Apple has announced the latest updates to iOS 15, which block the tracking of email opens. Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions:
Content:
- Questions and answers about the newest iOS 15 update
QUESTION: When will the iOS 15 update be released?
ANSWER: The new Apple iOS 15 update is expected to be released in September 2021.
QUESTION: What areas is Apple addressing with this update?
ANSWER: There are three key areas Apple is addressing with this update for email:
- Location tracking
- IP tracking
- Email read receipts
QUESTION: What is the most important change introduced by the iOS 15 update?
ANSWER: The update will block the tracking of email opens in the Mail app. Tracking emails opened via this app will be difficult (but not necessarily impossible).
QUESTION: How will the update affect SALESmanago?
ANSWER: This affects the SALESmanago email channel because it prevents the platform from tracking email opens in the Mail app. Because the users’ IP addresses are masked, it prevents the system from using those addresses to determine recipients’ locations and link them to any other online activity.
QUESTION: Which metrics will the update affect?
ANSWER: The one that automatically comes to mind is email open rate (OR). The update won’t affect click metrics, so some of the Mail app OR can still be attributed, but not directly. Clicks on emails and subsequent visits to websites will be tracked as usual.
QUESTION: Will the analytics dashboard show who opened the email?
ANSWER: No.
QUESTION: Will the analytics dashboard show clicks and who clicked?
ANSWER: Yes.
QUESTION: Will it still be possible to monitor contact?
ANSWER: Yes.
QUESTION: Does that mean that all email opens performed using Apple products will be non-tracked?
ANSWER: No. Only those made with the Mail app will not be tracked. So if a person uses plain Gmail on an iPhone, the email opens will still be tracked.
QUESTION: What other metrics not directly related to email can be affected by this update?
ANSWER: All processes that track and attribute revenue or conversion using email as a touchpoint will be influenced through this update, but not directly and not on a wide scale.
QUESTION: Does that mean that the OR will be a completely unreliable metric?
ANSWER: Apple Mail has only 11.5% of the market share, so that’s the average number of email opens that won’t be measured correctly. This figure may vary depending on your audience. To keep the OR metric reliable, you can always make a separate segment to filter out Apple users.
QUESTION: Which automation processes should be reviewed and redesigned due to this update?
ANSWER: In general, all processes linked to email opens should be revised. That includes processes such as workflows and automation rules that use email opens as triggers, automatic follow-ups, email behavior-based segmentation, geolocation-based segmentation, and so on.
QUESTION: What does this mean for marketers?
ANSWER: Here are some aspects to which marketers will have to adapt:
- a lower OR, depleted by the majority of iOS users,
- unconventional deliverability tracking to make sure that emails are received,
- CTR (click-through rate) as a new way of measuring engagement,
- limited segmentation, since engagement and location of users will not be shown,
- statistics such as ‘last open date’ won’t be accurate,
- limitations on A/B tests,
- deleting inactive subscribers will be more challenging.