Steve Jobs liked to say, "This is a revolution". But would he have said it in September 2021 when he unveiled the iOS15 update?
In the field of email marketing, we wondered about this because this update was accompanied by the launch of the Apple Mail Privacy Protection feature, which makes it impossible to reliably track the opening of an email.
6 months later, it's time to find out whether this revolution in personal data protection has indeed taken place, by measuring the impact of this feature on email marketing. In the next few lines, we'll explain everything and give you the keys to keeping control of your campaigns!
What is Apple Mail Privacy Protection anyway?
How are email opens tracked?
Do you know what a "tracking pixel" is? A new NFT? The name of the favorite in the 5th at Longchamp? Well, no, it's a technology that enables opening information to be fed back into a campaign monitoring tool. In concrete terms, it's a one-pixel square image that even those with 10/10 in each eye can't see. Inside, there's a link that identifies the campaign and the mailing. When the e-mail is opened, this link is called up and the information is fed back into the campaign management tool.
"How does it work? (Reference for over-30s)
Rather than let Michel Chevalet explain it to us, let's ask Apple directly to introduce AMPP. When you activate this feature, it masks your IP address so that senders cannot associate it with your other online activities, or determine your location. It also prevents senders from seeing whether you've opened the email they've sent you ". So far, so good.
If the definition is clear enough for the user, it's much less so for leverage professionals! Indeed, many thought that this new feature would result in the caching of all images on receipt of mail, including the opening pixel. But that would have been too simple: in some cases, images are downloaded on receipt. In others... a little later... and in still others... at the moment of opening. Faced with this lack of regularity, the statistics are no longer reliable.
Although protection is not activated by default, it is rarely declined, especially as it is offered with every update. The conversion rate should reach 99% by June, which is quite logical. Would you refuse to install a free home security system?
- In March Litmus claims that 61% of openers are on Apple Mail.
- For its part, MixPanel claims that 80% of these people have activated the AMPP feature.
What are the implications for acquisition emailing?
See that white flag waving? That's the opening rate capitulating. It's now almost impossible to rely on it to drive campaigns. As a result, the reactivity rate is also affected, and the forced break-up of these 2 closely-linked KPIs seems imminent. After Daft Punk, that's starting to sound like a lot.
According to our historical data and expertise, one email in two is affected. This ratio remains an estimate, however, as it's impossible to precisely identify the audience that has activated Apple Privacy, or to know who actually opened the e-mail. The little cachotiers!
Here are a few examples of performance trends observed among our advertisers
As these figures show, it's becoming difficult to judge the activity of a database on its openness, but difficult is not impossible!
While there's nothing to worry about for traffic and lead generation campaigns, it's a different story for campaigns initially driven by a guaranteed minimum open rate and under a CPM business model. In these cases, it's essential to work in confidence with your network of partner publishers.
* Nota Bene (a bit of Latin in the midst of all these Anglicisms!): In addition to impacting KPIs, AMPP limits the use of dynamic elements such as counters, which used to be widely used for time-limited offers. Object A/B testing is also no longer reliable.
As far as leverage is concerned, there's no white flag. But for that, we need to redefine our methods.
How can you track the performance indicators of your email acquisition campaigns?
The KPI with the wind in its sails: click-through rate!
The click-through rate is like a safe haven: today, it's the only reliable KPI. By comparing the volume of clicks and the volume of mailings, we can rely on values that we can always control. And which are therefore reliable for monitoring campaigns.
How can you apply it to your email acquisition campaigns?
- If you're a seasoned emailer , all you have to do to analyze a current campaign is compare its click-through rate with that of a similar campaign before the Apple revolution!
- This is your first operation : our track record of over 15,000 campaigns will enable us to position and analyze the attractiveness of yours.
For the more nostalgic: the trend (we're not talking eph leg)
To help our customers get through this revolution, our teams have developed a method that enables us to estimate the opening and reactivity rates of broadcast campaigns.
This is made possible thanks to the knowledge of our partner network and our tools and takes place in 3 stages:
- Excluding Apple Mail openers (estimated volume)
- Application of a ratio on openings according to the databases broadcasting the campaign - ratios calculated by our tools and updated daily.
- Presentation of estimated opening and reactivity rates, enabling you to judge a trend.
Respect for personal data and its traceability is no longer a "revolution", but a reality already firmly established in our industry and in society in general. More and more tools offering the same functionalities as Apple Privacy are now on offer, and it is rumored that Android is developing a system similar to that of its Apple competitor. At this rate, it will soon become impossible to put forward accurate opening and reactivity rates.
Aware of this, our consulting and technical teams know that tomorrow's emailing is being imagined today. With us, there are no white flags or musical separations, just hard work and concerted efforts to effectively support advertisers by overhauling their tracking methods.
