{"id":338,"date":"2016-05-18T19:13:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T19:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/?p=338"},"modified":"2025-10-22T17:20:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T17:20:00","slug":"why-your-gmail-open-tracking-statistics-may-be-skewed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/why-your-gmail-open-tracking-statistics-may-be-skewed\/","title":{"rendered":"Why your Gmail open tracking statistics may be skewed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

One of the most frequent emails I answer from users is:<\/p>\n

I was testing your open-tracking, and I know that certain emails weren’t opened, but GMass still reports them as having been opened.<\/span><\/p>\n

99% of the time this is because the user opened his own sent emails from the Sent Mail<\/strong> folder in Gmail. Doing so triggers the download of the open-tracking pixel<\/strong>, which is how GMass, or any email marketing system, knows if an email is opened. Opening the email up from the Sent Mail<\/strong> folder is equivalent to the recipient opening the email from his\/her own Inbox.
\n
\n<\/i>Additionally, if a particular email address bounces, and you open up the bounce notification<\/strong>, and the original email is underneath, then an open could be triggered also because you’re now viewing the original email underneath.<\/p>\n

Another scenario: you set GMass to just create Drafts<\/a> for a campaign rather than actually send the emails. You then open each Draft<\/strong> individually to customize it. GMass will count you opening the Draft<\/strong> as the recipient opening the email.<\/p>\n

How do we solve this?<\/h3>\n

As of March 2022, we solved with our companion Chrome extension, Tracker Blocker<\/a>. The extension will block “opens” from registering on your own emails. We also automatically remove opens from bounce notifications, even if you don’t have Tracker Blocker installed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most frequent emails I answer from users is: I was testing your open-tracking, and I know that certain emails weren’t opened, but GMass still reports\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4267,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analytics","category-tracking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nWhy your Gmail open tracking statistics may be skewed<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/why-your-gmail-open-tracking-statistics-may-be-skewed\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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