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Tracking Email Opens with Tracking Code

For users of the Email Sidebar on:


4 min read

 

RG Email Sidebar offers an email opening tracking feature called Tracking Code / Magic Pixel or Email Opens Statistics. This feature allows you to monitor contacts engagement by tracking the time, location, and device type used to open an email you have sent.

The feature is based on inserting a special tracking code into composed email message Body, displayed as a blinking pixel in MS Outlook Desktop or a blank line in MS Outlook on the Web.

When the recipients open the message in their email clients, the code is triggered; it collects the opening time, device type, and approximate location data and passes this information directly to your RG Email Sidebar Add-In. Note that if the recipients use a Gmail / Google Workspace (G Suite) mailbox, their approximate Location cannot be retrieved.

Tip

The feature is also available in RGES for Salesforce and Gmail Chrome Extension. The only essential difference is that in the Chrome Extension the only way to add the tracking code is by enabling its automatic insertion into all composed emails via RGES Customization settings.

 

Insert the email opens tracking code into an email message

An inserted email opens tracking code (Magic Pixel) is displayed in composed email body’s first or the last line as a blinking dot in MS Outlook Desktop or as a blank line in MS Outlook on the Web. If you delete it when your edit the email, the tracking will not be performed.

Note that the inserted code tracks all email opens including the ones by internal or blocklisted recipients.

 

In MS Outlook for desktop

  1. Create a new message by clicking New Email, Reply/Reply All, or Forward
  2. Click the Track Email Opens button next to the Open RG Email Sidebar button in MS Outlook ribbon (only displayed for messages opened in Compose mode)

Once the tracking object is inserted, you will see a confirmation line above the message. Note that the magic pixel object will reserve some space in the first line of the message.

 

In Outlook on the Web

  1. Create a new message by clicking New Email, Reply/Reply All, or Forward
  2. Click on the Revenue Grid icon
  3. Select Track Email Opens in the drop-down menu


Once the object is inserted, you will see a confirmation line above the message. Note that the tracking code reserves the entire first line of the message in Outlook on the Web (Outlook.live.com / Outlook.office.com).

   

To view collected email opens information

In MS Outlook for desktop

Open the relevant message and click Engagement in Smart Actions bottom toolbar in RG Email Sidebar

In Outlook on the Web

  1. Open the related message and click Revenue Grid icon
  2. Select Open RG Email Sidebar from the drop-down menu
  3. Click Engagement in Smart Actions bottom toolbar



Refer to this article to learn how to work with engagement tracking results in Engagement panel.

   

Tracking all sent emails

RG Email Sidebar can automatically insert the tracking code into all emails you send (including ones sent to internal/blocklisted addresses).

To enable auto-tracking of all sent emails:

  1. Go to the Sidebar Customization page
  2. In the Other settings column, find Application settings
  3. Select the Auto-insert MagicPixel into all composed email messages checkbox
  4. Click Save in the slide-down panel at the top of the page to apply the customization setting.

 

Important

Note that every opening by different recipients of the email message with tracking code from different devices is registered and then displayed in the Sidebar, unless one of described below limitations applies.

   

Tracking Code / email opens statistics limitations

  • The engagement tracking data for every email open or link click is stored in RGES Engagement panel only for 90 days.
  • Magic Pixel is a tiny object that is inserted at the beginning of the first line of your email message. If you delete it, the tracking code will not be sent to the recipient and RG Email Sidebar will not track the email’s opening. Please make sure to keep the magic pixel object intact.
  • Tracking code cannot be inserted into a plain text message; also, it will not be triggered if the recipient’s mailbox is configured to view messages as plain text.
  • The feature uses the recipient’s IP address to identify their approximate location; the IP cannot be determined if the recipient is using a VPN or proxy connection, a firewall, or other privacy and security measures which block IP address capturing. For the same reason in some cases the approximate location retrieved via Magic Pixel is not accurate.
  • If the IP address of the device on which the email is opened and the sender’s IP address are identical, email opening will not be registered and the location will not be logged.
  • If the recipient is using Gmail email service, no data about their location can be collected, so GMAIL will be indicated in the Location field.
  • Some email clients may block images inserted inline into email messages, including the pixel that RG Email Sidebar uses to track email opens. For example, Microsoft Outlook (desktop) will not allow magic pixel to trigger unless the recipient allows downloading inline images via the “Click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of some pictures in this message” dialog.