Reporting, Tracking, and Analytics
What you must understand
Know the tracking pipeline: opens, clicks, and unsubscribes are logged and rolled into indicators (sent, delivered, opened, clicked, bounced). Understand delivery reports, campaign reports, and descriptive analysis. Know the difference between tracking logs and delivery logs.
Traps that appear in questions
- Open tracking is unreliable. Image-blocked clients undercount opens; questions that treat opens as exact are usually wrong.
- Bounce categories. Hard vs. soft bounces affect address quarantine; a soft bounce is retried, a hard bounce quarantines.
- Report refresh. Reports read from aggregated indicators; a fresh delivery may not appear until aggregation runs.
- Control group reporting. Control groups appear in reporting as a comparison, not as delivered recipients.
Rule of thumb
When asked "which metric proves engagement," prefer clicks over opens, because clicks require an intentional action and are less affected by rendering.
Worked example
A report shows 40% opens but 2% clicks. Before concluding the creative failed, check whether the open pixel was blocked - the click rate is the more defensible engagement signal.