6 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
6 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Be Honest: Do You Believe Your Aweber Stats?

by Linx99
5 replies
I'm going through the process of cleaning inactive emails from my list.

I set search parameters of "No Opens since date" AND "Date Added is before date".

It returned a ton of users.

I'm now left with a ton of emails that appear not to have been active for 6 months.

However, I'm not confident Aweber's reporting is accurate.

I looked at a random sample of these names and their Email Opening history.

The 15 I checked were reported as having NEVER opened ANY of the emails sent.

Not even the very first autoresponder that delivers the opt-in 'bribe' that they initially signed up to receive.

I find that unbelievable considering that these emails are being added directly from Google Adwords for highly targeted traffic with clear buyer intent demonstrated through the keywords.

******* Anyone got evidence to support a conclusion that Aweber's Email Open reporting is simply not accurate?

The last thing I want to do is delete emails that are in fact active subscribers but are failing on the reporting.

Best

Doug
#aweber #honest #stats
  • Profile picture of the author tdanz
    Email opens are tracked by a 1 pixel image in the emails you send. When the recipient downloads this, Aweber registers an open.
    If the recipients email client is not displaying images (and they dont click in the email) you will not know if they opened. It is estimated that there is a 25% error margin on al email open measurements.
    If you want to be sure of their inactiveness, send them something very provoking to click, clicks must be tracked correctly (if not by Aweber then by you).
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9827226].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Doug, like all autoresponder services, Aweber can track the open-rates only of HTML-format emails opened, not plain-text emails (unless a link is clicked inside the email from which it can be deduced that it must have been opened first).

      There isn't a way to monitor "opens" of other plain-text emails.

      Their default (unless you instruct otherwise) is to send outgoing email in both HTML and plain-text format, and when it does that, the recipients' email client software will open whichever is their own default (they don't see the other copy at all).

      So ... yes, I believe their statistics, for the most part, but they can't tell you about what they can't measure.

      .
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9827518].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    Perhaps you should filter your non opens and cross reference with clicks? If they haven't opened the email but have clicked the link, then obviously they are active. I know with Mailchimp and some other platforms out there have those same issues, but I think Mailchimp now registers an open even if they didn't download the pixel as long as they clicked the link.
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9827907].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Life Naturally
    Great stuff. I have been wondering the same thing with my Aweber emails.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9827996].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Linx99
    Thanks for all the responses.

    All my emails are HTML based so it's not a 'plain text' issue.

    Where I think it ends up is that Aweber (like any other email company) has tracking functionality but it's not 100% accurate - there are just too many things outside Aweber's control.

    So it looks like the best way to really track engagement is a combination of Opens and Clicks: include some super-enticing links in your emails and monitor click-thru.

    A more accurate tracking will likely therefore be "No Opens" AND "No Clicks".

    Still not perfect though. Wish there was a way for me to confidently identify dead emails so I could delete, delete, delete and keep my list super-lean.

    Doug
    Signature

    Contact Me for Fitness/Weight Loss related Solo Ads

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9835846].message }}

Trending Topics