Analytics FAQ

How does email analytics actually work?

EOA Analytics uses image pixel tracking. This is the same technique that your email service provider uses to report your open rate. When a customer opens your email, the image pixel is loaded. This counts as an open. We’ve taken that idea and developed it to the point where we can track on many different metrics.

Using a couple of different image pixels, along with our extensive knowledge of how email clients work, we’re able to track a much wider range of actions than just opens. We can tell if someone read the message, deleted it, forwarded it, printed it, what email client they used, whether they were on a mobile device, and so on.

Note: When using our Email Analytics, we highly recommend selecting a merge tag for the most accurate results. Without a merge tag, we cannot track unique ID’s for subscribers and instead rely on the IP address. This can result in unique customers being identified as one customer because they are on the same IP address.

How does click tracking work? 

We replace all of the links in your email with a redirect. When a recipient clicks one of these links, they will hit our servers for a fraction of a second before being redirected to the intended destination. We record the hit on our servers, as well as the merge tag that was included in the URL. In this way we can track not only how many clicks a link got, but also who clicked on the links. We then use this data to generate a heat map of which links got the most clicks.

Are there any limitations to EOA’s email analytics?

Because we rely on images for tracking, we aren’t able to track recipients who do not download images. There are a very small number of email clients for which we can’t collect this data. Luckily, these untraceable email clients have a minuscule market share, and we’re able to accurately exclude these people from our reports to keep data accurate. We’re able to accurately collect data from over 98% of email clients.

Do I need a different tracking code for every email I send?

We do strongly suggest creating a different tracking code for every campaign. Different tracking codes allow you to understand which campaigns are driving traffic and conversions and overall performance. It can help examine campaigns further and help make adjustments if something isn’t performing well.

Can click tracking be used on dynamic URLs?

No, unfortunately we cannot track dynamic URLs. Each URL has to be put into our system so that we can generate a trackable link for it. Because of this, all links must be static.

What if my ESP isn’t on the merge tag list?

If your ESP isn’t listed, you can type the appropriate merge tag right into the box using the Custom option. Just make sure to get the correct tag from your ESP. Click here to learn more about merge tags.