00a0send your new campaign as a reply to that prior conversation<\/b>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s one of those cold email features that more closely simulates how you\u2019d reach out to someone individually. And for our purposes here, it eliminates the need to worry about subject lines.<\/p>\n Now\u2026 this obviously won\u2019t work if you\u2019re doing cold outreach to people you\u2019ve never emailed before. In those cases, they\u00a0will<\/i>\u00a0get your new email with its new subject line. But when you\u2019re reaching out to prior contacts, when you\u2019re following up, and when you\u2019re re-marketing to warm leads \u2014 sending a new campaign as a reply is a great option.<\/p>\n To send a new campaign as replies in GMass, compose your new campaign in the Gmail campaign window.<\/p>\n Then, in the GMass settings, go to the Advanced section. Choose to Send as \u201cReplies.\u201d You can send as a reply to your last conversation with each recipient, or as a reply to a previous GMass campaign you once sent.<\/p>\n Apple is messing around with the accuracy of your open rate data.\u00a0Might as well not make things worse.<\/b><\/p>\n The\u00a0GMass Tracker Blocker<\/a>\u00a0is a Chrome extension (separate from the GMass Chrome extension) which you can use to\u00a0make sure you aren\u2019t causing false opens on your own campaigns<\/b>.<\/p>\n There are lots of ways you can trigger false opens: Opening an email in your Sent folder, checking a bounce notification, creating drafts of your campaign then opening one for editing, and more.<\/p>\n The Tracker Blocker blocks the GMass tracking pixel from firing when you open emails. That way, nothing\u00a0you<\/i>\u00a0do will skew your stats.<\/p>\n This won\u2019t undo or reverse anything Apple is doing. But it\u2019s a proactive step you can take to\u00a0make sure you aren\u2019t joining with Apple to skew your open rates<\/b>.<\/p>\n You can download the\u00a0Tracker Blocker from the Chrome Web Store<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the Apple Mail Privacy Protection world, clicks become a more important metric \u2014 since we know we can trust them.<\/p>\n And that might be tough for you\u2026 because we know some cold emailers love to\u00a0turn off click tracking<\/a>.<\/p>\n One of the reasons: If you\u2019re using a shared click tracking domain, your email deliverability can be affected by other people using that same domain.<\/p>\n And if you don\u2019t have a custom tracking domain, you will be sharing your tracking domain. We work vigilantly here at GMass to keep our tracking domains as pristine as possible \u2014 but still, shared is shared.<\/p>\n So\u00a0rather than turning off click tracking, you can set up your own custom tracking domain<\/b>. That way, you aren\u2019t sharing the click tracking domain with any other emailers who might bring down your reputation.<\/p>\n Plus, a custom tracking domain is great for branding (and for making your email seem one-on-one) \u2014 when someone mouses over the link, they\u2019ll still see your domain (or a similar domain).<\/p>\n We won\u2019t go into the step-by-step process of changing DNS records here; you\u2019re can read up on that in our walkthrough of setting up a\u00a0custom tracking domain<\/a>\u00a0in GMass.<\/p>\n Essentially, it\u2019s just a\u00a0two-step process<\/b>:<\/p>\n When you\u2019re setting up\u00a0auto follow-up sequences<\/a>\u00a0in GMass, you choose what recipient action ends the sequence: Opening one of your emails, clicking, or replying.<\/p>\n In the Apple Mail Privacy Protection world,\u00a0it\u2019s best to choose \u201cNo Click\u201d or \u201cNo Reply\u201d rather than \u201cNo Open\u201d<\/b>\u00a0for the end trigger. Since Apple is automatically opening emails, your sequence would stop to all Apple users if you choose to use Opens as the criteria for whether to continue sending or to stop.<\/p>\n When you\u2019re setting up an auto follow-up sequence in the GMass settings, there\u2019s a dropdown box for each email where you specify the conditions for sending. Choose to send the email if there\u2019s \u201cNo Click\u201d or \u201cNo Reply\u201d \u2014 not \u201cNo Open.\u201d<\/p>\n For our last strategy, we\u2019ll look at a spot where you can continue to rely on open rate data.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re not familiar with GMass\u2019s\u00a0segmentation feature<\/a>, you can create new campaigns based on recipients\u2019 action (or inaction) in a prior campaign. For instance, you can create a new list of everyone who replied to a prior campaign, who clicked, who opened, who opened but didn\u2019t reply, and more.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/mailprivacy-ios-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/mailprivacy-desktop-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nGMass Is the First Cold Email Platform to Show You Your Open Rates With and Without Apple’s False Opens<\/h2>\n
![\"Apple](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/AMPP-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Effect of Apple Mail Privacy Protection on Open Rates, Based on 250K+ GMass Emails<\/h2>\n
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Why isn\u2019t Apple Mail Privacy Protection having a huge effect on overall GMass open rates?<\/h3>\n
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So\u2026 what do we make of these year-to-year differences?<\/h3>\n
6 Cold Email Strategies in the Mail Privacy Protection Era<\/h2>\n
A\/B test subject lines on clicks or replies<\/h3>\n
Setting up an A\/B test for subject lines using click or replies as the deciding metric<\/h4>\n
![\"Setting](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/abtest-setup-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"A\/B](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/abtest-settings-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSend campaigns as replies to your last email to blunt the impact of subject lines<\/h3>\n
Setting up \u201csend as replies to a prior campaign\u201d in GMass<\/h4>\n
![\"Send](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/sendas-replies-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nUse the GMass Tracker Blocker to make sure not to further skew stats<\/h3>\n
![\"Tracker](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/trackerblocker-tinified.png\"){kind=tracking}
<\/a><\/p>\nSet up a custom tracking domain (to solidify your click tracking)<\/h3>\n
Setting up a custom tracking domain in GMass<\/h4>\n
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![\"Setting](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/customtrackingdomai-tinified.png\"){kind=tracking}
<\/a><\/p>\nEnd auto follow-up sequences on reply or click, not open<\/h3>\n
Setting up auto follow-up sequences that end with a click or a reply<\/h4>\n
![\"End](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/autofollowup-endtrigger-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSegmenting for follow-up campaigns on open-based stats is still fine<\/h3>\n
![\"Segmented](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/segmentation-followup-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n