Hello Apple MPP, Goodbye Open Rates: Why Marketers Must Move Beyond Opens

Since Apple introduced Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), its impact has only intensified, making open rates increasingly unreliable in today’s email marketing landscape.

Apple’s recent privacy and tracking changes – called Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) – block email senders from capturing information about the user, including when they opened an email and what IP address they’re coming from.

With many users continuing to opt in to Apple’s MPP, open rates are going out the window as a metric of engagement. Instead, marketers should focus on better email deliverability practices and methods like personalized acquisition email marketing and a solid identity graph for each customer.

Have Open Rates Ever Really Worked?

Let’s be honest, open rate reporting has never been completely reliable as a tactic.

A number of things – anti-spam filters, autoresponders, automatic image uploads, and the ability to disable open tracking – can all warp open rates. Apple MPP might just be the push marketers needed to adopt more accurate methods of reporting and tracking email engagement.

What’s Apple’s MPP?

The Apple MPP feature launched on September 20, 2021, with iOS 15 and later with macOS 12 Monterey for the Mac.

MPP works for any email opened from the Apple Mail app on any Apple device, no matter what email provider you’re signing in with. Whether Gmail, Yahoo!, or Outlook – as long as you’ve signed in on the Apple Mail app and opted in to protect your privacy, MPP is enabled.

However, Apple MPP doesn’t affect other apps used on Apple devices like the Gmail app or your browser on a desktop.

Today, with Apple Mail dominating a large share of email opens, this distortion has become the norm rather than the exception.

How Does Apple MPP Protect Privacy?

Marketers typically include a transparent square – called a tracking pixel – within emails they send to recipients. This allows them to detect when the email was opened, what device was used, and what IP address the recipient is coming from.

With MPP, Apple loads all email contents before the message is actually opened, including the tracking pixel. This not only makes it look like all emails have been opened (inflating the open rate) but also stops marketers from using tracking pixels to collect information about recipients.

This can impact acquisition email campaigns and skew engagement data, making it harder to rely on open-based metrics.

How Many People Use Apple’s MPP?

Since Apple Mail is the default email app for all users of Apple devices, it’s the most popular email client in use today.

We estimate that around 50 percent of your recipients will eventually be using Apple MPP. Because of this, 75 percent of marketers believe that Apple’s MPP will stop them from capturing accurate email rates – thus impacting their overall email marketing strategies.

Five Ways Apple MPP Impacts Email Marketing

There are a number of ways your email strategy is impacted:

1. Personal user data of Apple MPP users is no longer available to marketers
2. Open rates appear higher than they actually are
3. Companies will experience decreasing click-to-open rates
4. The level of personalization a marketer can undertake will decrease
5. Features tied to open rates (resend to non-openers, segmentation, automation) are negatively affected

What Should You Focus on Instead?

Email is still the top dog for audience engagement, so it’s important to adapt to these changes. Here are six strategies:

Click-Through Rate

Even though open rates have become unreliable, click-through rates remain a dependable way to measure engagement.

To improve this metric:

• Optimize and personalize subject lines and copy
• Conduct A/B testing
• Include clear calls-to-action

Email Deliverability

Keep a close eye on whether your emails are reaching subscriber inboxes and how many users are opting out.

Maintaining strong deliverability practices is key – especially as discussed in evolving measurement approaches like discussed in this read – https://www.stirista.com/blog/its-time-to-unmatch-from-match-rates-and-embrace-meaningful-metrics/

Clear Call-To-Action

To enhance your CTA:

• Use language that creates urgency or emotion
• Test placement
• Experiment with design and layout

Conversion Rate

Conversion rates show how users complete desired actions.

Use this data to improve campaign performance and better understand your audience. Pairing this with high-quality data sources like stirista’s LCI Data
can further strengthen your strategy.

Website Traffic

Tracking website traffic helps you understand what content resonates with your audience and how to better target them.

This insight can also support acquisition email campaigns and overall marketing performance.

Acquisition Email Marketing

Acquisition email marketing is the process of using email campaigns to grow your customer base. It remains one of the most effective and profitable ways to prospect today.

For a deeper dive, read our whitepaer on acquisition email marketing

Need Help?

With over 13 years of experience, Stirista’s product and email teams are equipped to handle the challenges that come with open rate reporting.

While many businesses are adapting to new privacy features, Stirista has always focused on metrics that provide a more accurate picture – like click-through rates, deliverability, conversion rates, website traffic, and acquisition email campaigns.

We can help you improve your email strategy from the top of the funnel to the bottom using reliable, data-driven approaches.