Tracking Email Opens with Tracking Code¶

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.

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.

At the same time, if the recipients have a Gmail / Google Workspace (G Suite) box, their approximate Location cannot be retrieved

To insert the Magic Pixel object (tracking code) into an email message:¶

Note

An inserted Magic Pixel tracking code is displayed at 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, make sure not to delete it when your edit the email or tracking will not be performed

1. Create a new message in MS Outlook on the Web or Desktop by clicking New Email, Reply/Reply All, or Forward.
2. Insert the magic pixel object into the message in one of the following ways, depending on your email client:

2.1. In MS Outlook Desktop: click the Magic wand icon (Track Email Opens) 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.

2.2. In Outlook on the Web: expand RG Email Sidebar icon > and 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 object 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 Desktop: open the relevant message and click the Email opens icon in Smart Actions bottom toolbar in RG Email Sidebar
In Outlook on the Web (Outlook.com, Outlook.office.com): open the related message and expand RG Email Sidebar >, select Open RG Email Sidebar from the drop-down menu, then click the Emails Opens icon in Smart Actions bottom toolbar in RG Email Sidebar.

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

Tracking All Sent Emails¶

RG Email Sidebar allows automatically inserting the tracking code into all emails you are sending (excluding ones sent to internal/blocklisted addresses). To enable this option, enter RG Email Sidebar Customization page and select the Auto-insert MagicPixel into all composed email messages checkbox under Other settings, Application settings on the right-hand side of the page and then 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 Add-In, 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

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