When analyzing advertisement impressions in newsletters, it’s crucial to understand why the data from Broadstreet might differ from the “Open Count” statistics provided by Email Service Providers (ESPs) like MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, etc.
1. Handling of Invalid Traffic
Broadstreet’s Approach:
- Aggressive Filtering: Broadstreet has robust mechanisms to identify and filter out robot traffic and suspicious activities. This level of scrutiny can result in lower impression counts, especially for newsletters that are frequently read and scraped by crawlers.
- Accuracy Over Quantity: By focusing on authentic human interactions, Broadstreet ensures a high accuracy rate in its tracking, even if it means reporting fewer impressions.
ESPs’ Approach:
- Varying Standards: Different ESPs have diverse standards for filtering invalid traffic. Some might not be as rigorous as Broadstreet, leading to higher counts that include non-human interactions.
2. Impact of Apple’s Privacy Measures
Apple’s Private Relay:
- Inflated Open Counts: Apple’s privacy updates, notably the Private Relay, have significantly impacted how open rates are measured by preemptively downloading images in an email, including the tracking pixels, inflating the reported open counts.
Broadstreet’s Response:
- Lenient Tracking: Broadstreet opts for a more lenient approach in tracking opens from Apple devices. This stance is taken because much of it is legitimate, in contrast to the robot blocking mentioned above.
ESPs’ Varied Approaches:
- Diverse Reactions: ESPs have reacted differently to Apple’s changes. Some have chosen to filter out these inflated opens, while others continue to count them. This inconsistency across ESPs contributes to the variance in open count data.
3. Additional Factors
Different Measurement Methodologies:
- Distinct Technologies: Broadstreet and ESPs may use different technologies and algorithms for tracking impressions and opens. These disparities can inherently lead to different results.
User Behavior and Email Clients:
- Impact of Email Clients: Different email clients handle image loading and user interactions in varied ways, influencing the tracking accuracy.
- User Interaction Patterns: The way users interact with emails (e.g., previewing without fully opening) can also affect impression counts.
Timing of Data Collection:
- Synchronization Differences: The timing of when data is collected and reported by Broadstreet and ESPs can lead to discrepancies, especially in real-time tracking scenarios.
Conclusion
In summary, the differences in advertisement impression tracking between Broadstreet and ESPs stem from several key areas: handling of invalid traffic, responses to Apple’s privacy measures, diverse measurement methodologies, the impact of email client behaviors, and timing discrepancies in data collection. Understanding these factors is essential for publishers and advertisers to accurately interpret and compare data across different platforms. It’s important to consider these nuances when evaluating the effectiveness of newsletter advertisements and making informed decisions based on this data.