New iOS update and its impact on email tracking
There are some upcoming changes to email tracking with Apple devices and Avalon is on it.
Apple’s upcoming release of iOS 15 on Monday, September 20, 2021, will include the rollout of Mail Privacy Protection. This feature allows users to block tracking of email metrics like who, when, and where opens happen via Apple Mail.
With the iOS 15 update, Apple Mail users will have the option to protect their Apple Mail activity. This will impact the accuracy of open rate tracking for recipients using the Apple Mail app to open an email on any device—no matter which email service is used (e.g., a Gmail address). However, this won’t affect other email apps used on Apple devices (e.g., the Gmail app on an iPhone).
So, how many users are we talking about? The current benchmark as reported by Litmus is that iPhone, iPad, and MacOS users combined accounted for more than 46% of email opens in 2020.
And while the update will not impact our primary fundraising metric, response rate, Avalon’s digital team is monitoring what kind of impact it will have on our email tracking moving forward.
We’ll work closely to quantify the potential impact on our client’s lists. And we’ll assess open rate metrics with a critical eye and evaluate any processes driven by email open or location criteria.
Stay tuned for additional information as we learn more about this update or contact us today.