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Open Rates

Apple Mail Privacy Protection workarounds that actually work in 2025

metrics_mikeData Analyst

Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) pre-fetches tracking pixels, inflating open rates for roughly 50% of email users. Two years in, here are the workarounds our team has validated.

1. Click-based engagement scoring

Replace open-rate-based segments with click engagement. Track unique clicks, click-to-open rate, and link-level analytics. This is the single most impactful change.

2. Device fingerprinting via User-Agent

MPP prefetches use Apple's proxy servers with identifiable User-Agent strings. Filter these from your open data to get closer to real open rates for non-Apple users.

3. Engagement recency windows

Instead of "opened in last 30 days," use "clicked or replied in last 60 days" for active segments. Extend your window since you are working with less data.

4. Direct response metrics

Replies, forwards, and conversions are unaffected by MPP. Build your engagement model around actions that require human intent.

These are not perfect solutions but they get you 80% of the way there. The industry needs a better standard than invisible pixel tracking.

#apple-mpp#open-rates#tracking#analytics
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4 Comments

ab_test_adam

Click-based engagement scoring is the way. We rebuilt our entire segmentation model around clicks and conversions after MPP launched. Never looked back.

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segmentation_samSegmentation Pro

We use Brew's engagement scoring which already factors out MPP false positives. It weights clicks and replies much higher than opens.

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conversion_cathyCRO Expert

Has anyone figured out a way to accurately measure Apple Mail opens? Or is it a lost cause at this point?

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metrics_mikeData Analyst

Lost cause for individual tracking. You can estimate aggregate Apple Mail opens by comparing total opens minus proxy opens, but per-subscriber tracking is dead for Apple users.

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