How tracking works
There are two kinds of tracking: email opens and link clicks. Combined, they give you the open and click rates.
Email opens are collected by adding a small invisible pixel to the message. When loaded by the email client, it sends back the email and subscriber identification (with a signature to protect from forgery).
Click tracking is implemented by changing the links inside the newsletter. When clicked, they send back the email and subscriber identification (with a signature to protect from forgery). When a click is registered, it means the email has been opened as well.
How anonymous tracking works
Anonymous tracking is imposed by some countries IF the tracking consent was not given by the subscribers.
Opens and clicks are still tracked, but they do not contain a reference to the subscriber. Instead, they contain a random identifier that cannot be linked to a subscriber.
It means you can still see the list of subscribers targeted by a newsletter, but you cannot see if they opened or clicked the email. Anyway, you can have the count of the unique opens and clicks.
Some countries released specific notes about tracking consent, suggesting using a pixel without identifiers. This is, of course, useless, and it’s not a requirement, just a possibility.
Tracking mode (general and per-email)
The tracking mode can be set in the plugin settings panel and it is applied to all new emails. It can be changed per email at any time (before sending) on the email settings. Modes are:
- tracking disabled (no pixel added and no links tracked)
- tracking enabled (the standard full tracking)
- anonymous tracking (no subscribers are connected to the opens and clicks)
With tracking disabled, you’ll see all the counters set to zero. With tracking enabled (full or anonymous) you’ll see the counters working, but with the anonymous mode, you cannot use the retargeting (subscribers who opened, clicked, and the like).
Tracking consent
Consent on subscription
The subscription form configuration has the option to enable the tracking consent checkbox. If checked, the subscriber enables the full tracking; if not, only the anonymous tracking (or no tracking at all) can be used with that subscriber.
If the checkbox is not present on the form, the tracking consent is stored as “allowed” (which is the default form behavior). This is at the moment not configurable.
Consent on profile page
Subscribers can change the consent from their profile page if enabled on the Subscribers/Profile page configuration.
Mixed tracking on emails
Both the tracking preferences of emails and subscribers must be managed when sending a newsletter; it’s important to understand the precedence.
- Email with tracking disabled -> no tracking at all; the subscribers’ preference is not used
- Email with anonymous tracking -> only anonymous tracking; the subscribers’ preference is not used
- Email with full tracking -> full tracking for subscribers with consent and anonymous tracking for subscribers without consent
Subscribers’ profile cannot be changed (by themself or by editing from the admin side) to totally disable the email tracking.