A tracking pixel is a small transparent square image, usually a GIF that is 1px by 1px in size, embedded in an email. Due to its small size, it is invisible to recipients; it is placed somewhere discreetly in the footer or header but present in every email.
When an email is opened, the tracking pixel will load automatically from a remote server to allow the sender to track information about the email, including click rates, open rates, traffic sources, conversions, and valuable data points.
What are the Benefits of Email Tracking Pixels for Email Marketing
Tracking pixels is essential to email marketers; they are used to monitor the effectiveness of their email marketing campaigns. Here are some of the information you can access with a tracking pixel:
- The recipient’s IP address.
- Whether the email was opened.
- How far down the email does a recipient scroll.
- The recipient’s location.
- Which email providers the recipients are using.
- How long the email was open.
- Whether any links in the email were clicked.
- The recipient’s device type.
- What percentage of your audience reads your email on their phones, tablets, or computers.
- If your subscribers are viewing emails in dark mode.
- Which headlines, preview text, and sending time will generate more opens and clicks.
This information can be used to determine the effectiveness of your campaigns and how you can optimise future email marketing campaigns. For example, if your email has a low click rate, you may want to improve your content and add a captivating headline to improve your recipient’s willingness to click on the email.
Most of the information from the analytics or metrics you get from your email service provider is also from the email tracking pixels. In addition, you can use a tracking pixel to segment your email list based on demographics, interests, and engagements since the tracking pixel provides this information.