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Re: Email Open Tracking

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Pazko
Level 1

Email Open Tracking

Has anyone else experienced an open rate decline in Marketo?
I have been racking my brain trying to figure out where we have gone wrong. I thought it was a deliverability issue but I recently discovered a significant discrepancy between Marketo reports and Email on Acid.
According to Marketo, a recent campaign we deployed was 25.6%. Email on Acid on the other hand shows 42% which is along the lines of what we should expect.

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SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

Re: Email Open Tracking

Based on experience, 3 explanations come to mind:

  • if you aren’t using a branding domain, the Marketo pixel can be easily identified as a tracking pixel, so may be treated differently (just as marketo.com can make its way onto tracking protection lists)
  • if you are using a branding domain but your DNS infrastructure is messed up, the pixel download could fail sometimes and not others; this would affect Clicked Link in Email activities as well
  • if you have dynamic content it’s possible to break the tracking pixel image for some recipients and not others (i.e. by having an open HTML comment — I’ve seen it!)

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SanfordWhiteman
Level 10 - Community Moderator

Re: Email Open Tracking

Based on experience, 3 explanations come to mind:

  • if you aren’t using a branding domain, the Marketo pixel can be easily identified as a tracking pixel, so may be treated differently (just as marketo.com can make its way onto tracking protection lists)
  • if you are using a branding domain but your DNS infrastructure is messed up, the pixel download could fail sometimes and not others; this would affect Clicked Link in Email activities as well
  • if you have dynamic content it’s possible to break the tracking pixel image for some recipients and not others (i.e. by having an open HTML comment — I’ve seen it!)
Pazko
Level 1

Re: Email Open Tracking

This is really helpful. I think it may be branding domain but your DNS infrastructure. I'll ask our IT team to look into this.

Thank you @Vinay_Kumar and @SanfordWhiteman!

Vinay_Kumar
Level 10 - Community Advisor

Re: Email Open Tracking

@Pazko  In addition to @SanfordWhiteman points

Filter Bot Activity can also be one of the reasons for less open rates in Marketo. 

If you have enabled Filter Bot Activity then you may see a drop in email opens and clicks as false numbers are filtered out.

Please check Admin>Email>Bot Activity to confirm. 

Pazko
Level 1

Re: Email Open Tracking

@Vinay_Kumar confirmed Filter Bot Activity is disabled.