How to Set Up Consent-Only Open Tracking

Open tracking using pixels is a method by which an invisible pixel is added to your emails so that when someone opens them, the pixel loads and reveals information about their device, such as their IP address and email client. Driven by EU Privacy Regulations (France & Italy), this kind of tracking can only be collected if your subscriber opts in to open pixel tracking for subscribers based in France or Italy.

To help support consent-only open tracking, you can follow the steps below to enable Consent-Only Open Tracking for any or all of your individual Drip Accounts. This feature allows everybody to receive your emails, with a tracking pixel only added to emails for subscribers who have opted in to open tracking. 

Let's get into what changes when you turn it on, how to enable it, and how to collect and manage consent in Drip.

What Is Consent-Only Open Tracking?

Consent-Only Open Tracking is an account-level setting within Drip.  When turned on, Drip will only include the open tracking pixel for subscribers who have explicitly opted in. Subscribers who haven't opted in still get your emails, just without the pixel.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

• This setting applies to open tracking (pixels).
  • Click tracking is not affected. Links in your emails will continue to work and report like they always have.
• Consent-only open tracking can be enabled on an account-to-account basis and does not need to be turned on for any non-applicable accounts under the same Subscription.
• All people in the enabled account are affected 
  • The removal of the open tracking pixel will apply to all email addresses and not just those in France or Italy. 
  • Only subscribers who have Open Tracking Consent set to Granted will have the pixel added to their emails. 

What Changes When Enabled?

• Subscriber profile changes
  • Once enabled, a new field, Open tracking consent,  is added to manage consent status:
    • Unknown: The default status until explicit consent is obtained. Tracking pixel will not be added to their emails.
    • Granted: Opted in to open tracking. Tracking pixel will be added to their emails.
    • Denied: Opted out of open tracking. Tracking pixel will not be added to their emails.
• Email Content
  • The invisible tracking pixel is removed from all emails unless a subscriber is opted in to open tracking.
  • Your Subscription Management page will include a toggle so subscribers can opt in or out of open tracking without unsubscribing from your emails.
• Email Metrics
  • Open Rates Will Drop  
    • Once enabled, opens are only recorded for subscribers who have consented to open tracking
    • Only emails sent after the setting is on will track opens, and only for subscribers who’ve consented to open pixel tracking.
  • Metrics for emails sent before enabling consent-only open tracking  
    • Opens that were already recorded stay in your reports. 
    • However, emails sent before enabling will not record new opens moving forward. This includes opens from subscribers who have granted consent. 
  • Clicks are still tracked for all subscribers regardless of their opt-in status
    • This level of engagement counts toward the Open metric since a subscriber has to open the email in order to click it.
    • Opens collected via clicks are not considered “pixel tracking”.
• Segments, Workflows, Rules, and Single Email Campaigns
  • With the drop in Open events, it is expected that:
    • Sent Campaigns with a “Resend to unopened” follow-up email already queued up will resend to everyone without a recorded open (including those with an Open Tracking Consent status of Unknown or Denied).
      • The same applies to any Confirmation reminder emails if the original Confirmation went out before the feature was enabled. 
    • Segments/Saved Segments utilizing any Email Activity filters related to opens will be affected.
    • Workflows that rely on open activity for Decisions, Goals, Triggers will be affected.

How Do I Turn On Consent-Only Open Tracking?

Turning on Consent-Only Open Tracking does not collect consent for you. Drip will help in honoring any consent you may have collected outside of Drip, and in collecting consent after the feature is turned on via Onsite, Drip forms, API, etc. 

Keep in mind: Once enabled, your full list of subscribers will automatically start with an open tracking consent status set to default, meaning their opens are not recorded via pixel tracking (dropping your Open rates drastically). If you have a list of subscribers who have already consented to open tracking outside of Drip, have that list ready for a Bulk Operation to set them to granted (or denied) right away.

1. Navigate to Settings > Account > Open Tracking
   • You may see a message asking you to contact Support instead of the toggle button. Click Contact Support to open our chat widget, or email us support@drip.com to request the feature via email.
2. Review the summary of changes and feel free to review EU Privacy Regulations (France & Italy): Email Open Tracking, then toggle Consent-based open tracking ON
3. Review the confirmation window and click Turn on consent-based open tracking 

You’re all set! Moving forward, only subscribers with an open tracking consent status set to Granted will get emails sent with the tracking pixel attached. 

Turn off Consent-Only Open Tracking

Turning this off adds the tracking pixel back to every email, for every subscriber, whatever their consent status. If any of your subscribers are in a region that requires consent for open tracking, like France or Italy, make sure you have that consent before turning this off.

Turning the feature off will not erase any collected consent forever. Any open tracking consent collected is mantained should you turn the feature back on again.

To turn it off, toggle the feature OFF and confirm in the prompt that you’re responsible for having consent to track opens: 

How Do I Collect Open Tracking Consent with Drip?

Open tracking consent is a checkbox element you can add to any Onsite Pop up

or Drip Form

Keep in mind:

• The consent checkbox is separate from your email signup consent.
• The checkbox cannot be pre-checked. 
  • Subscribers need to manually opt in.

How is the Subscriber’s Consent Managed?

Open Tracking consent can be managed by the subscriber, or by you if you have collected the consent outside of Drip. 

Subscription Management Page

Subscribers can opt in or out of open tracking from the Subscription Management page. 

This toggle allows customers to enable/disable open tracking without having to unsubscribe from your emails entirely. 

Subscriber profiles

Each subscriber's profile will include the Primary Custom field “Open tracking consent” where the value is set to either of the following:

• Unknown: 
  • This is the default status until explicit consent is obtained. 
  • This status is treated the same as the Denied status, where no tracking pixel will be added to their emails.
• Granted: 
  • Opted in to open tracking. An open tracking pixel will be added to their emails.
• Denied: 
  • Opted out of open tracking. The open tracking pixel will not be added to their emails.

Bulk Operations

Bulk Operations allow you to update the Open tracking consent status for large groups of people at once, be that via a CSV, People Segment, or from a list of emails. Simply use the Set open tracking consent option on the Bulk Actions page as shown here:

If setting the Bulk Action to Grant Consent, keep in mind you will need to confirm these people gave consent to open tracking, and that it was lawfully collected by checking the box:

API

Open tracking consent can be read and updated through Drip's REST API using the Create or Update a Subscriber endpoint. Integrations can use the endpoint to sync consent you've collected outside of Drip

Segmentation, Automations, and Events

People Segments

Build segments utilizing the Open tracking consent filter and use the Save Segment option to maintain dynamic lists based on consent status. This segmentation can also be used for Single Email Campaign recipients, Bulk Operations, and Workflow Decisions.

Events

Opting in or out of open tracking consent is an Event that gets tracked within subscriber profiles. Expanding the event will show the previous value.

Workflows and Rules

Use the Event Open tracking consent granted/denied as Workflow/Rule Triggers.

Within Workflows, the same event can be utilized as Goals using “Performed an event”:

You can also check a subscriber’s open tracking consent status within Decisions: